To the editor:
September 20 through 22, Lee once again celebrated Founders Weekend, with perfect weather, big home-town crowds, guests, good food, music, a joyful parade, fireworks, children’s activities, and more.
Greener Gateway Committee members’ and volunteers’ efforts enabled us to divert 90 percent of the waste generated during the weekend to recycling and composting, the best results ever. This year the committee provided more support at our ”sorting waste station,” in addition to our signs encouraging people to sort their waste items themselves and helping them learn how to act as Stewards of the Earth.
We are so grateful to the following individual volunteers: Sal Angelo, Hari Delsignore, Alison Dixon, Paula Duhon, Peter Grealish, Bruce Laird, Uli Nagel, Marcia Slaminsky, Ann Sterlin, Davis Twitchell, Bruce Zarnoch, and five employees from Big Y.
We could not have accomplished what we did without the help of Cassella Waste Management, which provided recycling and trash bins for the weekend and processed it all at no cost; Meadow Farm, which provided a roll off for all the compostables and processed them for free; the Chamber of Commerce for help with publicity; and the vendors who used recyclable and compostable service ware and removed their own trash. Increased cooperation of vendors will enable us to get closer to our zero-trash goal next year.
We are grateful to attendees, especially children, who gladly separated their waste items, helping us succeed. They looked at the signs and followed the prompts to choose the right sorting bin, with some showing an expression of satisfaction. Our team enjoyed the questions about why we bothered to sort their trash and about what we could compost (industrial compost facilities like Meadow Farm in Lee can compost far more than we can in our back yards because the piles get hot enough to break down much more). We noticed some people who gave in to the impulse to just throw their items into any bin but then regretted it when they saw a volunteer pick them out and put them into the correct bin.
It was a pleasure to hear people say, “Thank you for doing this!” We hope our Founders Weekend efforts, as well as our other programs that encourage people to shift away from being the “throw-away generation” will prompt them to join those of us who want to be Stewards of the Earth. Yes, small actions do have an impact!
Pat Simpson
Member of the Lee Greener Gateway Committee
Lee
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