A new study offers the first-ever “snapshot” of the plastic pollution in the Mississippi River — and it’s pretty trashy. The Mississippi River Plastic Pollution Initiative tracked debris near St. Louis and nine other cities along the Mississippi, from St. Paul, Minnesota to Greenville, Mississippi. Across three different periods from March 2021 to July 2022, volunteers logged a total of 174,868 items on their  Debris Tracker apps.