Volunteers of all ages braved the scorching heat on Sept. 19 to help clean trash along the San Diego River in the Grantville/Allied Gardens area near Kaiser Ponds.

The San Diego River Park Foundation and I Love a Clean San Diego sponsored the event that brought out 57 volunteers, who collected 5,700 pounds of trash, 225 pounds of recycling and 200 pounds of e-waste.

Some of the more unique items found by the volunteers included a sound board, 11 shopping carts, six pairs of handcuffs linked together and a rusty machete. Besides the humid, 80-degree weather that day, the volunteers had to contend with the effects of recent rains that had waterlogged discarded shirts, jeans, old rugs and other cloth debris, which made the bags of trash they collected that much heavier.