Eight volunteers recently removed roughly 100 pounds of garbage from the Saranac River Trail in Plattsburgh from Seltzer Road to behind Clinton Dining Hall on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus.
Much of the garbage consisted of single-use plastics, beer bottles, cigarette butts, and numerous other household items. Among the garbage was a pint of bleach that was properly disposed of. The efforts focused on the shoreline, hoping to limit waste from entering the Saranac River, and eventually Lake Champlain.
Even one cigarette butt can pollute an entire gallon of water. A pint of bleach can pollute hundreds of gallons of water. The single-use plastics removed could have leached billions of toxic microplastics into the river.
The Saranac River Trail is a paved path along the Saranac River which ends at Plattsburgh’s Waterfront Park where the river meets Lake Champlain.
“Through our collective efforts, we helped preserve and protect the Saranac River, protect our community, and help, even if that impact is small, promote safe drinking water for the North Country,” Garrett Monette, one of the organizers of the effort said.
“Imagine the impact we could have if we all devoted ourselves to protecting our communities, and took actual action. I love the phrase, ‘action not words,’ and it is representative of our efforts here.”
Monette runs the local non-partisan community organization Unitary America, which is described on its website as “a grassroots organization building community, building unity, and actually making change.” Among the organization’s several initiatives are environmentally-focused projects and encouraging environmental stewardship.
While the cleanup was not associated with the organization, Unitary America will be holding another trash cleanup along the Saranac River on Saturday, May 2nd, from 9:30 am until 3 pm. They will meet by the footbridge at the end of George Angell Drive in Plattsburgh (at the junction with the Saranac River Trail).
All community members, including college students, are welcome.
Read more about the Saranac River.
Illustration: Volunteers with bags of garbage collected along the Saranac River courtesy Gryphon Ackridge-Phillips.
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