Letter To The Editor: Solutions To Tewksbury's Litter Problem

Letter to the editor from Tewksbury resident Donovan Conway:

Dear Editor,

My name is Donovan Conway and I am a fifth grader at the John F. Ryan school in Tewksbury. I know you have been very busy covering this global pandemic, however, I wanted to tell you about a problem I have discovered during the school shutdown.

For several years now, I have participated in town wide clean ups twice each year. This April, with schools shutdown, I did it on my own. I cleaned up trash on my street and I noticed a pattern. There were a lot of alcoholic items, particularly nips. It seems that people just throw the trash and the plastic alcohol bottles out of their car window. I have included a map and a photo below of the trash collected on the April day I went out. In just a short walk on my main road of less than 1500 feet, I collected over 40 nip bottles among other trash.

This is a problem because the litter makes our town look messy. We also have a brook right near our house that feeds into the Concord River. This area has wildlife including beavers, deer, ducks, geese, snakes, groundhogs, hawks, cranes, rabbits, and other wildlife including turtles who nest in our front yard. The trash pollutes this environment which makes it less likely for the wildlife to thrive. It is important that we maintain our waterways and wildlife. I write to you today to inform you of this problem and tell you about possible solutions.

There are a few solutions that could be considered. One possible solution is to implement a deposit requirement for the nip bottles, just like we have for soda cans. The Beverage Container Recovery Law was implemented in Massachusetts in 1983. I learned from my research that containers with a deposit are returned or recycled approximately 80% of the time. Containers that do not have deposits, such as plastic water bottles, juice containers, and - yes - nips, are only recycled approximately 25% of the time. Therefore, implementing a deposit requirement for nip bottles would obviously make a big difference. Other possible solutions would be to create a high tax on nips or ban their sales altogether.

It is frustrating that people continue to litter, but we can do something to help make it better. I hope drawing people’s attention to this will encourage them to contact their own state representatives, just like I already did. Representative David Robertson and Representative Tram Nguyen already received this letter. I know we can help make a difference.

Sincerely, Donovan Conway
Fifth Grader
John F. Ryan School
Tewksbury Resident

This letter was produced by John F. Ryan fifth grade student Donovan Conway. The views expressed are the author's own.