Sugar Creek Missouri River Cleanup 2025

"A" Team at Sugar Creek! Photo by Elke Boyd.

Friday morning we conducted our trash scout, where the MRR Crew sets out on boats to search the banks of the Missouri River for trash, then mark each of those sites. These pre-scouted sites are then marked on maps for the dispatch team to use to determine where to send operators with their groups during the Saturday cleanup. KMBC9 joined us for our scout, and covered our efforts live from the river! Check out the live coverage here.

Dispatch Maps. Photo by Kevin Tosie.

Saturday was the cleanup day! Crew got busy to set the scene, preparing for the 100’s of volunteers joining us for the day on the river. At 9:00am, volunteers checked in, picking up their t-shirt, gloves, and water bottle, then went on to the Orientation and Safety Briefing. After getting fitted for life jackets and grouped up, our boat operators, Missouri Department of Conservation operators, and Sugar Creek Fire and Rescue ferried the volunteers to their sites!

Group of volunteers headed to their site via boat. Photo by Elke Boyd.

After a couple hours on the river, volunteers returned for lunch and MRR activities while enjoying some time at LaBenite Park! Volunteers had the opportunity to earn their badge through the Missouri River Explorer Badge program and learn ways they can reduce their plastic use through Clean Rivers Start at Home. The Trash Contest brought a crowd of volunteers to cheer for the treasures they found on the Missouri River. Check out this Kansas City Star story about the items found on the cleanup.

Group of volunteers returning to LaBenite Park and getting off their boat. Photo by Lynn DeCapo.

The crew returned to the river to haul off all the trash from each cleanup site. Sugar Creek Public Works assisted with the offload with a front-end loader at the boat ramp. Our partners from Missouri River Bird Observatory lead the Brand Audit, siphoning through bags as the loads of trash came in. The data that is collected is submitted to Break Free From Plastic to identify the world’s top polluting corporations. Click here to learn more about Brand Audits and how to be a part of this international effort!

Group of volunteers working together to identify plastic for the Plastic Brand Audit. Photo by Alyssa Thomas.

Some of the crew headed back out on the river to pull out a beached dock made up of about 15 55-gallon blue barrels, topping off the 40-cubic yard dumpster donated by GFL Environmental. The day ended with a well-deserved meal from The Fish Market for the crew. Thank you to all 224 volunteers and our partners and sponsors who helped make the removal of over 4 tons of trash possible!

Check out our trash tally from the cleanup below!

MRR volunteers posing with the loaded 40 cubic-yard dumpster. Photo by Jim Armer.