By KENNEDY GRIFFIN
(Franklin County, MA) The Franklin County Rivers Cleanup, previously The Green River Cleanup, took place on September 24th with groups gathering across Franklin County to clean up their local rivers. Senator Jo Comerford joined State Representative Natalie Blais at the Connecticut River in Deerfield to haul out trash and large items.
The annual clean ups co-sponsored by the Connecticut River Conservancy’s Source to Sea Clean Up and the Deerfield River Watershed Association bring together hundreds of volunteers including students, local government officials, businesses, and families.
Senator Comerford said “We understood deeply that we can and should do this kind of service work…[She] look[s] forward to the coming session and supporting legislation to end the use of plastic and expand the bottle bill to include nips!”
The pandemic brought on redemption sites closures and the return rate dropped from 50% in 2019 to 43% in 2020 and only 38% in 2021, contributing to trash in and along the local rivers. The “Bottle Bill” or the Beverage Container Recovery Law currently applies to beer, malt, carbonated soft drinks, and mineral water but the list could expand in the coming session.