Litter Pick-Up Day – How To Measure Success?

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Charlestown’s 2021 Litter Pick-Up Day had a great turn out, and a staggering amount of roadside litter was picked up. If we are measuring volunteerism, love of community, hard work and just plain responsible citizenship, then it was a huge success! Bravo to everyone who pitched in and also to those who tooted their horns and gave thumbs up to the volunteers, giving everyone energy! But the volume and type of litter collected also tells another story – one of excessive drinking and driving, irresponsibility, and a brazen lack of respect for the environment. One of the saddest and kindest stories of the day was about a snake – a Black Racer found trapped by the road in plastic mesh. One of the volunteers ran home for a pair of scissors and released the snake. That snake got lucky, but how many other poor creatures get caught in containers or eat cigarette buts and plastic waste.

Everyone picking up trash was laughing and making their task fun, but most ended their day feeling little tolerance for the litterbugs. Whoever you are who throws trash along the road and into the woods, we want you to stop!

A special thank you to Compass Hardware, at 8 Ridgewood Road in Charlestown, who gave up time and space in their store to hand out blue bags to the volunteers and promoted the event.

  • Thanks to our volunteer fire departments who accepted litter-filled blue bags for drop off.
  • Thanks to Jim Steadman and the great staff at the transfer station for their efforts and amazing patience.
  • Thanks to Alan Arsenault and the Charlestown Department of Public Works for dedicating staff time and helping with much of the process.
  • Thanks to Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz for agreeing to town sponsorship of the event.
  • Thanks to Warren Schwartz who proposed this event in 2018 and has made it a reality since 2019.
  • And Thank You – every single one of you who volunteered!

Litter Pick-Up Day By The Numbers

Number of people involved: Hard to know exactly, but it was a lot! Our Facebook event had 113 people saying they were going or probably going and lots of the volunteers aren’t on Facebook. Driving around Charlestown on Saturday afternoon, many of the roads looked absolutely pristine so there were many volunteers.

Pounds of roadside litter turned into the Charlestown Residential Collection Center (also known as CRCC, the transfer station, the dump):

  • 640 pounds of non-recyclable roadside litter were dropped off on Saturday
  • 820 pounds of non-recyclable roadside litter were dropped off on Monday
  • 225 pounds of recyclables are known to have been turned in with the litter, but a lot were dropped into the recycle bin without getting measured
  • 25 pounds of tires
  • An unknown number of pounds of litter were brought home by residents to be added to their home garbage and recycle to be taken away by a private hauler.
  • Total is much more than 1,710 pounds of roadside litter removed by volunteers

Click on any photo below to open a slideshow of photos from Litter Pick-Up Day.

If you have pictures of the event that you would like to share, we will publish them here and on Facebook. Send your photos to charlestowncitizens@gmail.com.


Banner image, from the left, is Warren Schwartz, Ron Areglado, Michael Chambers and Jim Steadman accepting the roadside pickup bags to weigh at the Charlestown transfer station.