Area towns strive to 'Green Up' state

Author: Kelly Janis

"It was a little disappointing to see all the trash that had accumulated - wine bottles, cigarette boxes, coffee cups, tires and old plastic bags," said Hannah Panci '08 of her Saturday afternoon trek along the Trail Around Middlebury, as part of Vermont's 37th annual Green Up Day.

In the style of other individuals and organizations statewide, Panci joined the Middlebury Area Land Trust (MALT) for an early morning tidying of several well-traveled trailheads. "MALT organizes a trailhead cleanup every year for Green Up Day, to keep the trailheads and the Trail Around Middlebury in good condition and to make it more enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing for the community," Panci said. "We don't want to see garbage when we go for a hike in the woods."

According to the Montpelier-based nonprofit organization which presides over the event, "Green Up's mission is to promote the stewardship of our state's natural landscape and waterways, and the livability of our communities, by involving people in Green Up Day and raising public awareness about the benefits of a litter-free environment." Since 1970, thousands of Vermonters have gathered on the first Saturday of each May to clean up litter on roadsides, highways and public parks, determined to fulfill this mission.

In keeping with tradition, numerous towns in the region organized efforts in conjunction with this year's event.

Vanessa Wolff, coordinator of Green Up Day in Cornwall, was impressed by her town's enthusiastic response. "I'll put it this way," she said. "I put one hundred bags at the school, and one hundred bags at Town Hall, and they were all gone."

As she expected, the bags came hurrying back, brimming with trash. "We had a truckload full of the green garbage bags by probably 12:30 p.m. or so," Wolff said. "We had another truck specifically for tires and metal. That one wasn't nearly as full, but it was still great to have one full of garbage."

In Cornwall, the practice of "greening up" does not restrict itself to a single square on the calendar. "A number of people 'greened up' early," Wolff said. "I personally have some neighbors who 'green up' all the time. They go for walks and pick up beer cans and beer bottles and place them in newspaper boxes, so they don't have to carry the bags around. All of the neighbors know that they do this."

Wolff rallied youngsters to the cause by handing out trash bags at Cornwall's elementary school and encouraging students to fill them. "We're reaching out to young people and hopefully getting rid of the litter bugs," Wolff said.

The same sentiment pervaded in Ripton, where co-coordinator Warren King kicked off the day with a presentation on environmental consciousness at a local elementary school. Afterwards, students "greened up" a stretch of road between the school and the Ripton Store, which is often marred by objects hurled out the windows of passing cars. "That's a big contribution," King said. "It begins with the younger generations."

Though King realizes his zeal for the event may not be shared by everyone in his midst, he takes this fact in stride. "Some people care about these things. Others don't," he said. "Those who do care support those who don't."

As a 10 year veteran of Green Up Day, Starr Phillips of Addison is convinced that the balance is shifting in favor of those who do, in fact, care.

"I live on a backcountry dirt road and I didn't find nearly as many soda bottles or beer cans or chewing tobacco as I have in the past," Phillips said. "I only found three or four coffee cups, whereas in years past it would be nothing to find 10, 12, 15 cups that had just been tossed in the road."

Why the change? "I would like to think that people are becoming more aware and self-conscious about the fact that stuff is either being thrown out of their window or blowing out of the back of their pick-up truck," Phillips said.

Phillips believes that this increased awareness will foster eco-friendly behaviors year-round. "My hope is that Green Up Day will get easier and easier each year," she said.