When: Saturday, April 19
Who: You and your family and friends
Where: Pick any road you like in Charlestown to pick up roadside litter
What: The town is providing the blue bags starting April 11, and the transfer station and fire stations will accept them without charge on April 19 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
When: Saturday, December 7, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Where: Charlestown Mini Super, 4071 Old Post Road, Charlestown
Why: Indie Cycle is offering this great opportunity to dispose of your unwanted electronics that can be either recycled, reused or refurbished.
When: Saturday, October 19, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Charlestown Town Beach
Help keep Charlestown Town Beach clean! Shoreline trash is ugly and dangerous to wildlife, and shoreline cleanups are a great way for volunteers to make a difference.
Why: Household hazardous waste must not be placed in regular garbage!
When: Saturday, September 21, 2024 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Where: Richmond DPW – 51 Buttonwoods Rd., Richmond
Appointments are required for this event – link to register in post.
If passed, the bottle bill, H8312, would place a 10-cent refundable deposit on many beverage containers, not including milk, baby formula, or nutritional supplements. The bill would apply to bottles sized from 1.7-ounce (50-millimeter) nips to up to 3-liter bottles. If passed, the law would go into effect July 1, 2026.
Despite the rain, Charlestown’s April 20 Litter Pick-Up Day had a solid turn out of dedicated volunteers, and a respectable 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 made the event possible.
When: Monday, April 1 at 3 p.m.
Where: Room 313 – State House
Why: Let the legislature know you support a Bottle Bill that can make our roads cleaner and safer, reduce litter and marine debris, increase recycling rates, protect our environment and natural resources, and save taxpayers money.
Have you made a resolution to de-clutter your home? Do you have something that you want to get rid of, but can’t bear to send to the landfill, or maybe it isn’t quite valuable enough to deal with the hassle of trying to sell it? Well there’s a Facebook group to answer all these questions and it turns out it does more than just remove clutter, it also helps to build community by creating a “gift economy.”
When: Sunday, September 17 at 9 a.m.
Where: East Beach (drive to the end of East Beach Road, bare to the left of Blue Shutters Beach, go straight on the dirt road and the parking lot will be on the left)
Who: Salt Ponds Coalition and ORCA
Register: Registration information in post
Join Salt Ponds Coalition and their partner, ORCA, to clean up East Beach. Our beaches have seen a lot of visitors this year, and might need a little post-Labor Day TLC!
Once again, the General Assembly sidelined bills that, in other states, have shown a proven and powerful impact on reducing litter and increasing recycling rates for materials, such as plastic, that could be repurposed to make new commodities. At the Rhode Island Statehouse, the loudest speakers against bottle bills include people representing liquor, grocery, and convenience stores.
The Beverage Container Deposit Recycling Act of 2023 has been introduced in the General Assembly. Clean Water Action has provided a form to allow you to contact your state legislators and ask them to support it. Known as the “bottle bill,” this legislation will fight plastic pollution and increase our state’s recycling rate by creating a financial incentive for residents to properly return empty beverage containers.
Do you do a daily or occasional pick-up of roadside litter? Nips, which make up a lot of the litter on some roadsides, are mostly not recyclable, but now they have a use! They can be used to persuade the legislature to support legislation to reduce single use plastics, which will help to reduce litter and pollution in our area.
When: Saturday, October 15
Who: You and your family and friends
Where: Pick any road you like in Charlestown to pick up roadside litter
What: The town is providing the bags and the transfer station and fire stations will accept them without charge on October 15 from 8 AM to 4 PM
Charlestown will again conduct a roadside cleanup on Saturday, April 23. Every piece of litter is potentially a danger to wildlife. Every piece of litter is an eyesore. Every piece of litter says something about the careless habits of some drivers in Charlestown — and neighboring towns.
When: Thursday, January 27, 2022 at the Rise of the House (approximately 5 p.m.)
Where: The meeting will be televised on Capitol Television, which can be seen on Cox Channels 15 and 61, in high definition on Cox Channel 1061, on Full Channel on Channel 15 and on Channel 34 by Verizon subscribers. It will also be live streamed at http://rilegislature.gov/CapTV/Pages/default.aspx
How to participate: Written testimony is strongly encouraged and may be submitted as described in the post.
On April 17, the day we set aside for the recent litter pick-up in Charlestown, Jeanne Silva, one of the dedicated volunteers working to clear the roadside on Old Mill Road, came upon this pitiful snake, trapped in plastic mesh that someone had dumped at the side of the road.
Charlestown’s 2021 Litter Pick-Up Day had a great turn out and a staggering amount of roadside litter was picked up. Bravo to everyone who pitched in and also to those who tooted their horns and gave thumbs up to the volunteers, giving everyone energy! Statistics about Litter Pick-Up Day in the post.
If you have ever asked yourself what one person can do to benefit their community, there are many examples of people who stand out. People who see a need and pursue a workable solution are all around us. In Charlestown, I can offer one example of an ordinary citizen who saw a problem, persevered, and is currently working to solve a town wide problem.
Let the legislature know you support House bills 5113 and 5280. These “Bottle Bills” can make our roads cleaner and safer, reduce litter and marine debris, increase recycling rates, protect our environment and natural resources, and save taxpayers money.
Beverage container deposit laws, or “bottle bills”, are designed to reduce litter and capture bottles, cans, and other containers for recycling. We reported on the bill introduced to require a deposit on “nips” in an earlier post. There are two new bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, both of which require deposits on all single-use beverage containers.
Rhode Island Representative David A. Bennett, who represents Warwick, has introduced legislation to require that every miniature alcoholic beverage container, which is known as a “nip”, that is sold in Rhode Island shall have a refund value of not less than fifty cents. The legislation was introduced on January 25 and referred to the House Finance Committee.
This excellent essay is worth a read! “When you walk the roads of rural Southern Rhode Island, you are never far from the drinking habits of its residents. On a raw but sunny afternoon, we set off from the homestead armed with a garbage bag and a grabbing tool. It wasn’t much of a walk because we had to stop every few steps while one of us (me) operated the pincers and the other (my husband) held open the garbage bag…”
There are many of you who already pick up roadside litter as you take an afternoon walk or you may continuously clean the litter tossed in front of your property. Community litter pick up days are a chance to get more people involved and raise awareness about this issue, but is there more we could do?