RTPI Announces ‘Talkin’ Trash’ Community Cleanup Initiative
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute is inviting community members to talk trash with one another in the name of science.
As part of its involvement in a new scientifically motivated community cleanup campaign, referred to as “Talkin’ Trash,” the local nonprofit organization is asking for assistance from area residents in an effort to quantify and minimize the issue of plastic pollution in the area and its subsequent waterways.
“This initiative is something that came about after the student members of our Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors program came across a large amount of plastic trash on the banks of the Chadakoin River,” said Melanie Smith, RTPI’s communications coordinator. “We thought we’d get this initiative started to raise their awareness of the issue and bring that stewardship into the community spotlight, as well.”
From a consumership standpoint, plastics have become ubiquitous in modern society because of their many attributes – such as light weight, durability and their ability to be shaped into many different items. However, society’s inability to dispose of their plastic trash properly has led to a wide distribution of non-biodegradable garbage throughout the environment.
According to a release sent by Smith, more than half of the 300 million tons of plastic produced each year remains unaccountable on an annual basis. As such, the plastic trash that litters the landscape – including soda bottles, shopping bags, drinking straws and cigarette butts – are destined for local waterways and ultimately the ocean. Since these items don’t biodegrade, they instead break down into smaller and smaller pieces that leech chemicals and other toxins into the environment and the local food chain.
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute is calling on community members to be aware of the plastic that is littering the environment and take action. Through the use of an online mapping component, which can be found at Orbitist.com, the organization hopes to achieve an accurate digital representation of the area’s biggest littering areas while simultaneously alleviating the issue one item at a time.
“We want to introduce the ‘Talkin’ Trash’ campaign locally and connect it to this larger initiative to clean up our waterways and make the community aware that we’re having this problem,” Smith said. “If anyone comes across a piece of trash on the ground or in the water, we’re asking them to note the approximate location of the trash – such as GPS coordinates, street address or the nearest street intersection – pick it up and properly dispose of it, preferably in a recycling bin if possible, and report their findings on Orbitist.com.
“We’ll add all your submissions to our interactive ‘Talkin’ Trash’ map, and together we can witness how many pieces of plastic we’re taking out of our environment,” she added. “You’ll be able to see all the locations where the trash has been mapped and this can be kind of a citizen-science approach our community can take to help clean up our area and waterways.”
Those who participate in the “Talkin’ Trash” initiative on Orbitist.com can view and log their findings by using map number 2459 on the website. The website will present users with a data form to be filled out regarding the nature and location of the trash logged, as well display items logged by other users on the interactive map.
For more information on the Roger Tory Peterson Institute’s “Talkin’ Trash” community cleanup initiative, contact Melanie Smith at 665-2473, ext. 221, or at msmith@rtpi.org.