Plastics Constituted Majority of Litter Removed from North Carolina Streams
Plastic Recycling | 2025-09-29 12:12:53
During the three-year period, a total of 150,750 pieces of litter were removed from 21 traps across the state.
By Paul Ploumis
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): A recent study found that the bulk of the trash collected by in-stream traps installed in watersheds across North Carolina was made up of plastic debris. The Community Science journal just published the study, which examines the data from the previous three years.
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Plastics made up about 96% of the litter that North Carolina waterkeeper organizations and their volunteers retrieved from garbage traps between June 2021 and November 2024, according to the paper's lead author, Dr. Nancy Lauer. Over the course of the three years, 21 traps located throughout the state yielded a total of 150,750 pieces of litter.
As part of a statewide initiative supported by Waterkeepers Carolina, the trash traps were made possible by a 2020 North Carolina Environmental Enhancement Grant.
The gathered waste had to be separated and arranged into several categories, such as plastic, polystyrene, metal, glass, etc., by volunteers from up to seven waterkeeper organizations. Analysis revealed that all 21 traps had extremely high amounts of consumer product-derived polystyrene foam pieces. These pieces, along with single-use plastic bottles, made up over 83%of the litter that was gathered and recorded for the study.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What type of waste was most prevalent in the traps?
- Plastics dominated the litter, making up approximately 96% of all trash collected between June 2021 and November 2024.
- Which types of plastic were most common?
- Consumer product-derived polystyrene foam pieces and single-use plastic bottles were the most prevalent, together accounting for over 83% of the litter.
- How much litter was collected and from how many traps?
- Over three years, 21 traps collected a total of 150,750 pieces of litter.
