Arlington Sustainability Newsletter
Fall 2022
Upcoming events:
Youth Environmental Leadership in Arlington

Arlington youth are making a difference for our local environment 

 

Arlington students from elementary through high school are engaging their school communities and educating the public about issues ranging from food waste diversion to textile recycling to pollinator protection and climate change action. Many of these youth participate in their schools’ green teams or environmental clubs and some explore their sustainability interests through class projects, like Ottoson students who created a composting survey for their civics action project and also reached out to the Arlington Tree Committee to plant new trees at the middle school. 

 

The elementary school green teams organized the annual pumpkin composting collection following Halloween, rescuing thousands of pounds of pumpkins from going to incineration and landfills. In the spring the elementary and middle schools participated in the annual textile recycling competition, bringing attention to the year-round textile collection bins located at the schools and contributing to funds the district earns for every ton of textiles donated. High school students have been earning community service hours organizing regular litter clean ups around town, promoting residential composting, and assisting with electronic waste collection and the Swap Shed at Arlington’s Reuse & Recycling Center. 

 

Other highlights from this past school year include climate action rallies organized by students from the Gibbs School and Thompson elementary school to raise awareness about plastic production and pollution. The Gibbs students also created a video educating the public about the importance of planting native plants and protecting pollinators. Arlington High School students who were interns in the Climate Futures Arlington project worked with local artist Sophy Tuttle to design and paint a mural on the walls surrounding Anderson Florist on Massachusetts Avenue with this same theme of promoting healthy local ecosystems.

 

If you are an Arlington student interested in sustainability initiatives in the schools or  in town you can reach out to Rachel Oliveri, APS Sustainability Coordinator at roliveri@arlington.k12.ma.us.

 

 

Electrify Arlington Campaign Updates! 
The Town has launched Electrify Arlington, a campaign to power buildings and transportation in Arlington with clean electricity. The campaign will educate residents and businesses about electrification and connect them with existing programs, rebates, and technical assistance. Electrify Arlington is a priority initiative from the Town's 2021 Net Zero Action Plan, which has a goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 to help avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. Here are some key offerings that will be available through the campaign this fall:
  • Electrify Arlington coaches: no-cost heat pump consultations in partnership with Heat Smart Alliance and Abode Energy Management 
  • Electrify Arlington website: information about electrification and guidance accessing resources at arlingtonma.gov/electrify
  • Support scheduling audits: call partner All In Energy at (781) 243-5650 to schedule a no-cost Mass Save home energy assessment
  • Opportunities to learn from neighbors: workshops, events, and media will enable residents and businesses to share their experiences installing electric systems and appliances
  • Educational events: opportunities to learn more about energy efficiency and electrification in partnership with community organizations. Upcoming events include:
    • Tuesday, 9/27, 7PM: Reaching Net Zero with a Clean and Resilient Electric Grid. Join the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) for a presentation and discussion on the grid and microgrids to learn more about how our electric system works, how it needs to change, and what we can do to get there. 
    • Wednesday, 10/19, 7PM: Electrify Arlington: Fight Climate Change through Arlington Community Education. Learn from experts and residents who have implemented clean energy technologies and find out what you can do to prepare for an all-electric future.
    • Wednesday, 11/2, 7PM: Electrify Arlington Kick-Off Event. Learn more about the campaign, which will connect residents and businesses with existing programs, rebates, and technical assistance to go all-electric! 
To express interest in these offerings and subscribe to the Electrify Arlington email list, individuals can fill out the Electrify Arlington Intake Form. 
 

Need Volunteer Hours?

Student sustainability-related community service opportunities in Arlington
By: Amethyst Stencik
 
Collecting community service hours shouldn’t be a stressful experience. Collecting hours by immersing yourself in a topic that excites you is the perfect low-stress way to improve your college resume. Here are several opportunities to volunteer in sustainability-related facilities. 

If customer service, recycling, and being outdoors is your thing, try volunteering at the Arlington Reuse & Recycling Center’s monthly hard-to-recycle items drop off. There students can work alongside Charlotte Milan and her excellent team of volunteers to ensure that Arlington’s scrap metal, ewaste, rigid plastics, packing foam, and textiles get properly recycled. Students will be able to take initiative as they sort through items and improve customer service skills. I myself have had the pleasure of attending a few of these events, and I can assure you that it’s an activity that I look forward to every month.

If you want more frequent hours, then join Arlington’s Project Zero. Project Zero is an unofficial club overseen by Charlotte Milan and Rachel Oliveri. It’s made up of a wonderful group of students who have dedicated themselves to shaping Arlington’s school and town events into zero waste ones. Project Zero distributes low waste and reusable dishware to said events. It’s a super fun club, with friendly people; if you join, you’ll get a surplus of hours for every event you help out at. Dm the Instgram: project.zero.arlington to be added to the team slack.

Neither of these sound appealing? Try these:

Wright-Locke Farm
Friends of Menotomy Rocks Park
Friends of Arlington Great Meadow
Mystic River Watershed Association
Friends of Robbins Farm Park

State Adds New Items to Solid Waste Ban


Starting November 1, 2022 textiles and mattresses will be added to Massachusetts’ solid waste ban. This means that these materials will no longer be able to go in the regular trash and instead will have to be recycled. This is a part of the state’s Solid Waste Master Plan which establishes goals to reduce the state’s waste by 30% in the next decade. As a state, we have both a limited and diminishing capacity at landfills and combustion facilities.
 

That’s 17,000 tons of mattresses going to incinerator.. Mattresses are particularly bulky and hard to dispose of, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection estimates that 200,000 mattresses and box springs are sent for disposal by Massachusetts residents each year. That number increases to approximately 600,000 if you count commercial and institutional sources
 
Massachusetts residents and businesses also dispose of about 230,000 tons of textiles per year, and about 95% of that could be reused or recycled.  Not only will diverting these materials from the waste stream prevent more material from going to landfill or waste combustors, but also a majority the waste from textiles and mattresses can be easily recycled. For example, foam padding from mattresses can be repurposed into carpet underlayment or animal bedding, and the springs of box springs are often already made from recycled scrap metal, and can also be recycled as scrap once again. When textiles like clothing are recycled, it is generally is sorted into grades by the recycler and about 45% are sold to second hand clothing stores here and abroad for reuse. The rest of the material can be repurposed as rags and wipes that are used by commercial garages and other public works operations. Some materials are also broken down to their fibers and used for insulation, carpet padding or soundproofing materials.

For residents, the main thing to know about the upcoming waste ban is that it will change the way we are able to dispose of mattresses and textiles. The Town has partnered with a private textile recycler, Helpsy, to offer and promote curbside (and free) textile pick up. As far as mattresses go, currently residents are able to put out one bulky item per week with their trash and recyclables for curbside pick-up, which can include a mattress and a box spring. Unfortunately this coming fall, residents can expect that mattresses will now require a fee and likely also an appointment to be picked up curbside to be recycled as opposed to be disposed of as trash and incinerated.