Global Impact
Local Impact
An investigation into the Elizabeth River and Chesapeake Bay.
Shouts of joy and laughter fill the air as a group of kids chase each other around the playground. Birds sing and hop from branch to branch in the trees lining the riverbank on the far side of the park. Canada Geese honk and pester each other farther down by the basketball court. The river is silent, but its inhabitants are not. As I watch them, I notice the sun glinting off something in the grass. I walk to see what it is. Picking up the plastic water bottle, I scan the area and see more by the court, accompanied by snack wrappers and takeout containers. Turning back to the park, I see the trash can about 30 yards away. Manageable. ​
While picking up the garbage, I think about what this means for the Elizabeth River, the Chesapeake Bay and the children playing at the park. The status of the Chesapeake Bay report was recently released, showing that objectives set by the 2025 Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint (CCWB) are failing to reach their restoration milestones. The CCWB, created in 2010, lays out plans and milestones to achieve clean, fishable, swimmable waters in the Chesapeake Bay by 2025. These milestones have not been met, with reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus loads falling short of the goal by millions of pounds due to fertilizers and polluted rainwater runoff. Dr. Joseph Wood, Senior Scientist at the Chesapeake Bay foundation, says that these goals are being reassessed to continue the restoration effort. With current administrative cuts happening at the EPA, there is concern that cuts to federal funding will impact CCWB milestones.
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The CCWB faces many challenges outside of the political sphere. Rivers continue to be the major contributors of ocean plastic pollution, acting as arteries to carry pollution from the land to the sea. That plastic breaks down into microplastic particles and PFAS, which are forever chemicals used in the plastic production process. Not only have microplastics and PFAS infiltrated the waterways, they have infiltrated our bodies through our drinking water, with several studies showing their ability to cross the Blood-Brain Barrier. These pollutants have the potential to cause neurotoxicity, further harming wildlife and disrupting the ecosystem. Oyster reefs have been a crucial restoration tool and are known to process nitrogen and phosphorus from their environment. They also have the added benefit of acting as a carbon sink, contributing to climate resilience strategies. However, plastics and PFAS in waterways are being ingested by oysters, resulting in gut inflammation, neurotoxicity, reproduction toxicity and growth disorders.
In the face of overwhelming climate change statistics, political upheaval and unprecedented pollution, many people may question what difference the actions of a single person could possibly make. While there is little one can do about the industrial pollution, fertilizer, and E. coli blooms that plague our waterways, we can prevent plastics from entering the ecosystem, giving keystone species like oysters a chance to thrive. Because oysters and other mollusks can help filter those pollutants out. So, armed with some garbage grabbers, I decided to spend 30 minutes every day cleaning up the trash along the river in my neighborhood to see what difference one person can make.
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I was not prepared for how personal it would feel as I discovered the scale of our neighborhood's plastic pollution and people who litter as a matter of habit. Markers of these habits took the form of mini Fireball Whiskey bottles I found nearly every day, in varied conditions, throughout the neighborhood. The continuous presence of the same brand of cigarette butts at the same street corner and crushed single-use water bottles and snack wrappers littering the basketball court marked more habits infecting the environment. The legacy of these repeat offenders could be seen in the spectrum of garbage decomposition: half decomposed with missing or unreadable labels to brand new litter appearing in the days after I had cleaned the area.
There are 16 pieces of garbage in this photo, can you find them all?
One afternoon, my daughter and I were picking shredded plastic bags out of bushes along the riverbank and she said “I hope the world isn’t filled with garbage when I’m a grown-up.” She may as well have just kicked me in the chest, I was speechless. It was early on in the project and she saw what I saw. We would clean an area of the neighborhood, just to return and find more new garbage. I couldn't help but wonder how long these people had been doing this and how many pounds of trash they would continue to pollute the environment with. It was maddening and overwhelming.
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However, by the third week, I saw a decline in the amount of trash along the river. I was no longer picking up a pound or more of trash each day. I had also caught the attention of other community members. One afternoon, I was picking wrappers out of a storm drain and a neighbor stopped and said “I’m happy to see someone out here cleaning it up, can I help or take your bag for you?” This interaction was the first of many. I shared a conversation with a parent who saw me picking up garbage on the way to get my daughter from her after school activity. They also were happy to see the trash get cleaned up, but lamented never having the time. I explained that I really didn't feel like I had the time either, I just did my best to work it into my schedule. It really comes down to the choices you make, so get the whole family involved.
I turned it from a task into an experience to share with my daughter, instilling the same values in her that my mother taught me. Her favorite day was when we recovered a soccer ball from deep in the bushes and it was in good enough condition to get a game of soccer going with her friends at the park. Now she notices all the trash on the side of the road in other neighborhoods, often asking to return to clean it up. It is imperative that we teach young children that they are capable of caring for their environment and empower them to make responsible choices as they grow older.
An animal nest made with Polyfil (plastic stuffing) and other garbage.
I spoke with Victoria Dunch, the Research Coordinator at the Elizabeth River Project’s Ryan Resilience Lab, about the major issues the Elizabeth River faces in its restoration journey. The Elizabeth River Project (ERP) is dedicated to restoring the river by focusing on controlling the pollution entering the waterway, since the biggest challenge is controlling the nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the water. Thankfully, according to Victoria, the stormwater management methods used to prevent these excess nutrients from reaching the waterways, such as living shorelines, also work to slow down the inundation of plastics into the river. But these methods alone are not capable of stemming the flow entirely.
The Elizabeth River project regularly hosts neighborhood clean-ups, and their 2025 Great American Cleanup collected a total of 184.5 pounds of trash from Colley Avenue in Norfolk. Similar to my own experience, cigarette butts were the most common type of garbage collected from the environment and pose an extra concern due to their ability to leach arsenic into the environment.
Consumer choices play a large role in pollution, even beyond cigarettes. Single-use plastics and food wrappers made up the bulk of the garbage we cleaned up. Current boycotts show that consumer choices have an effect on a company's bottom line, and ultimately, have the power to influence corporate level choices. Consumer choices are a crucial tool in combating our modern ecology crisis, and a commitment to avoiding companies and products that use single-use packaging is an easy way to contribute to environmental health.
The time to act is now. The most valuable things any one person can give to help the environment is their commitment and time. Carry a spare plastic bag with you to collect trash when you head to the park or walk your dog. Avoid single-use plastics. Work environmentally conscious choices into your life routine. Let your children see you do that and play a part in it. Ultimately, cleaning up my neighborhood has helped me feel as if I have some measure of control over the world around me at a time when it seems like our grip on a healthy environment is slipping through our fingers.