Friday, May 16, 2014

Too Many Plastic Bottles


This afternoon I explored the section of the Charles River between Chestnut Street in Needham down to Needham Street in Dedham.  Actually I launched in the middle at South Street in Needham and first went downriver to Dedham.  The highlight of this stretch was the Lyons Bridge (at left) which I'd seen many times from my car while flying by on Route 95.  It was nice to finally paddle beneath it and note its distinctive keystone...

Like other bridges in this part of the river, signs let the paddler know how far to Boston Harbor...
 
By the time I'd covered the 1.5 miles to Needham Street I'd recovered far too many plastic bottles for such a short stretch of river.  More than 50. 

After returning upriver to South Street, I continued paddling another 1.5 miles to Chestnut Street at the Needham/Dover line.  Oddly, there were less than 10 plastic bottles in this 1.5 mile stretch.

Efforts are presently underway in Massachusetts to place updating our Bottle Bill on this November's ballot.  The Initiative Petition for a Law process required collecting more than 70,000 signatures last November.  Now, as the process moves to new stage, another 14,000 new signatures are required before June 5th.  If you missed signing the petition last November there's still a chance to do so in the next 3 weeks.

Anyone living in Acton, Concord, Maynard, or Stow that wishes to sign please let me know via my decal contact info.

With an updated Bottle Bill that includes a redemption value for plastic water, sports drinks, teas, and fruit juices we can reduce the amount of these plastic containers ending up in our waterways...

...and there'll be less trash hauls such as today's...
...when 3 miles of river produced 61 recyclable containers (17 redeemable) and 41 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as Styrofoam, plastic bags, etc.  YTD = 2265

2 comments:

lis said...

Wow! Discouraging to see so many trashed like that. I wish people would treat the outdoors with respect.

Al said...

I agree Lis. So long as those empty plastic containers have no monetary value, they'll continue to be treated as worthless trash.