A 10-member crew collect an average of 40,000 pounds of trash per month. Anything from bottles, cans, shoes, trees stumps, clothing, furniture. You name it and they've pulled it from the river. And there's always more to collect since each new tide brings new trash.
The program, which started in 1998, has collected about 372 tons (744,000 pounds) of trash and debris annually from the Lower Passaic River. Debris that would have flowed into Newark Bay and into the Atlantic Ocean. To put 372 tons in perspective; picture the 5-gallon jug on a water cooler. 48 of those jugs equal one ton.........that means 17,856 5-gallon water jugs worth of debris is removed annually.