BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – It’s almost Earth Day, and Vermonters are getting a head start on greening up.
A few dozen volunteers came out for the Earth Day Waterfront Cleanup in Burlington Saturday, organized by nonprofit Rozalia Project and other local conservation groups.
Heidi Marquardt, raised in Essex, picked up trash with her niece.
“I remember growing up and how different it was, and I want to bring that back and make sure other generations like my niece have that,” Marquardt said.
The crew spread out along the waterfront, collecting a whopping 494 pounds of waste, heavy on food wrappers, plastic bits and fabric. All of it was catalogued by type, to be shared with Burlington and state leaders in hopes of informing policy decisions, like the state’s recent ban on single-use plastics.
“Data can help drive solutions and really help inform consumers and individuals on choices that we can make to prevent our waste from ending up in our watershed and in Lake Champlain,” Ashley Sullivan with Rozalia Project said.
Discarded syringes, indicative of the city’s substance use crisis, were also discovered. A medical professional collected some in a sharps container, while other volunteers placed flags near needles to be picked up later by the city.
“That’s a really great solution, just giving people tools to identify where they are but not interacting with them,” Sullivan said.
Local conservationists say they hope Vermonters will keep the cleanup going for Earth Day on Monday. “Leaving the stuff out there, to me, isn’t really an option because if it’s left out there it builds up, year after year, month after month,” Kate Alberghini with Green Up Vermont said.
To stay safe while cleaning up, Alberghini recommends wearing bright colors, facing oncoming traffic, wearing gloves and boots and checking for ticks afterward. If you find sharps, she says to leave them and contact your local authorities. Rozalia Project encourages you to download a data sheet off their website so you can add your findings to their database.