BATON ROUGE - The capital city is the first of three cities along the Mississippi River to adapt a new initiative tackling plastic pollution.

The Mississippi River Plastic Pollution Initiative launched Saturday under several partnerships, including the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI), mayors along the Mississippi River in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme, National Geographic Society and the University of Georgia.

At the event, community volunteers came together to collect data on plastic pollution along the river by downloading the Marine Debris Tracker, a free app that tracks upstream and coastal litter.

Data collected from the app will help scientists locate where the trash is, and how much is piling up.

"Anybody can use it, anybody can download it. You open the app and any type of trash you see on the ground, you can get a location, you can get a type of trash and you can get the quantity of the trash that you can pick up on a thirty-minute walk," said Jay Merrill, an LSU graduate student at the event.