environment

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Malden River Loves its Scrubs!

Thank you to Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University Rowing and Swim&Dive Teams, Gentle Giant Rowing Club, Gentle Giant Moving Company, and the Friends of Malden River for dedicating a day of Community Service to the Malden River.

https://mysticriver.org/news/2024/5/6/3rd-annual-malden-river-cleanup

What do you get when you add 70 people to the Malden River with one task?

An even score of seventy bags of trash, barnacle-covered bicycle, car seat springs, multitudes of miscellaneous car parts and unidentified objects, 2 tractor tires and 5 automobile tires, shopping carts, furniture, lots of balls, a drone video, a poem, and 3 coconuts.

And smiles of camaraderie and occasional looks of dismay as the bags and piles accumulate.

On April 7th, Tisch College of Civic Life brought Tufts University athletes of the Rowing, Swim and Dive Teams to join the Friends of the Malden River for a third annual Malden River Cleanup at River’s Edge.  This year, Gentle Giant Rowing Club and Gentle Giant Moving Company joined the collaborative effort. All combined, there were over 70 people scouring the banks and waters of the Malden River.

Malden High School Eco-Club

Seventy stuffed garbage bags were full of everyday consumer trash: styrofoam, snack wrappers, plastic bags, and plastic bottles.  Where does this trash come from? Mostly, it is from street litter that has been swept through the storm water drain system.  The items such as tires, car parts, shopping carts are dumped purposely into our rivers. 

A member of the Woman’s Tufts Rowing Team observed, “There was an enormous amount of bottle caps.”

Frank Roche, Tufts University Civic Life Coordinator of Athletics

Frank Roche, Civic Life Coordinator of Athletics, commented, “Tufts athletes are involved in a number of community initiatives, but the Malden River Cleanup is especially important given that our rowing athletes train and compete on it almost every day. As we literally get into the weeds, it’s amazing the amount of trash that is hidden around the riverbank and I think our athletes feel a sense of responsibility to leaving the area better than they found it.”

“I don’t know why, but this is sorta fun.” said one Tufts University student athlete.

Trash taken from the Malden Section of Malden River by the Gentle Giant crews

Photos from the April 7th cleanup. The 10 clear bags are full of single-use plastic bottles separated from 28 bags of trash – 1571 single-use plastic bottles in one portion of the clean-up!

What Do We Need Now?  An updated and modern bottle bill that will increase the redemption value to a dime and include most single-use bottles!

What Can You Do to Help the Bottle Bill?

  • Find pictures of littered bottles and cans from previous clean ups or keep an eye out for photo opportunities in the coming weeks
  • Do you have a Twitter/X account? Post (see guidelines below) and send a message to YOUR own Representative and Senator (look them up here) – be sure to tag @StoryofStuff & @JustZeroOrg
    • Your post should have the following:

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Plastic Free Massachusetts – Call/Meet with your MA legislator to support and endorse the Modernize the Bottle Bill – Please less Plastic in our waste stream and waterways!

Join Plastic Free Mass for Bottle Bill Lobby Day – Tomorrow 10 AM, April 2nd

  1. Please call your two legislators and set up meetings with them at the State House on April 2nd. Even if you do not have a meeting set up, please attend! We will be dropping literature off at legislators’ offices, and we need your help!
  2. Please be at the Grand Staircase at 10 AM on April 2nd in a royal blue shirt for a group picture and to collect printed materials.
  3. Please ask your legislators to support the modernized Bottle Bill and for them to ask leadership to support the bill (learn more at the trainings).

Need more info? Please join us today for Lobby Training

  1. Meeting with legislators can be intimidating. Please join us for one of the lobby training/ Q& A session TODAY April Fool’s Day.

                                          i.    One at 4PM EST Click here to join the meeting

                                         ii.    A second at 7 PM EST Click here to join the meeting

Why we want to modernize Massachusetts’ Bottle Bill:

Right now, beer and soda are the only beverages included in Massachusetts’ deposit return system. But we can do much better.

We want almost all glass, plastic, and aluminum beverage containers, from nips to 3 liters, to be part of the Bottle Bill. We want the deposit to go up from 5 cents to 10 cents, and if return levels aren’t high enough in the future, it should go up again. We want the system to be convenient, so we need to be able to bring beverage containers to any store that sells bottled and canned drinks. Finally, we want to get rid of plastic, which means transitioning from single use plastic bottles to reusable glass bottles and a regional beverage refill system.

A coalition of Mass environmental groups – Plastic Free Mass – is working to get the Bottle Bill across the finish line. We’ve adopted a list of essential principles for a modern Bottle Bill that we’d support, here.

Why do we want these things?

  1. We are tired of paying for the disposal and curbside recycling of beverage containers. The producers should be required to pay a handling fee that pays for bottles and cans to be recycled and refilled.
  2. We are tired of picking up litter and paying taxes for our cities and towns to pick up litter. Modernizing the Bottle Bill would significantly reduce the amount of beverage container and non-beverage container litter in the Commonwealth.
  3. Modernizing the Bottle Bill would help fight climate change. Modernizing the Bottle Bill would reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent of taking 39,800 cars off the road for a year, or powering over 40,300 Massachusetts households for a year – and it won’t cost taxpayers a cent!
  4. Modernizing the Bottle Bill would mean that glass and plastic bottles would actually be recycled. Right now, glass bottles are ground up and used to build roads and landfill cover and plastic bottles are downcycled into textiles, not made into bottles.
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Monthly Meeting – March 11th 6:30-8:00 PM via Zoom – Join us!

Be sure to mark your calendars with the Event Dates mentioned below

Join the Friends of the Malden River Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84806972372?pwd=SDk5ZUgrbWZaY1paL1R2VlVReTZRQT09

Meeting ID: 848 0697 2372
Passcode: 621361

One tap mobile
+16469313860,,84806972372#,,,,*621361# US
+19294362866,,84806972372#,,,,*621361# US (New York)

Meeting ID: 848 0697 2372
Passcode: 621361

Agenda: 

Senior Attorney Maggie Sullivan of  Conservation Law Foundation will join us for the 3/11th Meeting.   Maggie Sullivan, “senior community resilience attorney who promotes meaningful public access and climate resilience on the Massachusetts waterfront”, will be speaking about our Mass General Law, Massachusetts Public Waterfront Act, Chapter 91 that provides public access to Massachusetts tidal and once tidal waters (Malden River was tidal before the Amelia Earhart Dam was built in 1966).

Bring your questions and ideas of how we can mobilize Malden River public access and improve our Malden River Walk using the Chapter 91 Law! 

Plastic Free Massachusetts has two Calls to Action to Modernize our Bottle Bill   Stay tuned for more details.

March 13th – Call your legislators  (you can write to them using this link)

Plastic Free MA will provide a script for the legislator phone calls and meetings.

April 2nd – Massachusetts State House Lobby Day

Adopt A Storm Drain is coming to the City of Malden!  From the front of their front yards, Malden Residents will actively keep our Malden River clean and help prevent flooding by signing up with Adopt a Drain!  You can Name Your Drain and interact with a website!

Bring your ideas and concerns to our ongoing meetings, the second Monday of each month (excluding legal holidays) at 6:30-8:00.  We meet via Zoom or in person at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Malden, River’s Edge in Medford, and in Everett.

SAVE THESE DATES (Details and Times to be determined/confirmed): 

At the meeting, we will discuss the available details.  For now, please mark your calendars! 

Please email FriendsoftheMaldenRiver@gmail.com to join the fun, if you can’t make the meeting. Check the web pages for incoming details: https://maldenriver.wordpress.com/ and https://www.maldenriverworks.org/

Malden River Cleanups:

Sunday, April 7th – River’s Edge, Medford at the Tufts U. Boathouse with Tisch College of Civic Life  and Gentle Giant Rowing Club

Sunday, May 12th9:30 AM – Idle Hands Craft Ales – our second Mother’s Earth Day neighborhood and River Cleanup

Events:

April 13th – Learn about Rain Gardens! Replant the Beebe School Rain Garden with the Malden Community Gardeners

April 13th (rain date: April 14th) 10:00 AM Walk the Malden River Greenway with the Sierra Club and our community

April 20th – Everett Earth Day at Gateway Park in Everett

April 28th – Noon – 3:00 PM Malden Earth Day Fair at Pine Banks Park

May 19th (9:00 AM – onwards) – Mystic River Watershed Association’s 28th Herring Run at Blessing of the Bay 

Register Now to reserve your place on land or in the water!

JUNE 1st – 2nd – Brass Band on the Malden River with 375 year celebration of Malden and Malden River Works – There will be celebrations at the Malden River Works Waterfront Park site 

JUNE 2nd – Malden River Works Stewardship by Boat and Canoe event

June 15th – The Friends will Celebrate Family Day at Malden Community Garden

Date TBD:  Explore the Malden River with the Chinese Cultural Connection

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Looking forward to seeing you on January 22nd (2024)!

For TWO Good Reasons:

Plastic Free Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Legislative Zero Waste Caucus is sponsoring an event at the Massachusetts State House.

  • Attend the January 22nd event at the State House if you can!  We need to fill the room to show our support to MA Legislators.
  • The Zero Waste Caucus and Plastic Free Mass coalition are hosting an 11AM Expert Panel Discussion followed by 12 Noon complimentary lunch and film screening of “We’re All Plastic People Now” by Emmy-award winning filmmaker Rory Fielding.  Watch the trailer > here. 
  • Contact your Legislators ahead of January 22nd:
    • Email your legislators to let them know you will be at the State House on Jan 22nd and encourage them to show up (i.e: “I hope to see you there!”) and that tackling the issue of plastic pollution is important to you.   Find your MA Legislators here.
    • Set up a face-to-face lobby meeting with your legislators early AM or after the film on January 22 to discuss priority legislation (fact sheets will be provided)
  • Spread the news!  Please share on social, email friends and family, we need to fill the room!
  • RSVP requested so we have an accurate head count for the complimentary lunch.  RSVP: https://act.oceana.org/page/141684/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=field

GOAL: let legislators know that we EXPECT them to modernize the Bottle Bill, ban plastic grocery bags, and take meaningful action on reducing single use plastic THIS YEAR! 

Plus: The Friends of the Malden River are celebrating the results of the Wicked Cool Mystic community survey with Mystic River Watershed Association! Find out of ways we can stay cool during the upcoming heat waves. Come join the discussion while enjoying a Taco Bar!