Wayland Cleans Up! Volunteers Will Really Stand Out
Wayland Business Association Sponsors T-shirts
for Town-wide Litter Clean Up Saturday, April 10th 2010
WAYLAND, MA – Volunteers working for Wayland Cleans Up! this year will stand out in bright orange T-shirts sponsored by the Wayland Business Association and its members. This will help tremendously with safety as students pick up litter along the roads and public areas around town on Saturday, April 10th and sort it into recycling containers.
The organizers also hope the many volunteers will wear their shirts on Sunday, April 11th at the Earth Day celebration being held by the schools’ Green Team. Not only will the Wayland Business Association be at that event, the Wayland Cleans Up! organizers will report the results of their collection and recycling effort.
Wayland Cleans Up! organizer Cliff Kolovson (full disclosure: also a WBA executive board member) hopes both the cool T-shirts and the closer association with the schools and its Green Team will produce an army of collectors and recyclers to really clean up the roadways throughout town.
Kolovson is appealing to local businesses – particularly members of the Wayland Business Association – to sponsor the T-shirts for the clean up. He’s seeking $50 or $100 in support of the project (goal is 200 shirts). Sponsors will get their company name and/or logo on the T-shirts. The WBA executive board has agreed to fund the difference between individual donations and the budget.
Now in its fifth year, the cleanup has momentum and purpose. Kolovson hopes every citizen will get out for even a short while and pick up the litter along the roads in their neighborhood or a obvious trouble spots around town. Trash collectors can bring bags either to the High School or the Claypit Hill School where crews of high school students will sort the items into recycling containers (as best they can).
Each year the litter returns, Kolovson moans. It’s amazing how so much trash collects along some of the most scenic roads as thoughtless people toss lunch bags, plastic bottles and cans from their cars as if the roads were one big trash can. The amount of litter is more than the casual bits flying out of contractor trucks or jettisoned from bags on the way to the landfill. There is a serious disregard for public ways in this most lovely of towns. Imagine, Kolovson says, what goes on in more densely populated places.
Hot Spots to Check
The greatest problem areas for litter are at road junctures such as Old Connecticut Path and Rte. 20. And big stretches of Rte. 27 north and south collect a lot of litter, particularly north along the Sudbury River. Various local groups (Girls Scouts and others) are planning to pick up at ball fields and school fields around town. Many parts of Pelham Island Road need attention, and, of course, many places along Rtes. 20 and 30 as well as Stonebridge Road, Oak Street, Rice Road… all have open spaces that collect lots of litter thrown from cars.
Any company or person interested in funding the T-shirts or helping with cleanup should contact Cliff Kolovson at 508-655-9696. High school students should contact Ian Bonner at school to sign up for an hour or more at one of the two collection and sorting locations, or to clean a stretch of roadway. Kolovson will sign community service forms for hours worked.
Kolovson produces the group’s Web site: http://cleanup.pointed.com/ with photos of the cleanup. This year, he already has posted the famous 1970’s public service announcement, the “Crying Indian,” created by Keep America Beautiful. This had a poignant message, (delivered by famous actor William Conrad) “People Start Pollution, People Can Stop It.”
Clean Up Anytime!
The two organizers hope walkers will take trash bags with them on their daily route and pick up litter, particularly plastic. Places that seem to collect the most trash are those wooded open spaces between homes, or along undeveloped areas and along wetlands. Clearly, there is ample evidence of people dumping cases of beer cans (with the cardboard cases), and there are just tons of coffee cups, fast-food wrappings, water bottles… and there is no shortage of large items too!
Give special attention to collecting plastic bags and six-pack ring holders… that get caught in trees and bushes and can ensnare wildlife. Please grab these and recycle them.
Volunteers should contact either organizer right away by phone or email. Kolovson can be reached at 508-655-9696 or cliff@pointed.com; and DeVany can be reached at 508-358-8070 or cDeVany@ppiw.com.
Hot spots include:
- Rte 27 Center to Sudbury Line
- River Road and Water Row
- Rice Road end to end, particularly in middle near Hamlin Woods
- Old CT Path from Rte. 20 to Framingham line
- Pelham Island Road from Center to Sudbury Line
- Stonebridge from 126 to Sudbury Line
- Main Street from town line or Rte. 30 to School St
- Cochituate Road from School St to Center
- Plain Road particularly at head off Rte. 20
- Rte. 20 near the West end, between Russell’s and the town line
- Rte. 30 in many spots, particularly at the East end
Art for Volunteer T-shirts being readied for the fifth annual Wayland Cleans Up! campaign.
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