Love Our Waterways Celebrates a Strong First Year
Throughout September, communities across Louisiana took part in the first Love Our Waterways (LOW) initiative, a month-long statewide effort focused on removing litter and debris from Louisiana’s rivers, lakes, bayous, shorelines, and storm drains.
Led by Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser and Keep Louisiana Beautiful (KLB), the initiative included 327 cleanup events across 51 parishes, bringing together thousands of residents, businesses, sponsors, schools, civic groups, anglers, boaters, KLB affiliates and community partners.
Partners Helped Turn the Mission into Action
Love Our Waterways received $205,000 in donations from sponsors and private partners, that helped KLB support local LOW cleanups.
KLB provided over 200 cleanup supply kits to registered organizers, giving local groups resources to support safe, successful cleanup events.
KLB is grateful to the sponsors and partners who invested in this first-year effort and helped communities across Louisiana take action to protect their waterways.
A Statewide Campaign Begins in New Orleans
Love Our Waterways officially launched on September 1 aboard the Creole Queen in New Orleans, where state and local leaders, nonprofit partners, sponsors, community representatives, and supporters gathered to mark the start of the campaign.
Help Us Capture the Statewide Impact
KLB is now collecting final reports on volunteer turnout, litter collected, and overall event impact. Organizers are encouraged to submit their data by October 8th here 2026 Love Our Waterways Data Collection so every effort can be included in the statewide results.
Your reporting is essential! Each submission helps capture the full reach of the initiative,
highlight the dedication of communities across the state and demonstrate the collective impact we make when we come together to protect Louisiana’s waterways.
The inaugural Love Our Waterways campaign expanded KLB’s statewide litter‑prevention work with a dedicated month focused on the waterways that connect Louisiana communities.
Organizers created events tailored to their local communities and needs. Some volunteers cleaned directly on rivers, bayous, and shorelines, while others targeted parks, roadsides, storm drains, ditches, and drainage corridors that carry litter toward the water.
Together, these efforts formed a coordinated month of action across Louisiana.
Stop Litter Before It Reaches the Water
Louisiana is home to approximately 14,400 miles of waterways that support recreation, tourism, wildlife, commerce and culture across the state.
Protecting those waterways often begins long before litter reaches the water itself.
Items discarded along roadways, in neighborhoods or near storm drains can travel through wind and rain into drainage systems, ditches and eventually larger waterways. For that reason, Love Our Waterways intentionally expanded beyond traditional boat and shoreline cleanups.
In addition to hands-on litter removal, Love Our Waterways helped raise public awareness about how everyday litter moves into Louisiana’s waterways and educated communities on practical steps to prevent pollution at its source.
Volunteers also focused on storm drains, drainage areas, roadsides and neighborhoods stopping litter before it could move downstream.
Communities Across Louisiana Took Action
Love Our Waterways looked different in every community.
KLB affiliates, nonprofits, schools, businesses, civic groups and individual organizers rallied volunteers to address litter where it was affecting their local environment most.
In addition to removing litter, groups documented what they collected. This information will help KLB better understand the types and volume of litter across the state and identify opportunities to strengthen future prevention efforts.
Every organizer and volunteer played a vital role in the success of Louisiana’s first statewide Love Our Waterways campaign.
Keep the Momentum Going
September may be over, but protecting Louisiana’s waterways is a year-round commitment.
Everyone can help by properly disposing of waste, securing items that could blow from vehicles or trash containers, keeping storm drains clear and picking up litter before it has a chance to travel downstream.
Love Our Waterways showed what’s possible when communities across Louisiana work toward the same goal.
Thank You, Louisiana
Thank you to every event organizer, volunteer, KLB affiliate, business, school, agency, sponsor and community partner who helped bring the first Love Our Waterways to life.
Your work elevated awareness about the link between litter and Louisiana’s waterways and turned that message into meaningful action.
As final reports are submitted, KLB will compile statewide results and share the story of what Louisiana accomplished together.
