CLEVELAND — From a bird's eye view, the beauty of the Cuyahoga River is easily seen. But if you take a closer look and the beauty becomes littered with trash.
Nobody knows better than Cleveland resident and founder of Trash Fish, Eddie Olschansky.
"The problem down here is worse than ever," said Olschansky.
That's why back in 2017 he founded Trash Fish, an organization dedicated to cleaning up the garbage that pollutes our waters.
"We can be out here 10 days a week if we really wanted to and we'd never be able to keep up with the trash flow in our river," he said.
We first introduced you to Olschansky and Trash Fish back in 2020, since then he has stayed true to his mission and has continued to grow his fleet of trash fishermen.
"We have grown a lot," said Olschansky. "Way more community involvement."
Armed with a fleet of kayaks, trash bags and garbage pickers he and his team have been successful. Since 2017, Trash Fish has been able to collect about 50,000 pounds of trash from the Cuyahoga River.
"This is the drinking water supply for 11 million people. What ends up at the mouth of this river is poisoning our water supply," he said.
That's what keeps him motivated to continue his life's work.
"This project is a labor of love," said Olschansky. "It's actively intensive. It's mentally and emotionally intensive. If I wasn't putting 110% towards this we wouldn't be getting nearly as much done."
Making a change to our environment, one piece of trash at a time. Clearing a better future for the land that he loves.
"I've moved away from Cleveland numerous times and I always end up back here because I truly do love this land. If I am going to be doing work like this, there is no excuse not to be doing it for the community that gave me so much in my life."
Starting in the spring, Trash Fish will be sponsoring numerous trash pickups. For more information head to their website trashfishcle.org or their Instagram @trashfish_cle.