Rain or shine, volunteers for Missouri River Relief will take to boats April 7 to help clean stretches of the Missouri and Osage rivers.
"We try to be really strategic about where we go and where we return to," event coordinator Jen Davis said. She said 2007 was the last time the nonprofit cleaned that particular stretch of the rivers.
Volunteers will have an opportunity to experience a "direct connection to the Missouri river through stewardship and fun" as they depart by boat from the Bonnots Mill River Access, according to a news release.
Missouri River Relief has conducted 168 community-based cleanups in its 17-year history. Through those events, more than 25,000 volunteers from across the state have cleaned up 900 tons of trash from both banks of more than 1,000 miles of river, according to the news release.
"A lot of what we find comes from way up river," Davis said of the trash that's picked up on the four-six major annual cleanups.
Volunteers found a volleyball from an out-of-state high school on a cleanup in Boonville. A message in a bottle from the Dakotas has been found before. Large flood events can carry items as heavy and bulky as appliances hundreds of miles down river a year, she said.
Floods carry large amounts of material that accumulate in low-lying areas once floodwaters recede, she explained. It's those particular low-lying areas where volunteers will focus their cleanup efforts.
"So much plastic, primarily plastic and Styrofoam," she said is what's typically found. It's also not unusual to find about 50 children's balls, she added.
All plastic material in open water eventually degrades into small particles - known as microplastic - because of constant exposure to sunlight and the weather, she said, adding "microplastic is a huge problem" because wildlife such as fish and birds eat it, thinking it's food, and the material collects in their intestines.
Microplastic that eventually reaches the ocean contributes to problems like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - which, as ABC News reported, is a zone of floating 79,000 tons of plastic material in the mid-Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California that covers an area more than twice the size of Texas.
Volunteers who help clean up the local stretches of rivers April 7 will be rewarded with a free lunch, a T-shirt and a reusable water bottle.
The motorboats for the cleanup will be operated by Missouri River Relief, the Missouri Department of Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Davis said life jackets, work gloves and trash bags will be provided. Volunteers who sign up the day of on the spot starting at 8:30 a.m. will be accepted, but she encouraged people to sign up ahead of time at riverrelief.org.
Volunteers will begin boarding boats at 9 a.m. to be shuttled to the pre-scouted locations. A boat will pick them up from their locations at about noon to be taken back to Bonnots Mill for lunch. Land sites also will be available for groups and individuals.
There will be a chance over lunch to enter a "trash contest" to win prizes by submitting "trash treasures."
People are encouraged to help sort out recyclable material after lunch once Missouri River Relief boat crews pick up the bagged trash and deliver it to the boat ramp.
People should be prepared to get muddy during the cleanup and should dress accordingly - long pants recommended and sturdy boots or tennis shoes. Layers of clothing, rain gear, bug spray, sunscreen and snacks are also suggested supplies to bring.
Further event details can be found online at bit.ly/OsageCleanup2018.