During five days in April 2020, as part of Andover’s first Earth Day Roadside Clean-Up, 72 local volunteers picked up 155 bags of trash along town roadsides and walkways – and the Andover Community Hub and the Andover Conservation Commission are inviting residents to do it again this year.
The official Earth Day is Friday, April 22, but the week-long Andover effort will launch on Monday, April 18, and continue through Sunday, April 24. Participants will have an opportunity to sign up ahead of time on Facebook or on the Hub’s website at AndoverHub.org and to identify a route they’d like to clean up; parents may want to get their kids involved, families may want to work together on a neighborhood effort. Signing up is not required, but encouraged to help track results.
A supply of blue plastic trash bags and rubber gloves will be available at the Hub, the Andover and East Andover post offices, and the Bachelder Library in East Andover, beginning on Monday, April 18. Residents are asked to take their filled bags to the Transfer Station during normal hours.
The theme of Earth Day 2022 is “Invest in Our Earth,” and those interested can go to the Earth Day website at EarthDay.org/earth-day-2022 to learn more about ways to get involved in this and other environmental issues.
As is increasingly clear, there’s a lot of hard work to be done to protect our planet from the growing effects of climate change and other environmental threats. Cleaning up the roadsides is a good first step, and the Hub will also provide a display highlighting additional actions one can take for those who stop at the Hub on Saturday, April 23, between 9 AM and 3 PM. The display includes:
Vegetable and native plant seedlings to encourage residents to consider growing some of their own food as well as planting a pollinator-friendly yard
A drop-off point for used standard plastic plant pots to be recycled through a project between Lowes in Concord and East Jordan Plastics in Michigan which recycles/reuses them
Free samples of “green” household and personal products to encourage residents to try them, which reduces the amounts of plastics and non-recyclable packaging that increasingly pollute our landfills, waterways, and air
Coupons for a discount on alternative “earth-friendly” or refillable household goods from BonaFide Green Goods in Concord
Information highlighting an Andover Garden Club program on the importance of bees and other pollinators, to be held at the Hub on Wednesday, April 27, at 6 PM
More details about the Roadside Clean-Up are still developing and will be shared through the Hub’s Facebook page, website, and email. Anyone wishing to be added to the Hub’s ongoing email list for updated information can contact TheAndoverHub@nullgmail.com and request it.