A group of environmental activists collected trash and debris on Thursday along two miles of Ralston Creek between Hickory Hill Park and the Iowa River in Iowa City.

The demonstrators returned to downtown Iowa City and emptied the trash outside of City Hall, urging them to invest in more environmental cleanup efforts. Ralston Creek is a stream in Johnson County and flows into the Iowa River.

Vincent Shoppa, who grew up in Iowa City, announced the cleanup project and demonstration after receiving unsatisfactory responses from members of the Iowa City City Council about the amount of litter in town.

“I’ve walked downtown hundreds of thousands of times, and I particularly love walking past Ralston Creek,” Shoppa said last month at a city council meeting. “What I don’t love is the tremendous amounts of trash I always walk past in it.”

Shoppa also said he was previously sympathized with and encouraged to report future instances of littering in an email response received from councilor Shawn Harmsen.

“While I appreciate the sympathy, this is the government’s job,” he said at the meeting. “No citizen should feel as compelled as I have to do this themselves.”

Before beginning the trash collection, Shoppa said bringing attention to the issue and taking action to receive governmental help is what inspired him to form the cleanup demonstration.

“We’re always seeing so much garbage and it’s the same garbage that we see over and over again,” he said. “We wanted to do something about it. We wanted to give the city government a visual depiction of how much trash they are unwilling to collect.”

The Daily Iowan reached out to one of the organizers, Elizabeth Jorgensen, for additional comment but was declined.

The group completed the demonstration Sunday afternoon, urging community members to recognize the issue that is often overlooked and passed by.