AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The historically polluted Anacostia River flowing through Washington, D.C., is getting cleaner. But lots of trash still ends up in the waterway, littering the landscape and impacting the wildlife there. WAMU's Tyrone Turner went along with Kelly Tindall and Kent Fothergill, a Maryland couple who launch their kayaks into the Anacostia River more than 100 times a year to pull trash. They call it trashyaking.
KELLY TINDALL: So we first started coming out on the river during the pandemic. As we started coming out on the river more and more, I kind of developed a relationship with the river and wanted to help her out.
KENT FOTHERGILL: So we're on the northwest branch. Of, there goes a Kingfisher. There are otters in the river - ton of beaver. There's muskrat. You'll get to see deer swimming across the river and stuff. You know, for a river with the problems it has, it also has so much promise. There's an ospray.
TINDALL: We always joke that this is aquatic trash, and it's much easier to pick up terrestrial trash.
FOTHERGILL: High tide's going to be, you know, mostly pulling plastic bottles. Low tide is when you'll be able to find the crazy stuff - yeah, the safes.
TINDALL: Washing machines.
FOTHERGILL: Hot water heaters, stuff like that.
TINDALL: Those things are deliberate dumps in the river because they're not going to fit through the sewer system. Today's a shoe day. There's that shoe that over there, the one that I found earlier. Now a flip-flop - flip-flop number two with rhinestones. They're fancy. It can be depressing. I mean, we get out 100 times a year, and to still take out 11 bags of trash in one paddle event - kind of disheartening.
FOTHERGILL: It's all love. I'm more than willing to accept the blessings of the river, the peace, the tranquility. I'm also willing to pick up trash. I know, we should have some trash cleaning song.
(Singing) Hi-ho. They say the bottles are long and wrong. Look at all this trash that we've found.
RASCOE: That was WAMU's Tyrone Turner, who spent a day on the Anacostia River with kayakers, Kelly Tindall and Kent Fothergill. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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