BLADENSBURG, Md. — Bumpy storms that rumbled through the region Memorial Day washed a shocking amount of trash into the waterways like the Anacostia River, a morning-after visit with the Anacostia Riverkeeper revealed.
It’s a regular summer phenomena, but Riverkeeper Trey Sherard says it doesn’t have to be this way, and a deposit on plastic bottles would help.
"Trash and plastic in particular are one of the things that is staying the same or getting worse in the river," Sherard said as he viewed a trash trap device on Watts Branch, a tributary of the Anacostia in NE Washington.
"Sixty percent of everything we catch in these traps is just a single use plastic bottles, so over half. If we could control that we will cut the trash in half."
Sherard is among environmental activists who are calling on lawmakers to consider a return deposit on plastic bottles.
Ten states have so-called "bottle bills." Maryland considered a measure early in 2024, but the proposal did not advance out of the legislative committee considering it.
Opponents in other states have said a plastic bottle deposit it would cost consumers too much and is bad for small businesses.
The Anacostia Riverkeeper operates a network of eight trash traps in tributary creeks and collects approximately two tons of trash from each device annually, according to Sherard.
Four other traps are functioning in Prince George's and Montgomery counties.
"This is just one trap on just one of a lot of creeks, and most of our creeks don't have this technology implemented," Sherard said as he showed the Watts Branch trash trap.
Sherard explained the trash is washed from streets and alleys throughout the region into streams by the storm drain system, which can deliver the waste to the Anacostia miles away from the original source.
Summer thunderstorms create pulses of trash during the summer season.