GreenUp Day, Vermont

GreenUp Day really strikes me as a Vermont thing. It's just the kind of event that, with Vermont's reputation among out-of-staters, you would expect to be happening here. The name is appropriate: throughout the state, Vermonters dedicate this day in early May to making Vermont greener. Teams of volunteers in nearly every Vermont town gather to clean the roadsides of their trash. Volunteers sometimes organize additional community projects, such as painting or planting.

This year I participated in GreenUp day for the first time. That is difficult to admit, since I have been a Vermont resident for six years, and have always considered myself an environmentalist. It doesn't help much to consider yourself a particular way if your actions don't correspond. So finally I'm aligning my actions with my values. It's almost too late, since this is possibly my last May in Vermont.

My grandfather likes to participate in GreenUp day. It was really he who motivated me to get out there this year. So, at 9:30 Saturday morning, after a quick breakfast, we showed up at Rochester High School to pick up some neon green bags and choose an area to Green Up. We looked at a map of the Rochester area and, after getting our bearings (is that route 73? No, that must be it...so what street is that?), we highlighted half a mile of Middle Hollow Road.

Although Middle Hollow Road is a paved road, it's not a very busy road. It leads only to residences nestled in the hills around Rochester. The road branches off to the left as you head up towards Bethel Mountain Road. I know that Bethel Mountain Road is a main road because I use it every day to get to work. However, it's not like any main road I knew before moving to Vermont; it's small, windy, and steep. It really counts as a main road because it leads somewhere: it leads to Randolph, where you need to go for prescriptions, doctors, and even groceries. And work. But Middle Hollow Road doesn't go anywhere that you would need to go. I had never driven it before Saturday. As my grandfather and I drove to our assigned route, I wondered if it was even worth taking our trash bags. I thought we could have a nice walk with a beautiful view of Killington. I really didn't think we'd find any actual trash. This was back-country Vermont, where it always seems like there are more deer than people. From his skeptical expression as we pulled off to the side of the road I could tell that my grandfather was thinking the same.

He took one side of the road, I took the other. As I started scouring the roadside with my eyes, I immediately noticed cigarette butts. I picked them up. Then I started noticing plenty of gleaming spots in the grass and brush. In the woods, it becomes easy to spot unnatural material. Leaves, grass, branches, flowers, rocks blend into the landscape. Your eyes can scan a scene smoothly. But bottles, cans, plastic bags are like snags that grab your attention. Maybe it's the uniformity of their shape, or perhaps it's the distinct way they catch the light. If this rural road was so cluttered with litter, what are the highways like? And if this is a rural road in Vermont, a place with a very "green" reputation, what is it like it places more populated and less "green"? Within an hour and half a mile, both my grandfather and I had stuffed our 20-gallon bags.

The GreenUp organizers looked for any unusual items gathered. Some neat items were found, such as a glass bottle inside of which a fern had been growing, it's roots sticking out of the neck, it's leaves having found a small crack in the side of the bottle. What I found most interesting, though, was the uniformity of the trash I collected. Without exaggeration, 90% of my trash consisted of beer bottles and beer boxes. The rest was cigaretts butts and boxes, with a few soda cans and fast-food wrappers thrown in. Of the beer cans, the most popular brand was Labatt Blue. Cheap beer, bought in 12-packs, intended only to induce drunkenness, tossed away along the side of the road.

Does the fact that this was a rural road actually explain the amount & type of trash found? Would you be less likely to find beer bottles along Route 89? I would be interested to know what kinds of trash were found in different parts of the state, and if any information could be gathered from the distribution of litter across Vermont. I also wonder if cars are being driven as the 12-packs are being consumed and discarded, or if groups of partiers sit by the side of the road to drink. Who are these people? Does it suggest that they are underage if they are drinking here? It would seem to me that adults might congregate at a bar or at someone's house rather than on the roadside. That was certainly the model of my (shortlived) teenage drinking -- on the beach, in the woods, parked by the side of the road in a car.

So I thought about the social implications of my discoveries as I pondered GreenUp Day. But I also considered the GreenUp Day phenomenon as an example of non-profit management and organizing volunteers. First of all, GreenUp Day is well-established: I participated in the 35th GreenUp Day. It is impressive because it is observed statewide. Every town I know of mobilizes volunteers. I think that's what makes it most successful. GreenUp Day is known to most people living in Vermont, and there is a lot of media publicity. But the rest is simple. There is one GreenUp Day coordinator in the town, whose job is to assign volunteers to routes, using a map to ensure that the area is covered but not duplicated, and to provide trash bags and garbage pickup. Different towns take this job to different extremes. Our Rochester coordinator solicited baked goods and planned a raffle. As I mentioned, some communities organize other community service projects to coincide with GreenUp day, taking advantage of the mood and the media. Individual volunteers have the option of covering a route solo, or they can gather groups together and use the opportunity as a bonding experience or just a social get-together. One teacher I worked with recruited her class to participate in GreenUp Day; they collected trash, but also planned other community service projects. GreenUp day is a good opportunity to support the spirit of volunteerism.