As we close out a week of Earth Day celebrations and with today's observance of Arbor Day, Andrea suggests ways to continue stewardship of the planet close to home.
From a distance Evan's Pond and Cooper River are beautiful but up close, along the banks, a great deal of trash (much of it plastic) can be seen. The bulk of this trash is not there because someone carelessly tossed it directly into the river. Much of it is litter that ends up there through the storm sewers. Haddonfield's sewer intakes are labeled and state that the storm water goes directly into the river.
What can we do to help? I have begun to emulate the the actions of humorist and author David Sedaris by picking up trash, especially plastic bottles, whenever I go for a walk. Also, I have started to clean up my little backyard section of Evan's Pond. In less than an hour and a half of work, I have managed to pick out a small refrigerator door and enough trash to fill 3 large trash bags.
Why worry about this? As I mentioned in my previous post, the Cooper River is part of the Delaware River Watershed. Whatever ends up in the Cooper River can flow to the Delaware River on into the Delaware Bay and eventually end up in the Atlantic Ocean.
National Geographic has compiled eye opening information about plastics. If you want more information on reducing your use of plastics, register for this Rutgers Cooperative Extension webinar. To get more involved locally, consider joining Sustainable Haddonfield and the Haddonfield Environmental Commission.