Trash into Bricks: Join the Riverwide Clean Up

Join us on Saturday, October 26th for our Fall Riverwide Clean Up. We’ll be meeting at Ipswich River Park, but you can choose any spot along the river and its tributaries to join in. Thanks to our new volunteer corps, the River Wardens, the on-river task of keeping the river safe and accessible for paddlers is in good hands. We need you at landings, trails, and road-stream crossings. Why?

Once trash and other debris is washed into the river, unless it is caught on a snag, it tends to sink into the river bottom and stay there. Help us collect trash before if can pollute the beautiful Ipswich River and endanger its wildlife. By collecting bottles, cans, cigarette butts and other stormwater pollution you’ll not only be creating a healthier Ipswich River, but be a part of a cool sustainability project.

House Factory is building pre-fabricated homes with a non profit mission to provide affordable, innovative and netzero homes to various social housing needs and are currently building an Ecobrick building (plastic bottle stuffed tight with other plastics, pictured left). They have recruited two middle schools to build the 700,000 eco bricks. The plastic waste collected in our Fall Riverwide Clean Up will be used to fill the plastic bottles, creating an ecobrick (pictured left) to build a shed that will represent a compact eco home. Wow!

This past spring during their April Town Clean Up, the amazing Middleton Stream Team (MST) collected 32 bags of trash. At the annual spring Riverwide Clean Up MST, the Topsfield Stream Team (TST)  and other Ipswich River volunteers collected even more bags of trash. A the Fish Brook crossing in Topsfield alone, volunteer and TST member Joel Hariton filled 2 massive trash bags. 

Be part of the Ecobrick project and join the efforts of the amazing volunteers who have been working hard to keep their towns and the river beautiful, healthy and clean. See you on October 26th!