HONESDALE, Pa. -- Volunteers waded into the chilly Lackawaxen River in the Honesdale area to clear out any and all trash.
Shopping carts, bicycle parts and PVC pipe - just some of things crews pulled out of the river during the first-ever Get Trashed River Cleanup Battle.
Businesses and volunteers teamed up to make the river and its banks look pristine again.
"The way I see it is if there is trash here one rainstorm, it is where I fish so it is all the same. Water is water I do not care if I do or do not fish. I want it clean because it affects all of us," said Dan Santoro.
To make it more fun crews got points for filling bags with trash and more points for items they couldn't fit.
Those bags and all that couldn't fit inside them were later weighed in a friendly competition outside Here and Now brewing company.
"We are all fisherman so anything we can do to help provide clean water and for the town. It is good vibes everywhere," said Jared Mackowski.
"You're protecting a resource. With climate change and everything else on in the world, rivers are the first thing to go. If you wanna catch trout you need cold water," said Chris Calabrese.
Brad Kent pulled out a bike, PVC pipe and several bags worth of trash in less than two hours of cleanup.
"A duck doesn't know when it gets a six-pack around its neck. We started with two bags of trash and we had to buy more bags from CVS cause we didn't expect to find what we did," said Kent.
Organizers say the trash will be disposed of or recycled properly.