The Westfield Earth Day Committee would like to thank all the people and organizations for their help and participation in this year’s very successful Earth Day clean up. On Saturday, April 22, 2017, Mayor Sullivan, city employees and approximately 130 volunteers from various associations gathered at the Masonic Lodge in Westfield to celebrate Earth Day by conducting a city-wide trash clean-up. Volunteers and sponsors included people from Girl Scouts, New England Disposal Technologies, Inc., Walmart, Stop & Shop, Woodard & Curran, Tighe & Bond, Virgilio Construction, Western Mass Demolition Corp, The Westfield River Watershed Association, Circle K Club of Westfield State University, many members of the Westfield Full Gospel Church, along with numerous groups and individuals. This dedicated group removed over 350 bags of trash, 30 tires, numerous mattresses, couches, and furniture, and many piles of construction debris from areas around the city, including the aquifer protection district.
The success of the volunteers and all those who supported them is much farther reaching than the city limits of Westfield. There is a place very far from Westfield 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 currents of the ocean. 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.
As this trash comes from all of us, it’s up to all of us to clean it up. One way to combat this problem is to prevent trash from migrating from its source here in Westfield to our rivers and oceans. You don’t have to wait for an Earth Day event to clean-up trash. It’s easy and quick to pick up trash around your neighborhood or in front of your work place. Just think, every piece of trash you pick up will not make it to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch! And please join us next year on Earth Day for another city-wide clean-up.
Thank you. Karen Leigh, Conservation Commission Coordinator
