About National River Cleanup™

Millions of tons of trash end up in our nation’s rivers and streams every year. American Rivers is a proud sponsor of National River Cleanup™, the most popular and successful stream cleanup program in the country that taps into the civic pride of tens of thousands of volunteers across the country.

National River Cleanup™ is now a year-long event. Since the launch of this annual event by America Outdoors in 1991, more than 900,000 volunteers have participated in thousands of cleanups across the country, covering more than 162,000 miles of waterways. These cleanups have removed more than 8.7 million pounds of litter and debris from America's rivers and streams.

National River Cleanup™ 2009 was the most successful year to date, with more organizers and cleanups than ever before.

National River Cleanup™ Statistics through 2009

• River cleanup locations: 3,000+ across the United States
• Cleanup volunteers: 900,000+
• Stream miles cleaned: 162,000+ 
• Trash removed from America's waterways: nearly 8.7 million pounds

AARP Joins American Rivers in Promoting Volunteerism, Cleanups American Rivers is working with AARP to increase volunteerism through our National River Cleanup™ program with a new how-to video and toolkit, How to Organize a River Cleanup. Watch the video below or download the toolkit (PDF).  How To Organize a River Cleanup on Howcast