Massachusetts Beautification Bulletin | May 7, 2026

Dear Friend,

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms who volunteer to keep their communities clean and green. And a special shoutout to Mother Earth for providing us all with a beautiful place to call home! Scroll down for timely updates and ideas to protect and beautify our local environment.

Spring Cleanups Highlight Need for Statewide Litter Prevention Campaign

Across Massachusetts, thousands of Great Massachusetts Cleanup volunteers mobilized over the past month to remove tons of litter and debris from roadsides, parks, beaches, and other public spaces. THANK YOU to everyone who organized and participated in these cleanups!

This annual rite of spring begs the question: what steps—if any—is our state government taking to battle the ever-growing volume of litter in Massachusetts? To date, the answer has been “none.”

But there is hope on the horizon. Senate Resolve 2390, filed by Senator Paul Feeney, would establish a statewide Litter Prevention & Clean Up Task Force. The goal would be for this group to study the causes of our litter problem and issue recommendations about what could be done to PREVENT litter, as well as how we could do a better job of coordinating cleanup efforts.

Senate Resolve 2390 received unanimous support from the Joint Committee on Transportation last fall. It now awaits action by the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Please contact the chair and co-chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and urge them to move this initiative forward.

Massachusetts Leaders Against Litter

Cut The Crap: No More Raw Sewage in the Charles River!

While Boston’s Charles River is much cleaner than it used to be, there is still more work to do.

The situation, in a nutshell, is this: In older cities like Boston and Cambridge, some pipes carry both stormwater and raw sewage. During heavy rainstorms, these pipes reach capacity and discharge the excess—raw sewage, industrial waste, and trash—directly into the river. As a result, raw or partially treated sewage enters the Charles along nine distinct locations in Cambridge and Boston during every large rainstorm. The same problems affect the Merrimack, Mystic, and Connecticut rivers.

Our friends at the Charles River Watershed Association are working toward a permanent fix to this problem. Their proposed solution would cost $46 per household annually — a small price to pay for a swimmable Charles River.

Please urge the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) to take action!

Support A Cleaner Charles River

Quotable: "We humans have become so dependent on plastics for a range of uses, from packaging to products. Reducing our use of plastic bags is an easy place to start getting our addiction out of control.”

― David Suzuki, Canadian scientist, author, and environmental activist

Boston-Area Businesses Taking Action to Keep Massachusetts Beautiful

Thank you to our amazing business partners who volunteered with our Company Community Service Cleanup program this April!

ASICS in Boston’s Chinatown on April 9
OpenGov in Boston’s North End on April 13
Samsonite on Route 140 in Mansfield on April 16
Clean Harbors along the Monatiquot River in Braintree on April 17
Alvarez & Marsal on Boston Common on April 23
Catalent at Mary O’Malley State Park in Chelsea on April 24
Boston Beer Company along the South Boston waterfront on April 27

If you’d like to get out and make a positive impact in your community with your co-workers, learn more at www.keepmassbeautiful.org/ccs.

Make a Fashionable Statement

Order a KMB anti-litter shirt or sweatshirt and help raise awareness for our mission.

Shop Now

Volunteers from Dell Technologies in Hopkinton

Volunteers Give Boston Marathon Route a Clean Sweep

150 volunteers participated in the third annual Litter-Free-to-the-Finish Boston Marathon pre-race cleanup in April. Volunteers cleaned up the marathon route in Hopkington, Ashland, Framingham, and Natick to make it safe and beautiful for runners and spectators alike.

80 volunteers from Dell Technologies filled 110 large bags of trash from the Hopkinton starting line all the way into Ashland on April 8
25 volunteers from Keep Natick Beautiful filled 20 bags of trash along Route 135 on April 11
45 volunteers from Keep Framingham Beautiful filled 90 bags of trash along Route 135 on April 12

This cleanup helps the greater Boston area put its best foot forward as thousands of runners and spectators visit our region to enjoy the Boston Marathon. Thank you to the organizers and volunteers who participated in this year's cleanups!

Launch a KMB Chapter in Your Community

From the KMB Blog: Creative Ideas to Advance the Cause of Litter Prevention

How can we keep drivers from tossing litter out of their vehicles? Threatening them with fines doesn’t seem to be particularly effective. Mandatory window locks could be a potential solution!

Read Our Blog Post

Watch Our Anti-Litter Public Service Video

Help us pass legislation to create a statewide Litter Prevention & Cleanup Task Force

Learn More About Mass Leaders Against Litter

Environmental News Worth Your Precious Time

Thank you for reading our newsletter and please contact me if I can answer any questions you may have about our programs, launching a local KMB chapter in your community, or sponsorship opportunities.

Sincerely,

Neil Rhein, Founder & Executive Director