Massachusetts Beautification Bulletin | December 2023
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Happy holidays! Did you know that between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, Americans generate 23% more trash than at other time of the year? Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce, reuse, or recycle decorations, gift boxes, food waste, etc. Scroll down for helpful tips as well as other news items and upcoming events.
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Cheers To a Beautiful 2023 and Looking Ahead to More Success in 2024!
With the start of a new year just days away, we’d like to thank the amazing people and organizations that are helping make Massachusetts a cleaner, greener place to live, work, and play. This includes:
Our Volunteers: Thank you to everyone who volunteered to clean up or green up their community in 2023! This year, thousands of volunteers from our 35 local KMB chapters, Massachusetts businesses, and other organizations, removed 150+ tons of litter from the Massachusetts landscape. A special shout-out goes to the 1,100+ people who regularly clean up their adopted routes as part of the Massachusetts Litter Cleanup Crew.
Our Chapter Leaders: Our volunteers wouldn’t be able to do what they do without the guidance of the people who lead our local KMB chapters. Thank you to these selfless leaders who donate so much of their time and energy to improve their communities. Much of what we seek to accomplish boils down to having a sense of community pride—and these leaders exemplify that spirit!
Our Business Sponsors: Whether it’s our annual Plant Something Bee-eautiful grants, our Next-Gen Environmental Leader Scholarship, or our Great Massachusetts Cleanup program, the common denominator is that these programs all require funding. Therefore, we want to give a special shoutout to the companies and individuals who donate money and materials to support our mission every year. Follow this link to see who supported our mission in 2023.
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Support a Cleaner, Greener, Litter-Free Massachusetts During the Year-End Giving Season
You may have noticed that you did not receive a fundraising email request from us on Giving Tuesday, as we decided to give our readers a break from the annual deluge of fundraising emails! However, it’s not too late to make a 2023 donation to KMB. A donation of just $25 will cover the cost of one Massachusetts Litter Cleanup Crew kit. Please consider Keep Massachusetts Beautiful in your year-end charitable donations.
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New Clean Coast Coalition Program Targets Marine Debris
Keep Massachusetts Beautiful and the Gloucester-based nonprofit Seaside Sustainability have teamed up to launch the Clean Coast Coalition. Through targeted water-based cleanups and education, this new program seeks to address the marine debris problem along Massachusetts coastlines and inland waterways.
Clean Coast Coalition’s goal is to improve local water-based ecosystems through the use of “Blue Technology” devices, such as the PixieDrone. The PixieDrone is a remote-controlled aqua-drone that filters debris and invasive fauna out of the water to be separated into four categories; trash, compostables, plastics, and other recyclables. Removing this water-based debris creates a safer and more enjoyable environment for marine organisms and humans alike.
Through the collection of marine debris, we aim to raise awareness and inspire residents to prevent debris from entering local waterways in the first place.
We are seeking financial supporters to help us grow and manage this program. Contact us to learn about our sponsorship levels.
Visit our website to learn more or to request a cleanup demonstration in your community.
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Quotable: “To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people’s trash.”
— Bill Nye, Engineer and Science Guy
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Clean Community Awards Tickets Now Available
We’ll be gathering at the Village Hall in Framingham on March 21, 2024, to celebrate our 2023 Clean Community Awards honorees. Tickets are on sale now!
This event will be a fun evening of celebration featuring inspiring stories, delicious food, cocktails, and entertainment.
Nominations for the Massachusetts Clean Community Awards are being accepted through February 9, 2024. Awards will be presented in the following categories:
- Environmental Legislator of the Year
- KMB Business Partner of the Year
- KMB Chapter Leader of the Year
- KMB Rookie Chapter of the Year
- KMB Litter Buster of the Year
- KMB Youth Volunteer of the Year
- KMB Municipal Partner of the Year
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Zero Waste Zone:What to Do With Holiday Gift Packaging
Americans trash an estimated 2.3 million pounds of wrapping paper each year and over 38 million miles of ribbon.
If holiday-themed wrapping paper is not essential to your holiday happiness, consider using paper bags that you may already have in your house for wrapping paper. Then, once all the gifts have been opened, see if you can save and reuse your packaging materials. Gift bags, bows, and tissue paper can be reused for years.
For anything that can no longer be reused, here’s what you need to know:
- Gift bags can go in the recycling bin, as long as there is no metallic ink, foil, or glitter on them (remove string handles first)
- Tissue paper, ribbon, wrapping paper, and bows that are no longer reusable should go in the fireplace or the trash, as they are not recyclable
- Greeting cards and their envelopes are recyclable unless there is metallic ink, foil, or glitter on them
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From The KMB Blog:Tips For Creating a Cleaner, Non-Toxic Home Environment
Commonly purchased household cleaning products are not just filled with harmful, synthetic ingredients, but they also come clad in excessive and wasteful plastic packaging. If they aren’t recycled, plastic bottles can take 450 years to decompose! And if a bottle ends up in our waterways? It is likely to harm marine life by contributing to the trillions of microplastics currently found in our oceans.
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Monthly Zoom Call:KMB Leaders Share Best Practices for Cleaning Up Communities
During our first monthly Zoom call on November 30, the leaders of Keep Framingham Beautiful shared ideas and best practices that have worked so well to engage volunteers in their community. Contact us if you’d like us to send you a link to the recording.
Our next Zoom call is scheduled for January 25 at 7 p.m. Our primary topic will be a brainstorming session on how we can encourage our state leaders to take serious action to address the litter problem along Massachusetts state and interstate highways.
If you’d like to attend, please register in advance to receive the Zoom link.
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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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