Project Description
Trash that is improperly disposed of often enters freshwater and coastal systems and can eventually make its way to the ocean. Aquatic trash decreases water quality and degrades habitat, in addition to causing aesthetic blight. Of particular concern is that plastics tend to break down to tiny pieces called microplastics (five millimeters or smaller). Microplastics both absorb and give off harmful pollutants and can be harmful to wildlife and humans via direct ingestion or trophic transfer. This project involves the installation of an in-stream trash trap at a location that accumulates trash from a highly urbanized area. The litter trap is a floating device that uses downstream currents to funnel and retain litter, vegetation, and other debris. It has the ability to capture and remove tens of thousands of pounds of debris from waterways each year.
The CDE Trustees are working with the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership and the Borough of Dunellen to install an in-stream litter trap at a trash "hotspot" in the Green Brook, a tributary of the lower Raritan River. In addition to reducing the amount of floatable trash in the waterways, the trash trap will be used as a demonstration tool to inform the public of the magnitude of garbage, especially plastic debris, that is accumulating in the aquatic environment, and the emerging technologies that are used to remove it.
Parties Implementing Restoration
Borough of Dunellen; Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership; New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; NOAA; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
DOI Project Representatives
Fish and Wildlife Service