Stormwater staff highlight education, reusable giveaways and roadside cleanups at Beaufort County Earth Day event

Taylor Brewer, a Stormwater staff member, said the department set up an education booth and handed out reusable items at a Beaufort County Earth Day recycling event. “We've got a trivia wheel to help people learn more about stormwater and then a bunch of good giveaways,” Brewer said, adding the giveaways are chosen to be reusable so they "won't end up in the trash like the trash we're trying to prevent."

Brewer listed the giveaways at the booth as lunch boxes, reusable bags, pens and "probably everybody's favorite" ceramic and bamboo cups. She said the items are intentionally selected to be functional and made from reusable materials.

On logistics, Brewer said Public Works led planning, with about six months of meetings to organize volunteers into teams and coordinate movement between litter pickup sites and the event hub. "So, we've been working on a lot of logistics, like, getting people moved to their litter pick up spots and then back to here," she said. Brewer also described field operations that included ATVs to run up and down roadsides to retrieve litter.

Responding to a question about staffing and locations, Brewer said Stormwater was assigned to two pickup spots and that 44 staff were out picking up trash that day. The transcript lists one pickup location as "170 And Trash, Trash Cat Parkway"; event organizers did not clarify that phrasing in the recorded interview.

Brewer said she was impressed with the organization and volunteers' enthusiasm: "I think it's great that people want to spend the day outside, really trying to help our cause that we do every day." The segment closed with the host, Chloe of Species Report, thanking viewers for tuning in to the Earth Day coverage.