Earth Day Clean Up

By Peter Pan

If the weather is permitting, officials expect to see a record turnout for the 8th Annual Earth Day Clean Up, scheduled for April 5th, at the Narragansett Town Beach.  This year’s clean up is sorely needed, as quite a bit of debris and garbage has collected in many of the area’s beaches and surf spots over this past winter.            One of the places hit with the most ocean trash, is the K-39 and Breakwater Village reef area.  Volunteers will have their hands full with an array of broken lobster pots, foam and plastic bottles, broken glass, rope and fishing lines that stretch across the K-39 reefs into the jetty at Captain Wheeler State Beach.

Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation is planning on setting up its’ collection sites at the town beach on April 5th.  In the north parking lot, there will be two collection areas, one for hazardous household wastes and one for computer and electronic trash.  Area residents with any type of these waste products can bring them to the north lot, for disposal at no charge.

This is the 6th year that RIRRC has set up collection sites for the computer and hazardous waste trash.  Since it’s inception, the trash has been piling up in record amounts.  While the first clean up netted 5,720 pounds of beach trash, recent trash collections have netted over 16,000 pounds in one day.  The first E-trash take was 18,000 pounds.  Up to 37,000 pounds have been collected in one day, over the past 5 years.

All and all, organizers have estimated that over 4 million pounds of hazardous household waste, and 300,000 pounds of trash have been collected since the clean-up campaign began in 2001. Included in this trash are an incredible 5900 pounds of Mercury and 60,000 propane tanks.   These numbers will surely increase, as the town beach clean-up, toxic waste and e-trash collections become more popular with the public.  Last year’s Earth Day clean-up was a huge success, with an electronic trash collection of 15,800 pounds and hazardous household waste of 58,000 pounds.

According to RIRRC officials, the Narragansett Town Beach collection is the largest and most successful in the state.  And it all came about at a meeting with the Department of Environmental Management, in early 2001.  The original brainchild of the Eastern Surfing Association, the clean-up and collections have become a marquee event in exposing the public to recycling and trash management.

Volunteers are needed for the beach clean-up, which will take place at all the surrounding surfing and beach sites in South County.  Interested participants are asked to check in at the Surfrider Foundation tent, which will be located in the south parking lot of the Narragansett Town Beach.  Both Surfrider Foundation and Eastern Surfing Association organizers will be at the tent, directing volunteers to the various sites that need attention.  The clean-up activities will take place from 9 AM to 1 PM.  With weather permitting, the ESA van will be on site with free surfboards for volunteer use.  There will also be a cookout for all participants, following the clean-up.

Both the hazardous waste drop off site and the E-Trash site will operate from 8 AM to 1 PM.  RIRRC workers will accept any hazardous household wastes, including toxic paints and chemicals at the Eco Depot.  The E-Trash trailer will accept computers, CPU’s, monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mouse devices, laptops and cell phones.  No TV’s will be accepted.

For more information on the clean-up, recycling pickups, contact the RIRRC wetsite at www.rirrc.org , www.risurfrider.org, or www.surfesa.org.  You can call the RIRRC office direct if you aren’t sure about disposing an item, at 401-942-1430.   Local residents should also be aware that all individual trash haulers are now offering recycling bins for no extra charge.  Narragansett residents are urged to take advantage of this offer.

Sponsors for this April clean-up and trash pickup include the following organizations: the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, the Eastern Surfing Association, the Town of Narragansett Parks and Recreation Department, Surfrider Foundation, the Narragansett Rubbish Removal Corporation, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association.