Earth Day, April 20th, 2024 – 10:00am to 12:00 noon
Thanks to all of our intrepid volunteers for Earth Day 2024:
Planet vs. Plastics
For Earth Day 2024, EARTHDAY.ORG is unwavering in our commitment to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health, demanding a 60% reduction in the production of ALL plastics by 2040.
Plastics extend beyond an imminent environmental issue; they present a grave threat to human health as alarming as climate change. As plastics break down into microplastics, they release toxic chemicals into our food and water sources and circulate through the air we breathe. Plastic production now has grown to more than 380 million tons per year. More plastic has been produced in the last ten years than in the entire 20th century, and the industry plans to grow explosively for the indefinite future.
More than 500 billion plastic bags—one million bags per minute—were produced worldwide last year. Many plastic bags have a working life of a few minutes, followed by an afterlife of centuries. Even after plastics disintegrate, they remain as microplastics, minute particles permeating every niche of life on the planet.
100 billion plastic beverage containers were sold last year in the United States. That’s more than 300 bottles per inhabitant. A few of them will be converted into park benches; none of them will be made into new plastic bottles and 95% of all plastics in the US won’t be recycled at all. Even the 5% of plastics being recycled are “downcycling” to inferior products or shipped to poorer countries for “recycling”, leaving the demand for virgin plastic undiminished.
People seldom think of water when they think of plastics. But making a plastic water bottle requires six times as much water as the bottle itself contains.
In Orleans, last year the Orleans Pond Coalition joined the Friends of Rock Harbor and many other Orleans organizations to expand the clean-up to 17 beaches and landings in Orleans. This year, in addition to FORH, we had Friends of Crystal Lake, The Orleans Conservation Trust, Community organizations like Surfrider.org, and businesses such as Barrows Waste Systems joining the effort.
This year we were organized and ready to cleaned-up the following Orleans beaches and landings:
| – Town Cove (by the Yacht Club) – Rock Harbor – Skaket Beach – River Road Landing – Mill Pond Landing – Barley Neck Landing – Baker’s Pond – Cedar Pond – Priscilla Point | – Nauset Beach – Kent’s Point – Crystal Lake – Pilgrim Lake – Pahwah Landing – Pahwah Point – Rt28/Tar Kiln Beach – Bike Path along Namskaket |