Help wanted: Pick up 35 tons of bottles, cans, plastics and paper for River Sweep

Now in its 30^th year, River Sweep is need of volunteers Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon to clean up litter and debris along local waterways including the Allegheny, Ohio, Monongahela, Youghiogheny, Beaver and Kiski rivers.

River Sweep, the largest organized volunteer cleanup event in the country, winds through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia and Illinois, covering more than 2,400 miles of shoreline.

There are cleanup sites in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Fayette and Westmoreland counties. To learn more, visit the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission website.

Volunteers are asked to wear sturdy shoes and long pants. Volunteers must sign a waiver and will receive a free River Sweep T-shirt for participating. Drinking water will be available.

“When we first started the program people were pulling out refrigerators, couches and car parts — enough to outfit a house,” said Betsy Mallison, of West Deer, who founded River Sweep when she worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Since the cleanup program’s inception, volunteers have collected more than 1,000 tons of trash in five area counties.

Now, the volunteers pick up smaller items, and they’re generally bottles, cans, paper and plastic items.

“People are more educated about what they should not throw in the water, and we have more people on the rivers picking up stuff,” Mallison said.