MAKING AN IMPACT. Participants in the litter clean up around the Town Common followed by a brand audit of the 10-15 bags of trash they collected in just a few hours included (from left): Mike, Rex, Laina and Amanda Swiatocha, Usha Pillai, Janet Stevenson, and John Rogers, chair of the North Reading Sustainability Committee. (Courtesy Photo)

 

 

NORTH READING — The North Reading Green Alliance, together with the North Reading High School’s EcoTeam, organized its third town clean up event in the spring. This year, they included an extra step by conducting an audit of the litter collected.

“There have been some exciting outcomes to this effort,” said North Reading Green Alliance founder Usha Pillai, Ph.D. “The weather wasn’t great that morning and there was a drizzle for most of the time that we were there…However, nine people, including a family of four, showed up and collected a very impressive haul of 10 to 15 bags.”

Pillai said the litter was collected from an area covering roughly a half-mile radius from their starting point on the Town Common, including an area behind Ryer’s store, along Haverhill Street, and on Park Street near the Flint Memorial Library.

“After collecting the litter, we spread it all out on tarp bags laid out on the Common, separated the different kinds of items – bottles, cans, etc. – and counted them according to various identifiable brands. Our focus this time was plastics since we wanted to share this data with an international organization called Break Free From Plastic (#BFFP),” Pillai said.

After the completion of the event, Pillai compiled all the data into an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed it according to type and brand. She shared the data with BFFP and also with state chapters of “Beyond Plastics” and “Story of Stuff.”

 

BREAKING FREE from plastics. Usha Pillai, Ph.D., organizer of the North Reading Green Alliance (left) and Shellie Kerrigan, organizer of the NRHS EcoTeam and a science teacher at NRHS, sort the plastic litter into categories for their brand audit following a clean up event around the Town Common. (Courtesy Photo)

 

“These latter organizations are part of a state coalition pushing for a single use plastic ban in the state. Local-level data is very valuable to their statewide legislative efforts,” she said.

The nine volunteers collected roughly 225 pieces of plastic litter, which included plastic bottles, utensils, straws, wrappers, lids, cups and nip alcohol bottles. Brands collected included Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Solo Cup, Dunkin’, Walmart, Diageo, Sazerac, Suntory and McDonald’s. Other pieces of litter, such as aluminum cans, were also included in the mix.

Pillai also shared the information from this cleanup with Town Administrator Mike Gilleberto and the DPW Director Joe Parisi with a suggestion that perhaps the town should consider installing trash and recycling bins at litter-heavy locations based on their audit results. “I was pleasantly surprised when I heard back from Mike asking Joe to “consult with [his] staff about feasible options for making available and maintaining trash and recycling bins in the area of the common.”

“We are especially excited at this possibility! As Ms. Shellie Kerrigan, the organizer of the NRHS EcoTeam, put it, this is a great ‘example of a small group of citizens making a change in their town for the better’ to be shared with her students. In this age of general disillusionment with governments at all levels, the younger residents in our town can feel encouraged to see their efforts creating a positive change.”