Mississippi River cities join project to map plastic litter


Cities along the Mississippi River will take part in a global system to determine where plastic pollution comes from and how it ends up in waterways

Cities along the Mississippi River will take part in a global system to determine where plastic pollution comes from and how it ends up in waterways as a first step toward solving the problem, officials said Wednesday.

The project enables “citizen scientists” using a mobile application to log types and locations of litter found along the river, which drains 40% of the continental U.S. and sends huge volumes of plastics into the Gulf of Mexico. Much of it reaches the river through municipal storm drains and tributary streams.

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