The Westfield Earth Day Committee would like to thank all the volunteers for their help and participation in this year’s very successful Earth Day clean up. On Saturday, April 23, 2016, Mayor Brian Sullivan, city employees and approximately 100 volunteers from various associations gathered at the Masonic Lodge in Westfield to celebrate Earth Day by conducting a city wide trash clean up. Volunteers included people from Gulfstream, Girl Scouts, Rainbow Girls, Westfield High School Conservation Group, Westfield State University Circle K Group, the Westfield Spanish American Association, and numerous families and individuals. This dedicated group removed 250 bags of trash, 26 tires, 12 televisions (3 were dumped in a river), 3 couches, 3 mattresses, building materials and 7 hypodermic needles.
We also rely on donations from local businesses each year. The Masonic Lodge, Walmart, Diana’s Bakery and Mestek have supported our efforts in the donation of time, food, trash bags and supplies for our volunteers for the last 4 years of the Earth Day Clean Up. We send a hearty thank you to these businesses that, without their help, we could not have had such successful year.
The efforts of the volunteers and all those who supported them are much farther reaching than the city limits of Westfield. There is a place in the North Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The patch has exceptionally high concentrations of plastics, chemical sludge and debris that migrate off land and get trapped by the oceanic currents. The “patch” is roughly twice the size of Texas. According to a 2011 EPA report, “The primary source of marine debris is the improper waste disposal or management of trash and manufacturing products, including plastics (e.g., littering, illegal dumping).” We know this trash comes from all of us. Using our oceans as a dumping ground will ultimately affect not only the health of the Earth but the health and welfare of our society. And sadly, we are now seeing other oceanic garbage patches spring up across the globe.
One way to combat this problem is to prevent ambient trash from migrating from its source into our rivers and oceans. Let’s face it, Earth belongs to every single one of us. And it is the job of every single one of us to protect it and keep it healthy. From all of us in the committee, thank you to everyone who participated and made it another great year!
Karen Leigh, Conservation Commission Coordinator
