DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — Hundreds of people in Durham will spend the week working to make the city’s creeks and parks cleaner.

Durham Creek Week is meant to encourage people to get out and enjoy Durham’s waterways and to keep them clean. Keep Durham Beautiful is working with the City of Durham to host several cleanup events and activities showcasing the city’s trails and waterways.

Dawn Keyser with “Keep Durham Beautiful” said litter flows into our rivers and oceans and can even impact our drinking water.

“As it goes, it’s going to slowly break down both from the actual physical action of being in the water and eventually, it’s going to break into smaller pieces of plastic, which are toxic for both people and animals,” Keyser said.

Cleanup efforts won’t stop with “Creek Week.” Keep Durham Beautiful tells CBS 17 it’s also working with children in Durham schools, developing litter kits to help children safely pick up trash and a curriculum teaching why it’s important.

“I think it’s also really powering for kids to sort of see environmental issues and know that they can make a difference on them,” said Ellie Dilworth, the nonprofit’s AmeriCorps environmental outreach and volunteer coordinator.

For a list of “Creek Week” events, click here.