Remember the three Rs? And that when we reduce, reuse, and recycle, we’ll help to save the planet?
Yes, what we learned in elementary school is still critically important today.
We at the Chesapeake Bay Trust know this to be true, because we see the impacts of people striving to reduce, reuse, and recycle. We know that by teaching schoolchildren these essential values, engaging their families and community leaders in conversations about recycling and litter prevention, and empowering local groups to take meaningful action, we’re effectively reducing litter in our waterways and protecting wildlife habitats. The Bay Trust is equipping much of this work across the Chesapeake Bay watershed at systemic, community-based levels through our signature grantmaking and other strategies.
For example, Baltimore’s 3200 Carlisle Block Association has incorporated trash stewardship into its comprehensive approach to strengthening its neighborhood. With a Chesapeake Bay Trust grant and resources through other collaborations, this neighborhood association has added environmental education and the stewardship of local natural resources to its mission. It leverages tree-planting, gardening, and litter clean-ups to build community and engage youth. When residents care for their neighborhood, they care for their neighbors, as well.
At a watershed level, Anacostia Riverkeeper has particularly embraced the pillar of “reduce” with its Clean Waterways program and other innovative interventions aimed to reduce and remove litter. The Anacostia River should be a treasure of our nation’s capital region, but instead, it’s perpetually affected by development in both Washington, DC and Maryland, and is plagued by urban pollutants like stormwater, sewage, litter, and debris. In turn, it is one of only three rivers in the United States that the EPA has deemed “impaired by trash.” Big problems need big solutions, and often the most effective and longest-lasting solutions are led by local residents taking action.
Enter Anacostia Riverkeeper, an organization that receives frequent Chesapeake Bay Trust grants to leverage both the power of people and technology to keep the trash out. Since 2012, more than 8600 volunteers in their Clean Waterways program have removed 165,000 pounds of trash from the Anacostia River watershed; the program has grown exponentially in recent years and proves that residents are willing and eager to care for their local natural resources. Anacostia Riverkeeper has also addressed litter mitigation through neighborhood-based outreach programs, through water quality monitoring systems in Anacostia tributaries, and through technical tools like Maryland’s first Bandalong Trash Trap, installed in 2018 with a Chesapeake Bay Trust grant.
Meanwhile, it’s never been more popular to reuse, especially in the form of second-hand shopping and clothing donation, and the Chesapeake Bay Trust is leveraging the trend of “donation and reuse” markets to engage the public on this critical concept.
Friends of Anacostia Park, the only National Park Service-operated park with a roller rink, is leveraging a Chesapeake Bay Trust grant to enrich its vibrant skate culture with a series of “skate and donate” event pop-ups where visitors can both donate and pick up some “new to you” clothing. The George Washington University (pictured) uses Bay Trust funds to promote its annual Reuse Market to redistribute tens of thousands of pounds of clothing and household goods that were donated during the previous semester’s Green Move Out drive. These programs and several more were funded in partnership with Washington, DC’s Department of Energy and the Environment through its Donation and Reuse Award Program, and we anticipate more jurisdictions will promote similar programs to promote the resurgence of the circular economy.
Last but not least, residents of the Chesapeake Bay watershed are making strides in what was likely the most prominent of our 3 Rs from childhood: recycling. The Bay Trust invests in neighborhood-level initiatives to encourage and equip residents to recycle together; we find that the practice and habit of recycling is stronger and more widely adapted when community-based.
Last year, among many others, we awarded projects to the Graystone Community Association to engage new residents in Gwynn Oak, West Baltimore; to Upcycled, Inc (pictured), working with high school students in Howard County; and to the Chinese American Parent Association of Montgomery County for its focus on collecting and recycling Plastics # 2 and #4.
The impact of these projects and programs will last for generations, as schoolchildren and young people across the watershed see the value of recycling – and all three Rs – modeled by their communities in innovative ways.
