CTSB Community Highlights "Town of Lee Monthly Trash Pick Up."

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CTSB Community Highlights "Monthly Town of Lee Trash Pick Up." = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Recycling/Greener Gateway Who we Are As set forth in our mission statement the Greener Gateway Committee carries out a wide range of activities - on its own and with others - to help make Lee attractive and sustainable for residents and visitors. We hope our efforts will strengthen Lee's postion as the Gateway to the Berkshires and help our economy. We seek new members and volunteers to help us succeed and look forward to serving and working with you to make Lee a Greener Gateway. To learn more about us, please refer to this flyer. Meeting Schedule The committee holds regular meetings at 3:30 on the second Monday of the month in the conference room of the Tri-Town Health Department on Railroad Street (across from the Post office). We also hold special meetings as needed. All meetings are posted in accordance with Open Meeting Law requirements. On this page, learn about: Did you know: tips for a greener and safer world - updated with new tips as we receive/find them Our 6th Annual Roadside Cleanup a Success Thanks to Widespread Support It sure is about time we celebrated Earth Day's 50th Anniversay - join us Saturday afternoon September 17th (during Founders Weekend 2022) Our continuing roadside cleanup efforts to help KEEP LEE CLEAN: you'd be surprised how much litter we find every month! Our butt collectors are helping to keep downtown cleaner Lee’s Founders Weekend 2019: Collaboration Helped Cut Trash to the Least Ever (we will try to do even better in 2022) The plastics reduction bylaws went into effect May 12, 2017: Background and Useful Information Did you know? Each of us makes decisions every day that affect ourselves, others, and our surroundings. By being thoughtful we can reduce our impact on the planet, conserve resources, minimize waste, and climate change. There's a series of simple words that can help you in this: RETHINK - Your Choices REFUSE - Single Use REDUCE - Consumption REUSE – Everything REFILL – Your Containers REFURBISH - Old Stuff REPAIR - Before Replacing REPURPOSE - Be Creative! RECYCLE - Last Option REPEAT! The following links provide additional information: Composting in Lee: the latest information about a local facility and a pick-up serevice for residents and businesses. Lee residents may purchase compost bins and pails at a discount - THE BINS ARE LESS THAN HALF PRICE! Lee residents may dispose of compostable items 24/7 at Meadow Farm: Meadow Farm maintains a hopper to the left of its Meadow Street driveway (about 1.5 miles south of Big Y off Tyringham Road) where Lee residents can dispose of compostables at any time for free. Only natural, non-toxic materials are acceptable, ranging from all food waste (including meat or fish bones) and plain paper and cardboard (plates, napkins, boxes, etc.) to pet hair, certified biodegradable/compostable products, household yard waste, and much, much more. Please do not dispose of the materials in plastic bags, unless they are certified compostable. We greatly appreciate Meadow Farm's help in reducing the waste stream. Do you have questions about recycling? Here are some useful links from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (some items might vary by location): Can I recycle this in Massachusetts - MASS DEP Recyclopedia Beyond the Bin - How and Where to Recycle in Massachusetts Recycle Smart - a wealth of resources at your fingertips! Recycling Guides in multiple languages: Smart Recycling Guide (English) Guía de Reciclaje Inteligente Guia de Reciclagem Inteligente ??????? Hu?ng d?n tái ch? thông minh Guide de recyclage intelligent Gid pou Resiklay Entèlijan Tips for reusing/recycling during the Holidays - please follow this link. More tips and resources for recycling properly Inkject printer cartridges can be recycled and reused. Here's information on how to do it. This recently created list from a like-minded advocate in Sheffield, MASS has valuable information on hard-to-recycle items and much, much more - check it out.... Despite all the negative publicity over the past year, recycling still works, it's important, and worth the effort. Here's the story. You should NEVER put recyclables in plastic bags - print and post this as a reminder. You can recycle unused medications at the Lee Police Department. You can recycle cell phones and rechargable batteries weighing less than 11 pounds at the Tri-Town Health Department. Recycling 101: How & Why You Should Recycle This recycling guide covers 200 items - to be safe, check with your hauler or where you take your recyclables; recyclemoreplastic.org (Unfortunately Western MA doesn't have adequate recycling places...but some day). recyclesearch.com Here are some useful links for living greener and safer (while we hope the content is useful, we do not officially endorse the websites or any offerings they might have): Adobe created a sustainability guide for working from home. Get it here. Purdue University Global's "45 Sustainability Resources You Need to Know" highlights 45 noteworthy sources on sustainability and is organized by the following categories: Green Living, Climate Change & Environmental Protection News, Energy and Technology, Sustainability in Business and Government, Sustainability Careers, Sustainability, and the Arts, and Ecotourism. The pastics deluge and its devasting impact on the planet has created increased interest in how to cut back on non-essential plastics - here are some useful links: https://www.outsideonline.com/2391453/ways-to-use-less-plastic https://www.fastcompany.com/90312169/a-totally-achievable-relatively-pai... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/style/plastic-free-living.html From the Berkshire Eagle, in early January Ruth Bass offerred very practical tips for little things that can make a difference re climate change. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and Enervee have put together FREE resources on the SmarterHouse webiste to help people find high quality products that reduce their energy bills This link takes you a site where you can learn about composting inside; This website has a wealth of information on green living, green products, and more; and This link takes you a page where you can find answers to various enviornmental questions - and you can even ask you own. Those new - and different - produce and meat bags Big Y is using....CAN BE HOME COMPOSTED! If you don't have a compost bin, the DPW sells them. If you can't have a bin, you can take your compostables to Meadow Farm 24/7 (see separate write-up below). Our 6th Annual Roadside Cleanup a Success Thanks to Widespread Support More than 60 people young and old volunteered Saturday April 30th for the 6th Annual Lee Greener Gateway Cleanup. They removed 65 bags of trash, 45 bags of recyclables, an unbelievable 965 nip bottles, tires, and even golf clubs! The event ended with volunteers receiving a “thank you” bag. The Cleanup was registered with the Keep Massachusetts Beautiful organization’s annual Great Massachusetts Cleanup campaign. Cleanup organizer the Lee Greener Gateway Committee assigned small groups to 14 through roads around the town that typically have the most litter. Volunteers also cleaned up the Lee Athletic Field. We greatly appreciate all the cleanup volunteers, who included Select Board candidate Gordon Bailey and other individual residents, as well as students and advisors from the Lee Middle School Junior Honor Society, students and staff advisor from the College Internship Program, members of Kiwanis, employees from Canna Provisions and Oak ‘n Spruce; and Berkshire Environmental Action Team Executive Director Jane Winn. We are grateful to Klara’s Cookies, the Big Y, and Lisa Sloane for donations to the thank-you snacks, to Casella for providing a roll-off and large dumpster and processing what we collected, and the Chamber of Commerce and Lee Public Library for promotional help. To keep Lee’s roads cleaner year-round, the committee holds cleanups the last Saturday of each month from 9 to 11 am May through October and 1 to3 pm November through March. Information about the cleanups is posted beforehand on the Town’s website. To learn more about the Committee, visit www.lee.ma.us/recycling-greener-gateway-committee. It sure is about time we celebrated Earth Day's 50th Anniversay - join us Saturday afternoon September 17th (during Founders Weekend 2022) In late 2019 we started thinking about and planning a celebration in honor of Earth Day's 50th Anniversay. We even entered into a partnership with a national organization that was promoting - with an interactive map Earth Day activities. We had lined up speakers and representatives from more than a dozen local, regional, and state entities for several hours of activities, even including a community dinner. The rest is history...CIOVID struck. Our festivities were just one of many cancelled due to public health concerns. We regrouped, hoping to be able to celebrate during Founders Weekend in the fall. Alas, that, too, was cancelled. Adhering to President Calvin Collidge's persistence quote, we're at it again, planning an engaging and informative event we're holding the Saturday afternoon of Founders Weekend - September 18th. Our celebration will take place in the Town/Church Park or (if the weather is bad) in the Church's parlor, chapel, and community room. We're planning activities for all ages, will have two interesting speakers, and an even wider range of organizations. Activities for children, a tour of Lee's three "community" gardens, exhibits, and music, all capped off by boxed meals available for purchase from Church will help us celebrate. Come back to this space for more information.... Our continuing efforts to help KEEP LEE CLEAN Roadside litter is a problem throughout Lee. The litter detracts from one of the most popular recreational activities in town - walking along our roads. It can also adversely affect the environment - from soil quality to animal health. The litter also gives the impression that Lee residents and businesses don't care about our town, which just isn't true, but sometimes it looks like it. While probably a small minority of people litter, it affects the rest of us. WE NEED PEOPLE THROUGHOUT TOWN TO ACT IN ORDER TO KEEP LEE CLEAN! As part of our mission to help Lee be a Greener Gateway to the Bershires, we organize annual and monthly roadside cleanups (weather permitting). From July 2018 through June 2019 we've had more volunteers than ever before participate in our roadside cleanups, and received more local business support. Despite all the previous cleanups we've hosted, volunteers still collected close to 200 large bags of trash and recyclables - plus a wide range of odds and ends that never should be discarded along our roads. Due to COVID-19 we put our cleanups on hold for several months in 2020 and did limited cleanups after that until our annual cleanup in April 2021. Despite COVID, weather, and only one annual cleanup during the period, we managed to collect 350 large bags of trash and recyclables during 2020 and 2021. How you can help - get involved: Many of Lee's 55 miles of roadways have stretches with no houses - areas that are most frequently littered. We've cleaned up along the same roads month after month, but the litter keeps coming. Our small committee can't do it all. We need all the help we can get. Here's what you can do: don't litter speak up when we see other people littering pick up litter in your neighborhood participate in our annual and monthly cleanups If people throughout town get involved, we can truly KEEP LEE CLEAN! While our annual cleanups make a big difference, the ongoing litter problems make our monthly cleanups very important. We hold them the last Saturday of the month (weather permitting) - from 9 to 11 (May to October) and 1 to 3 (November to March). All year long the rain date is the next day (Sunday) from 1 to 3 pm. We hold our annual cleanup in late April or early May from 9 to 11 (look for posters, newspaper calendar listings, and this website). We meet at the Quonset Hut (in back of the DPW-Tri-Town Health Department Building across the parking lot from the Post Office) for all our cleanups. We have gloves (you can bring your own), safety vests, bags, and some pickup tools, but everyone should dress tick smart. If you're interested in helping, please contact Valerie Bluhm (valerie4748@gmail.com) or Peter Hofman (pdhofman12@gmail.com) - or just show up. Thanks! The litter problem is illustrated by how much a small group of people can pick up in a short period of time. Here are links to shots from recent monthly cleanups (in months that are missing weather prevented us from holding the cleanups): December 2021 - over several days; one 500-foot stretch of road illustrates our litter problem: 4 bags of trash and recyclables and 3 GALLONS of nip bottles!!! October 2021 - another good crew September 2021 - more typical cleanup crew - would you believe: 200 nip bottles!! August 2021 - partial - dedicated Committee member July 2021 - a large group and big haul June 2021 - matched the November haul (35 bags) March 2021 - bigger haul February 2021 - braving the cold again December 2020 - braving the cold November 2020 - big haul (35 bags) October 2020 - several roads September 2020 - key roads August 2020 - West Road July 2020 - Downtown, Fairview, Golden Hill, Stockbridge, and West Roads June and early July 2020 - Columbia, Fairview, Maple, and Stockbridge (portion) Roads February/early-mid March 2020 - Marble Street and West Road December 2019 - downtown, West Road, and Washington Mountain Road November 2019 - downtown, Maple Street, Columbia Road, and West Road and most of the crew (including new volunteers Tiffany, Debby, and Carter) October 2019 - downtown, Golden Hill Road, and Stockbridge Road September 2019 - downtown, West Road, and Stockbridge Road August 2019 - we had multiple cleanup efforts over two weekends thanks to members and volunteers - including visiting relatives - see some of them and the hauls here, here, here, and here July 2019 - piecemeal efforts on Columbia Road, Stockbridge and West Roads, and downtown June 2019 - Stockbridge Road (bad but less litter than normal) and downtown (more litter than normal) May 2019 regular monthly cleanup - thanks to Canna Provisions staff for collecting 7 bags of trash and recyclables in the vicinity of Housatonic Street May 2019 Lee High School Community Service Day Roadside Cleanup March 2019 regular monthly cleanup - downtown, Maple Street, and Stockbridge Road December 2018 regular monthly cleanup - one person covered part of Stockbridge Road November 2018 regular monthly cleanup - downtown, and Golden Hill and Stockbridge Roads Septemer 2018 regular monthly cleanup - downtown, Route 20, and West Road September 14 2018 Lee Middle and High School clean up just before Founders Weekend August 2018 regular monthly cleanup and special cleanups: to get ready for Founders Weekend July 2018 regular monthly cleanup: downtown, Route 20 (north of town), and West Road June 2018 regular monthly cleanup: downtown and Church, Fairview, and Maple Streets May 2018 regular monthly cleanup: downtown and Golden Hill Road and Fairview Street April 2018 3rd Annual Lee Greener Gateway Roadside Cleanup March 2018 regular monthly cleanup: downtown, West and Stockbridge Roads (short stretches) February 2018 regular monthly cleanup: Maple Street from Greylock to East Street (one person, two hours) January 2018 regular monthly cleanup: downtown (again) and a portion of Stockbridge Road November 2017 regular monthly cleanup: Columbia and Stockbridge Roads and downtown (again) October 2017 regular monthly cleanup: downtown as always plus Columbia and Stockbridge Roads (not all we collected is shown) September 2017 regular monthly cleanup: post-Founders Weekend - ongoing downtown cleanup plus Stockbridge Road August 2017 regular monthly cleanup: pre-Founders Weekend downtown cleanup We're greateful to everyone who participates in our cleanups and to all those who pick up litter on their own! You're all making Lee a greener gateway to the Berkshires...and a more attractive place to live and visit! Our butt collectors are helping to keep downtown cleaner We find cigarette butts along many roads in town, but downtown roads are the worst. To help reduce the number of butts that end up as litter, we've installed several butt collectors. So far we've collected more than 1,000 cigarette butts, which we're going to recycle. Learn more about them HERE. Please share this information with anyone you know who smokes. A look back to 2019: Lee’s Founders Weekend: Collaboration Helped Cut Trash to the Least Ever (we plan to do even better this year) Lee was even cleaner this year during this year’s Founders Weekend, as we approached our zero-waste goal. The big news was the drastic reduction in trash – to the least ever during Friday night’s Taste of Lee, a fraction of what we collected for recycling and composting, and the least amount produced for the entire weekend. We collected 650-800 pounds of compostables and kept the amount of trash in the permanent bins along Main Street to a minimum. Our success stemmed from the cooperation of most food vendors, the efforts of our many volunteers, and the key role played by other local supporters. We’re extremely grateful to everyone who contributed to this year’s effort. The Lee Chamber of Commerce and the Tri-Town Health Department again spread the word about the waste-reduction effort. Committee members also contacted food vendors in advance. Key to our success were Meadow Farm for providing a roll-off and handling at no charge the compostable items we collected, and Daley & Sons, which provided bins for 12 stations plus a roll-off and did an extra pick up Saturday morning – also at no charge. Committee members and volunteers staffed recycling-composting-trash stations during Friday’s Taste of Lee and Saturday’s events in the Park and the Lee Athletic Field. In the process they educated people about what items can be recycled and composted. Members also monitored public trash bins. A key goal for Founders Weekend is to accommodate thousands of people downtown while keeping the streets and sidewalks clean. In addition to the stations we set up and staffed, Committee members picked up litter downtown in advance, and Lee’s Department of Public Works staff cleaned up during the weekend. These efforts worked. We can’t thank our volunteers enough. They were Lee residents Sal Angelo, Linda and David Buttery, Dale Drimmer, Ginny Willcox, and Bruce Zarnoch; Mary Stucklen, from the Berkshire Environmental Action Team; Center for EcoTechnology Fellows Valeria Bridgewater, Meghan Klinker, and Belen Rodriguez; Housatonic Valley Association staff member Alison Dixon; and Stephanie Blumenthal from Sheffield Saves. In addition, local businesses sent staff: Theodore Toothaker and David Graves from Northeast Paving; and Laurel Almgren, Justen Bartlett, Sadie Brighenti, Lorianna Eling, Jonathan Herbert, Kari-Jean Olson, and Jake Stricof from Canna Provisions worked double shifts during the Taste of Lee – a huge contribution to our efforts. We’ve already identified ways we can come closer to our zero-waste goal next year. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to promote waste reduction, composting, and recycling throughout the year, as well as sponsor our monthly and annual cleanups. To volunteer or get more information about our activities, please contact me at pdhofman12@gmail.com. We again sincerely thank everyone who contributed to this year’s success. The Plastic Bag and Polystyrene Bylaws Went into Effect May 12, 2017 The bylaws regulate the use of thin-film plastic shopping bags and polystyrene drink and food containers. The Committee, along with the Tri-Town Health Department and others, will continue to support a smooth transition and will maintain on this site a wealth of resources for residents, visitors, and establishments. The bylaws minimize impacts on citizens when shopping or getting drinks or food outside the home. Shoppers will be able to use whatever bags and containers you want, but will no longer receive free thin-film plastic bags or food or drinks in polystyrene containers. Some people reuse plastic shopping bags, so we've drafted a list of options to meet these varied needs and welcome other ideas we can add to the list. The compostable produce bags provided by Big Y can be backyard composted. Other compostable bags may be taken (along with other compostables) to the hopper at Meadow Farm (see write-up below). The bylaws require establishments not to use the regulated products. Many alternatives exist. To aid in the process we've developed some tips for establishments. Another section of the website contains a wide range of information, including the following: The Bylaws: We posted a guide to the bylaws as well as a PowerPoint slide show - for consumers and establishments, a separate guide just for consumers, links to the full text, and Frequently Asked Questions. List of Alternatives: As required in the bylaws, the Lee Board of Health approved a list of alternatives. Links to the full list and a summary appear in that section. Reusable Shopping Bags: One of the goals of the bag bylaws is to encourage the use of reusable bags,rather than having people switch to paper bags. Our Committee have used a portion of its budget and obtained two grants - one from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the other from the New England Grass Roots Environment Fund - to purchase almost all-natural cotton reusable bags. We provided more than 400 bags to four local organizations - the Lee Food Pantry, the Lee Council on Aging, the Literacy Network, and the Berkshire Immigrant Center - to distribute for free to their clients who can least afford to purchase bags (half the bags were donated by Blue Q in Pittsfield). We are selling the bags for $4 (below cost) at special events and through downtown merchants, including Carr Hardware, Lee Hardware, and Paperdilly. The bags are also available at the Chamber of Commerce Information Booth (at the corder of the Church park). Other merchants who are interested in selling the bags should contact Committee Chair Peter Hofman. Each bag comes with an insert with tips on how to use the bag safely and to ensure it lasts for a long time. The insert is also available to entities in Lee that sell or give away reusable bags. If you have any questions, please contact Committee Chair, Peter Hofman (pdhofman12@gmail.com; 603.767.4250) or Jim Wilusz, Executive Director of the Tri-Town Health Department (jim@tritownhealth.org; 413.243.5540). COMMITTEE MEMBERS Name Title Valerie Bluhm Vice-Chair Peter Hofman Chair Monica Ryan Member Emeritus Joan Angelo Ann Sterlin Patricia Johnston Katherine Miller Linda Giancola Member Emeritus Ron Giancola Member Emeritus