A litter boom was deployed across Salado Creek at Comanche Park in South Bexar County on Friday, the first of many hoped for by Precinct 4 County Commissioner Tommy Calvert.
During a creekside news conference at the park, Calvert said the deployment is a partnership between the county, waterway protector River Aid San Antonio, the boom-maker Ospry Initiative, and financial backer Coca-Cola Southwest.
"I envision a future where partnerships like these become the foundation for widespread restoration of Bexar County habitats," Calvert said during a news conference before the litter boom was stretched across the creek.
It will be local citizens and businesses mobilized by River Aid San Antonio that will scoop up the litter collected by the boom and possible others in the future.
"We will work to show these systems are worth investment, our waterways are worth investment, and with the help pf the partners behind me, we will have 10 to 15 of these in two to three years," said Charles Blank, the executive director of River Aid San Antonio.
Yael Girard, the senior project manager of the Mobile, Alabama-based Osprey Initiative, said their "litter getters" are used around the world.
"Last year in 2023, we picked up or collected over 100,000 pounds of litter from our project sites," she said. "We have quite a few different devices. They're all custom built in the United States, either in Louisiana or Alabama, and then we ship them around the world."
Abraham Tueme, the director of sustainability for Coca-Cola Southwest, said they want to be a good corporate citizen in the community, noting Cokes have been bottled in San Antonio for at least a century.
"We want to make sure that we're helping," he said. "We want to make sure that we do our part, that we contribute. For us, it's really, you know, an amazing opportunity to put back into the communities where we operate."
Calvert also said cleaning trash from rivers prevents flood control measures from becoming clogged and worsening flooding that could threaten lives and property.
