Dear Legislators,

I am the lead person for the Vernon Greenways Volunteers, a 37 member organization that supports the Vernon Parks and Recreation Department in the maintenance, enhancement and proper use of the 30+ miles of trails in town.

We would like you to become aware of our support for the Bottle Bill (SB1289).  Part of our participation in town is to assist in keeping the trails clean by picking up accumulated trash.  It has been well documented about the public’s switch from carbonated beverages to non carbonated liquids since the inception of our current bottle bill.  Two recent events have really brought that into perspective in relation to what we do.  The first is our just completed annual Earth Day cleanup which is a collaborative effort with the Parks and Rec Department on Vernon ’s trails and the second my own experience emptying a particular trash receptacle.  On the former it is rather difficult to quantify the percentage of trash picked up by category but other than paper products water bottles were by far the second most common item.  As to the trash receptacle, there was recently a short period of time at the Church Street parking lot entrance to Rails to Trails where the trash receptacle was missing.  I noticed that our pet station (a free biodegradable pet waste bag dispenser, instructions on use and a receptacle for deposit of the full bag) that we installed and maintain had now become the general trash receptacle.  I emptied the trash and filled two yard size trash bags.  I was surprised that an estimated 30% of the total volume was water bottles.

Your efforts in getting this bill passed would be greatly appreciated.

Don Bellingham

Lead Person

Vernon Greenways Volunteers