The Westfield Earth Day Committee would like to thank all the people and organizations for their help and participation in the 6th very successful Earth Day clean-up. On Saturday, April 21, 2018, approximately 150 volunteers 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, Stop & Shop, Tighe & Bond, Gulfstream, Western New England College, The Westfield River Watershed Association, Westfield Chamber of Commerce, Circle K Club of Westfield State University, JDog Junk Removal, Home Depot, many members of the Westfield Full Gospel Church, along with numerous students and residents. This dedicated group spent half a Saturday removing over 350 bags of trash, numerous tires, mattresses, couches, furniture, construction debris and car parts from areas around the city, including roads, wetlands and the aquifer protection district.
A special thank you to the members of the Mount Moriah Lodge for hosting the event again! The Masons have hosted the event since its beginning 6 years ago. They graciously provide all the cooking and presentation of breakfast and lunch for the volunteers. Thank you guys!
The success of the volunteers and all those who support 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 and up to 9 feet deep. 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. It’s estimated that 80% of the trash originates from land; floating in rivers to the ocean or blown in by ocean winds. The remaining 20% (much of it old fishing nets) comes from oil platforms and ships.
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. Scientific research shows that some areas have more plastic than plankton (the basis of the oceanic food chains) and that 5 to 10% of the fish contain small pieces of plastic. And sadly, we have other oceanic garbage patches springing 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. Our volunteers work hard every year to do just that.
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!
Please join us next year in April on Earth Day for another city-wide clean-up.
Thank you.
Karen Leigh, Conservation Commission Coordinator
