Plastic leads Blue & Gold collection

The Blanchard River Watershed Partnership has released the litter collection totals for Monday's Blue & Gold Goes Green cleanup effort at Findlay High School . Sixty student participants cleared their goal of 500 pieces by 6,220, for a total of 6,720 pieces of litter picked up over approximately 2½ hours, the partnership said. The trash was picked up from several locations on the school campus including both the Millstream Career Center and Findlay High School parking lots and the wooded area between the school's track and Interstate 75. A breakdown by material shows plastic as the No. 1 collected type of trash, with 1,413 pieces collected. Paper came in second with 399 pieces. The litter was recorded on a cellphone application called Litterati. In its inaugural year in 2021, the event saw students picking up trash at three locations around the county. The 90 students who participated in 2021 picked up 5,469 pieces of trash in five hours. The effort is a partnership between the United Way of Hancock County, the Blanchard River Watershed Partnership and Findlay High School's National Honor Society.