Our chapter’s guest speaker at the August member’s dinner meeting was Wayne Jones. Wayne is the Litter Coordinator for the city of Suffolk.
Wayne’s talk included discussions on the direct affect of litter on the environment and wildlife as well as it’s economic impact. We don’t often think about the economic impact of littering but according to data from 2009, the United States spent 11.5 billion dollars to clean up and process litter.
Data collected from around the world indicates that the top five items contributing to the litter problem are cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic bottle caps, straws/stirrers and plastic bottles. It is interesting to note that cigarette butts were the largest contributor.
Wane also provided an overview of several of the city of Suffolk’s recycling programs such as those for household batteries and unused medications. These programs partner the city with the fire department, police department, libraries and local pharmacies and grocery stores. More information on these programs can be obtained from the Suffolk Clean City Commission (SCCC) website by clicking on the hot link at the bottom of the page on our chapter’s home page.
Wayne described the Adopt-a-Road/ Adopt-a-Spot program. Our chapter participates in this program and has adopted Kings Fork Road from the Community house to route 10. We are a part of a program that has adopted over 100 miles of road. Last year 837 bags of trash were collected by 680 volunteers who spent a total of 1,800 hours of volunteer time. These numbers do not include other items that were also collected.
The talk was ended with a Clean the Bay Day video explaining the program. The Clean the Bay Day held earlier this year involved 6,000 volunteers, removed 138,000 pounds of harmful debris and covered 450 miles of streams and bay shoreline. Wayne noted that there is another Clean the Bay Day coming up and that chapter volunteers are welcome. Details can be located on the SCCC website. Volunteers are also welcome at the next SCCC recycling event scheduled for September 17th from 9am to 1pm in the Lowe’s parking lot on North Main Street.