Hundreds of community volunteers surveyed targeted areas in the Quad Cities to understand the movement and accumulation of plastic pollution, generating key data through a citizen science approach. Community members collected data with Debris Tracker, an open data citizen science movement and free mobile phone app. The cities that participated in this phase of data collection included: Davenport, Iowa; Bettendorf, Iowa; Rock Island, Illinois; Moline, Illinois; and East Moline, Illinois. The data gathered in the Quad Cities was examined to understand the state of plastic litter, generating as rich a picture as possible, within a dedicated timeframe, of the extent and type of litter that can make its way to the river. This project consisted of scientific strategy development and refinement, volunteer training and outreach, field data collection, and data analysis and reporting. The community training and data collection occurred from September–October, 2021. The initiative was successful in engaging citizen scientists with 24,943 total litter items logged in the Quad Cities from October 1–31, 2021. Plastic was the top material found, comprising 76% of the items logged in the Quad Cities.