Green Up Day hopes to become statewide project

When Newfield Green Up Day organizer Mitch Raymond was growing up in Vermont, he was impressed by the state’s effort to clean up garbage on the sides of roads from Burlington to Montpelier.

Every year there is a statewide effort in Vermont to take back roadsides from garbage. On April 15, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Raymond will bring a similar effort to Newfield.

“It’s my background. I’m not originally from here,” he said. “I grew up from third grade to high school in Vermont. I was inspired by Vermont’s Green Up Day. As a kid, I would go around with either my parents or the parents of one of my friends and clean up the state.”

Raymond moved to Newfield in 2010 and has been a county resident since 2009. As in Vermont, he saw garbage on the side of the road while living in New York.

The memories of a state taking it upon itself to clean up its roads have flooded back since Raymond made the move. He said he thinks the same thing can happen in New York.

“It’s always bothered me that New York doesn’t have a statewide thing like [Green Up Vermont]. I figured I’d start with Newfield,” he said. “There was an influence on me as a kid. I saw the trash, and it actually programmed it in my head to be conscious of this and not throw out plastic wrappers or cans, because I saw what it caused. It was educational for me as a child, and I’m sure it was for adults as well. We saw all the litter and debris.”

“My goal with this is to bring Green Up day to New York. Newfield is just a start. Maybe next year we spread it across Tompkins County. Maybe we get politicians involved – they always love this sort of event, it makes them look good. Maybe we can make it spread that way.”

Raymond said he thinks a statewide effort will help New York, the way it has in Vermont.

According to Green Up Vermont’s website, https://greenupvermont.org/ the event started in 1970. Last year, more than 497 tons of garbage and more than 14,315 discarded tires were cleared from the streets.

“A large part of our income in Vermont is tourism, and who wants to come to a state that is littered in trash?” Raymond said. “It’s something that has had, and still has, a very positive effect on the state of Vermont. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we had the same sort of effect on the state of New York?”

Starting at the town hall, located at 166 Main St., Raymond and a group of volunteers will be at a table with a list of different locations throughout Newfield that have garbage on the side of the road. Volunteers will be assigned a location, and then they will transport themselves to the location, where they will park and start the clean-up effort.

Raymond said Cayuga Lake Watershed Network (CLWN) has provided white trash bags, designated for recycling, and black trash bags, designated for garbage. Volunteers can leave the bags by the side of the road, where they will be picked up by the Newfield Highway Department, or bring them back to the town hall, where a dumpster will be available for garbage. 

CLWN has also donated hard hats, reflective vests and garbage pickers for volunteers to use.

Both garbage and recycling will be taken to Tompkins County Waste and Recycling (TCWR). Newfield Green Up Day was able to secure one ton of garbage disposal at no charge, based on the help of TCWR worker Seth Dennis, according to Raymond.

The event is not meant for residents to place home garbage or recycling on the side of the road for volunteers to clean up.

Raymond also credited CLWN Program Director Molly Newman and CLWN Executive Director Liz Kreitinger with their organization’s involvement in Newfield Green Up Day.

Raymond said to promote the event he contacted Newfield Central School District Superintendent Eric Hartz and Newfield Public Library Director Sue Chaffee.

The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will pick up garbage on sections of New York State Route 13 and on Main Street, and the Newfield Lions Club will pick up garbage in an area of NY Rt. 13.

Raymond said he does not know how many volunteers will show up for the event, but his event will focus on areas other than those where the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Lions Club are working.

“There’s so many other roads that need help, us staying away from those roads is not a big deal,” he said. “We have a lot of roads, so there is no limit to the number of volunteers. Even if people from other parts of Tompkins County want to come by and help out, the more the merrier.”

Although he had thought about it for years, Raymond said a post in the Newfield Community Facebook page last month caused him to go into action.

The post was from a resident pointing out that the side of the road that they lived on was overcome with litter. The post started a thread where other residents shared their experience, with posts and pictures with garbage on the sides of their roads.

Raymond commented on the thread about his experience in Vermont and got positive responses. He then decided to take his idea, based on Green Up Vermont, to Town Supervisor Mark Allinger. Allinger invited him to speak at a town board meeting, and the event was put in motion.

Raymond said the event is about the community coming together and investing in where they live. He said that if people who see the same garbage on the side of the road every day come together to clean up that garbage, those people can feel an incredible sense of accomplishment.

“You see the green underneath the trash. You see the beauty of nature behind the debris. When roadsides are littered, you as a bystander will look and focus on the litter and you’ll feel a negative emotion,” he said. “I like the idea of Green Up Day because it’s an activist day. It’s a day to clean up your town, your area, wherever you live.”

Newfield Notes appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedi.com or geoffpreston8@gmail.com.