MANCHESTER, NH – If you were out in Center City on April 20 you might have noticed a lot of activity. Monday marked the second year of SEE Science Center’s Park2Park Clean-up event, a collaborative effort between the Science Center, Manchester Connects, and the City of Manchester Parks, Recreation, and Cemetery Division, to prepare our city parks and the streets in between for Earth Day activities. With the coordinated power of 227 volunteers who each spent two hours in this effort, 266 bags of trash and 20 containers of sharps were removed from 15 parks in four city wards.
This year, with the support of Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, we were able to purchase extra reusable supplies to allow for the addition of even more volunteers to this effort. “At Coke Northeast, we are committed to having a positive impact on our local communities and serving as responsible stewards of the environment. Our bottles and cans are carefully designed to be 100% recyclable, including the caps, to support a circular economy for our packaging. By properly recycling, we can all help ensure a more sustainable future for generations to come,” Susannah Smith, Vice President of Public Affairs & Communications, said.
“We are using the event this year as not just as a chance to get people out helping in their community, but also as a chance to educate,” SEE Science Center Executive Director Shana Hawrylchak, said.
Litter is considered mismanaged waste and takes more resources per piece of trash to remediate than waste collected at transfer stations. This year the event has collaborated with Breath® New Hampshire’s Bag the Butts™ program to bring light to the single most common piece of trash across the United States – cigarette butts. While they might look like paper, cigarette filters are actually single use plastics which degrade into microplastics overtime and release toxins into the environment. Volunteers at this year’s event collected 23.75 bags of cigarette butts (approximately 6,000 butts) for special recycling and also participated in citizen science recording how much trash was collected where.
“Litter is both a human behavior problem and an engineering problem,” Hawrylchak said. “We can only solve it through a combination of scientific advancement and human initiative.”
This year also marked the recognition and engagement of Ward 5 Alderman Jason Bonilla and NH State Representative Kathy Staub, who encouraged citizens from Ward 5 to get out and participate in the effort.
“I can’t thank SEE enough for taking the lead on this initiative, especially during Earth Day,” Bonilla said. “I also wanted to give a shoutout to Kate Waldo and her team at Parks & Rec for ensuring that we have everything we need leading up to the event. I am so excited to get to work with residents in our community and to have all of our Parks in Ward 5 included in this year’s event.”
In addition to the organizers, many local non-profit organizations participated in the event. These organizations include: Southern New Hampshire University, City Year, The Manchester Lion’s Club, Roca Kids Club, Recovery NH, The Moore Center and the Granite YMCA. The group effort helps each of them in their ongoing work to make Manchester a vibrant, friendly, healthy, and prosperous place to live, work, visit, and connect with nature.
The local business community supported the Park2Park cleanup by sending teams of volunteers. Leading the charge was Fidelity Investments with a team of 25 volunteers who took on the challenge of cleaning the city’s largest public space the 20-acre Valley Cemetery.
“We are proud to give back by supporting and uplifting the communities we serve through the dedication of our associates, whose passion is at the heart of our community impact efforts,” Sheila Vargas, manager, community relations, Fidelity Investments, said. “We look forward to making continued impact in collaboration with local nonprofits, city departments and area businesses.” Other businesses participating include Bar Harbor Bank, Pinnacle Mortgage, DEKA, New England Holiday Light, Tecomet, ARMI, Machias Savings Bank, 603 Forward, Revo Casino and Social House, Hoyle Tanner & Associates, Velcro Companies, NBT Bank, Job Corps NH and Double Tree by Hilton Manchester.
If you missed the event this spring, don’t worry; there are more chances to get involved. Manchester Urban Ponds Restoration Program has pond clean-ups throughout the spring and, in the fall, SEE Science Center will host another mass community clean-up event – Trick-or-Trash on October 19 to help get the streets free of litter before Halloween.
Manchester public spaces span more than 1,400 acres of municipal property across 83 sites, including parks, trails, recreational facilities, cemeteries, and public schools. Manchester’s Division of Parks, Recreation, and Cemeteries needs community support to maintain them. Anyone interested in how they can support Manchester’s public spaces throughout the year can learn more by visiting the division’s Adopt-a-Site and Blue Bags for Litter programs on the Manchester city website.