A day on the water; a day on the boat. Everyone comes home a bit tired from the sun, fresh air and many hours spent gallivanting on the eastern North Carolina waterways. Everyone’s ready to get home.

The boat comes up out of the water at the ramp; the friends and family all pile inside. The trip home starts.

Unfortunately, many times what happens on the ride home, unnoticed by those in driver’s seat or back seat, is the abundance of evidence left behind. While the floats, personal flotation devices, wakeboards, fishing rods and more were stowed appropriately, the garbage was not.

The trash that sat at the bottom of that boat is just fine until, at 55 mph, it goes airborne. Once airborne, it’s likely not landing back in that boat.

The same applies to trash in the beds of pickup trucks. It would be hard to find a person who hasn’t witnessed paper, cups, construction debris flying out of the beds of trucks on local roads and highways. Those in the driver’s seat are, again, likely, unaware.

Every resident, and even visitor, is responsible for helping to make Beaufort County a better place to live, a place where people want to visit or relocate — a place on which they look with pride.

Trashing up the place doesn’t help achieve those goals.

Walk down to Jack’s Creek in Washington. It’s not every day, but on some days, there’s a layer of trash floating in the more stagnant areas. Garbage can often be what captures the eye, as opposed to the green banks, placid water and the many ducks and geese that make their homes there.

That trash that gets its start during a day’s outing on the water, or hurriedly discarded into the bed of pickup truck, doesn’t just blow on the roads. Heavy rains often ensure that trash ends up in the waterways.

Everyone knows that Beaufort County’s greatest resource outside of its people is the river and its many creeks.

Help keep it clean and keep it safe by securing those belongings — even when those belongings are trash.