Massachusetts Beautification Bulletin | March 2023
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Earth Day (April 22) is coming soon. As we kick off our busiest time of the year for community litter cleanups, we ask for your support for our 2023 Earth Day Fundraising Campaign. Scroll down to donate or learn more about our ongoing efforts to clean up and green up Massachusetts.
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Donate to Support The Great Massachusetts Cleanup This Earth Day!
Spring has arrived and that means that cleanup season is here! As part of the Great Massachusetts Cleanup, thousands of Keep Massachusetts Beautiful (KMB) volunteers will soon be fanning out across their communities to clean up the litter that has piled up over the winter months.
These cleanups harness the positive energy of volunteers who collectively remove an estimated 150+ tons of litter and debris from Massachusetts roadsides, parks, schools, playgrounds, and beaches each year.
Please help us reach our Earth Day fundraising goal of $5,000 by April 22. No donation amount is too small and every dollar helps further our vision of a cleaner, greener, litter-free Massachusetts.
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Teach your children well!
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The Great Massachusetts Cleanup Springs Into Action!
If you are looking to volunteer for a Great Massachusetts Cleanup event this spring, the first batch of cleanups is kicking off this weekend:
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Support Legislation to Tackle Litter Along Massachusetts Highways
Take a look outside your car window this time of year and it’s instantly clear that the processes currently in place to prevent and clean up litter along major highways in Massachusetts are not succeeding.
To address this problem, Senator Paul Feeney has filed a bill (S. 2234) that would establish a statewide roadside litter prevention and cleanup task force. This committee would be tasked with creating a consistent, memorable, Massachusetts-themed anti-littering slogan and education campaign. The task force would file a comprehensive report and recommendations to the governor, the legislature, and various legislative subcommittees by the end of 2024.
If you agree that the time for Massachusetts to get serious about cleaning up our major highways is long past due, please contact your senator, representative, Governor Healey, and the co-chairs of the Transportation subcommittee (Senator Brendan Crighton and Representative William Straus) and urge them to support this bill (S. 2234).
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Too many bottles and cans end up in the trash or as litter, rather than being redeemed and recycled
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The KMB Blog:
40 Years Later, It's Time for a Better Bottle Bill
Since it was first enacted in 1983, the Massachusetts Bottle Bill has helped promote recycling and reduce the littering of certain items. But 40 years later, our “Bottle Bill” has become seriously outdated.
Today, the deposit on soda and beer cans and bottles remains stuck at five cents. Can you think of anything that has not had a price change since 1983? Probably not.
Similarly, the “handling fee” that redemption centers and retailers receive for processing these returns remains a paltry 2.5 cents and is also long overdue for an increase.
Today, many Massachusetts residents simply toss their cans and bottles in their recycling bins or the trash because five cents is simply no longer a meaningful amount of money to most people. Others litter their empty water bottles, sports drinks, beer cans, and nips on our roadsides and public spaces, rather than return them for their nickel deposits.
This year, a bill has once again been filed to create a “Better Bottle Bill.” Before official bill numbers are assigned, the bill has been assigned docket numbers HD 3420 in the House and SD 2104 in the Senate.
If you support a modernized Better Bottle Bill, let your local Select Board, City Council, State Representative, and State Senator know!
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Mattress recycling in action
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Zero Waste Zone:
Lower-Cost Ways to Recycle a Mattress in Massachusetts
Late last year, new regulations banned mattress disposal in Massachusetts. Since then, some communities have seen an uptick in the illegal dumping of mattresses.
Currently, fees vary widely for mattress recycling and disposal, with some higher quotes at around $100 for each item for collection and recycling. However, if you shop around, you’ll find there are other low-cost options for managing used mattresses, including:
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Volunteers at Gillette Stadium last fall
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Volunteer with the New England Revolution on Earth Day
Anyone who has ever tailgated at Gillette Stadium knows that these games are chock full of MROs—Missed Recycling Opportunities.
In partnership with Anheuser-Busch, we are seeking 15 volunteers aged 21 years and older to serve as Recycling Hawkers and help promote recycling among tailgaters at Gillette Stadium on Saturday, April 22, starting at 6 p.m.
Volunteers will help teach tailgaters about recycling and support recycling collection in the tailgating lots from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Volunteers will receive free parking, admission to the game, and a concessions voucher.
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KMB Chapter Spotlight: Framingham High School Students Deliver Multilingual Recycling Lessons
This past January and February, Framingham High School Environmental Club students visited local kindergarten and first-grade classes to teach lessons on recycling, anti-littering, and protecting the planet. Keep Massachusetts Beautiful met with these students earlier this year as part of a new initiative to engage high school students and encourage them to teach younger students in their communities about ways they can clean up and protect their local environment.
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Enviro-Newsworthy Developments...
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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
Keep Massachusetts Beautiful
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