Article: Tackling the trash.(efforts of college student Chad Pregracke to clean up river banks near his home leads to Adopt-a-Mississippi-Mile program)

Not many people would spend their free time picking up other people's litter. But Chad Pregracke has spent most of the past five years doing just that along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Illinois Rivers.

Why?

Chad grew up in a house alongside the Mississippi. He loved to fish and camp on the river's wooded islands. That's when he first noticed the junk dotting its shoreline. Many other boaters and campers used the river, too. Unfortunately, some of them didn't care where they threw their trash.

Spring floods added to the clutter. When flood waters went down, they left behind everything tom tin cans to 55-gallon steel drums, from tires to TV sets.

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