Clean Up Crew
Founding
Essex County Clean Up Crew began with a personal passion for nature, hiking the local New Jersey trails, and a desire to reduce the amount of plastics and garbage polluting these forest areas. New Jersey, as a commuter hub to NYC, has its fair share of problems. Traffic, noise, and garbage being three great examples. Sadly, many New Jersey citizens move through our reservations with little regard for the eco-system and the impact litter can have on the plants & animals of forest environments. As an environmental advocate, I could not stand to continue turning a blind eye to the degradation and pollution of these trails in my travels. What initially started with a few garbage bags and desire for change soon became the Essex Clean Up Crew, a volunteer clean up group dedicated to protecting NJ’s forest eco-systems and animals.
Our Mission
Throughout the summer of 2022 and onward, we began our clean up operations with a close knit group of volunteers. The volunteers would join me and we would hike the trails looking for any plastic or garbage we could find along the way. Our team went to the local NJ parks and reservations such as Eagle Rock Reservation, Mills Reservation, South Mountain Reservation, Verona Park, Anderson Park, and Garret Mountain. Once the garbage was collected, the waste was diverted to the Montclair garbage collection service. In my time as volunteer leader I developed the social media page @essex_cleanup_crew and began the management over the communications, organizing clean ups, designating location sites, and diverting the waste we collected through the proper sanitation channels. My other tasks included rigorous hands on physical labor, organizing and overseeing clean up operations, managing organization Instagram page, graphic design, content curation, branding design, ensuring proper waste removal and recycling, and communicating with potential clean up volunteers, supporters, contributors, and donors. an Mosharrafa