Volunteers fanned out across the Poconos Saturday morning with garbage bags in hand to collect the litter that has emerged along with springtime blossoms.
As the snow melted, the trash situation revealed itself as “exceptionally bad,” Brianna Strunk, public relations manager for the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, said between checking in volunteers outside PMVB’s Stroudsburg visitor center.
An April cleanup was planned for last year, said PMVB President/CEO Chris Barrett, but scrapped in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. PMVB did carry out a region-wide cleanup across Carbon, Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties in September.
Volunteers picked up trash bags, T-shirts, vests, gloves and cup-holder-sized trash cans (a thank-you, as well as a reminder to responsibly dispose of trash, Barrett noted) at sites across the Poconos before starting the cleanup. PMVB worked with municipalities to designate routes that full bags could be left along for pickup, and Waste Management