By Samantha Juchem, Sierra Club Water Defender and Outings Leader
This past March brought in many early and exciting signs of spring in the Poconos --- along with disappointing amounts of trash. As April rain clouds moved in, heavy precipitation events washed the growing trail of discarded single use items into local creeks, green spaces, and along residential roadways. While commuting through the Stroudsburg area, one will certainly notice large amounts of litter piling up and may think, why here, what is being done about this, and what happened to the tradition of respecting nature?
According to Jacquelyn Bonomo, PennFuture’s President and CEO, Poconos residents have historically “viewed nature as an integral part of [the] community, to be used with love and respect, rather than as a commodity to be consumed with no effect”. As the region is known as a scenic destination for its beautiful landscapes, pristine waterways, numerous state parks, and ample outdoor recreational opportunities, it is upsetting that a handful of people’s lack of respect has resulted in such a negative impact on the environment. There is a real need for action -- both on the ground and through policy change.
Feeling inspired, with the help of the Sierra Club PA Chapter‘s Local Outdoors program, I organized and led a clean up along Brushy Mountain Road near my hometown in East Stroudsburg, PA. Having hosted several clean-ups in the Lehigh Valley and Poconos since 2016, I was thrilled to have more hands-on-deck to help alleviate this “throw-away” epidemic in honor of Earth this year! With the hard work of 7 volunteers, in 2 hours we successfully picked up 32 bags of litter -- 15 trash bags, 17 recycling bags, 1 tire, and 5 large items along less than a half mile stretch!
Illegal dumping and littering not only harms nature by polluting waterways and spreading pests and disease, but it also impacts the local economy by decreasing property values, attracting other crimes, discouraging new residents, businesses, and tourists, and can cause vehicle accidents. If someone is caught illegal dumping or littering they can be heavily fined, imprisoned, required to do community service, and even have their vehicle seized, depending on the degree of charge.
So, how can you do your part to help keep your community litter-free? Volunteer with a local group in a clean-up effort, reduce your use of single-use resources by sticking to reusable alternatives, advocate for a single-use plastics tax, lobby for better waste management strategies, recycling regulations, and pressure companies to decrease their use of unsustainable packaging.
It is crucial that we all do our part to reduce the carbon and plastic footprint in order to achieve optimal health, wellbeing and balance for ourselves and the planet. Since this local outing, a package of bills called “Zero Waste PA” was put forth at the federal level in the House of Representatives. This group of bills includes eliminating polystyrene containers from prepared food establishments, increasing littering fines, reducing plastic straw use, creating more composting facilities, adding a plastic bag fee, improving recycling procedures for municipalities, and requiring new establishments to install water bottle filling stations.
After a recent meeting with Senator Mario Scavello in early April to thank him for co-sponsoring the 100% Renewable Energy Bill, I was pleased to hear he also takes the fight against plastic pollution very seriously --- enough that in 2017 he re-introduced legislation to reduce littering across Pennsylvania by increasing fines for the offense. With that, I also hope Representative Rosemary Brown will follow in support of protecting Monroe County’s waterways and natural open spaces. According to the Our Pocono Waters campaign, “only 2% of PA streams are classified as exceptional value [EV], and 80% of the state’s EV streams are in the Poconos, primarily in Monroe, Pike, and Wayne counties.”
Single-use plastics have become an infinite waste issue far beyond the Poconos. Let’s not trash our children’s future and break free of this destructive social norm. Most importantly, let’s set the example and inspire others to do away with single-use items through awareness and action!
This blog was included as part of the 2019 Spring Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!