Wish you would take your trash with you.
By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff
As
beachgoers traversed the entrances in the dunes to the beach, they passed
something unique to Rhode Island state beaches: dumpsters.
Misquamicut
is the only state beach that makes dumpsters available. Beachgoers at Roger
Wheeler or Scarborough, where there is a carry-in, carry-out policy, have to
take their trash with them when they leave.
At
Misquamicut, seven dumpsters and one recycling bin line the entrances to more
than half a mile of beach. The dumpster pilot program, which started four years
ago, was meant to curb the beach’s trash issues. Still, piles of trash end up
on the sand, in the parking lot, next to the dumpsters, in port-a-potties, and
eventually into wildlife habitat.
By
mid-day, a dumpster near the pavilion was bursting with bags of trash, looking
like an overstuffed suitcase. Further down the beach, another dumpster wasn’t
yet full, but already held the remnants of several broken beach chairs and the
skeleton of an umbrella had been discarded behind it.
Although
beachgoers, local business owners, and even those who run the beach agree that
it’s a problem, working toward a solution is a complicated process, interviews
with those stakeholders and public records reviewed by ecoRI News show.
The
dumpster pilot program started at Misquamicut in 2018 as a collaboration
between the Rhode Island State Parks & Recreation Division of the
Department of Environmental Management (DEM), which runs all state beaches and
parks, the town of Westerly, and the Misquamicut Business Association (MBA).
The
program diverged from the carry-in, carry-out policy started in 1992 at state
beaches after local business owners led a public campaign to add dumpsters at
Misquamicut, arguing the unique circumstances and environment around the beach
called for a different set of rules.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Trash at our beaches is just one part of the overall trash problem caused by our "summer people," whether they're day-trippers, vacationers or part-time owners. Virtually every dumpster and trash can and long stretches of road side are packed with garbage. Part of the problem is the lack of adequate trash disposal, part is due to town restrictions on use of local transfer stations by part-time residents, part is lack of enforcement of local littering laws and part of it is the piggish attitude displayed by many summer visitors. There are common sense solutions to each of the parts of the problem I mention but coastal towns would have to WANT to engage.
Instead, towns consider the summer people to be a valuable resource. In 1986, Charlestown sought to be exempt from the state's then new Flow Control Law. Here's the reasoning:
Those circumstances and that town attitude are little changed since that letter was written 36 years ago. - Will Collette
Extract from letter by Charlestown Public Works Director Alan Arsensault, Oct. 3, 1986 to the RI League of Cities and Towns. Arsenault is still Charlestown's DPW Director.
Misquamicut is one of the busiest and most-visited summer spots in the state. Its parking lot can hold about 2,700 cars, and DEM estimates that about 80% of visitors are from out of state.
“Carry-in,
carry-out is the dumbest policy in the world,” said Caswell Cooke, a Westerly
Town Council member and an MBA member. “No one that comes to Misquamicut State
Beach from Hartford, Conn., is going to take a stinky diaper two hours home in
the back seat of their car. Not happening.”
A
90-degree heat wave over the Fourth of July weekend in 2018 prompted the
installation of a dumpster as the start of the pilot program, according to a
letter from CJ Paliotta, a DEM Parks and Recreation regional. A beach-cleaning
contractor said 4 tons of trash was removed from the beach, Paliotta wrote in
the letter.
After the “Trash Crisis,” as the letter referred to it, the state agreed to place two receptacles, one for trash and one for recycling, at the beach. The MBA also provided an attendant who would separate improperly disposed off trash and recyclables, according to the letter.
The
trash and recycling dumpsters were installed July 14, 2018, and “staff did not
notice a significant decrease in the amount of trash in the parking lots,”
Paliotta wrote. Within a few weeks, the dumpsters started to “emit a strong
foul odor,” which was diminished “to a certain extent” by deodorizing the
dumpsters, he wrote.
“There
were a percentage of the patrons that utilized the provided dumpsters, but
unfortunately, they were outnumbered by the number of patrons who decided to
continue to litter,” Paliotta wrote.
Photos
included in the letter show trash strewn across the parking lot and sand dunes.
The
following year the number of dumpsters increased to seven (“one eight-yard
container for trash and one two-yard container for recycling at every other
beach entry point”), according to a document titled “2019 Trash & Recycling
Recommendations.” Smaller “Big Belly” trash compacting units were also placed
in the pavilion. Four seasonal employees were also hired to monitor the
dumpsters and pick up trash. Interns were used to document the dumpsters’
effectiveness.
The
state estimated the cost of the containers, collection and disposal, the Big
Belly system, the new employees’ pay, and an outreach program to promote
dumpster use would total $121,500.
But
the actual cost was likely higher, said deputy chief of Rhode Island state
parks Jennifer Ogren, explaining that each recycling load ended up being
charged as a regular trash dump. “I don’t think we had one successful
[recycling] dumpster make it to the landfill that was accepted,” she said.
To
judge the effectiveness and public perception of the program, DEM surveyed 250
beachgoers at Misquamicut and 250 more at Scarborough (a carry-in, carry-out
beach) during summer 2019.
Out-of-state
residents made up the majority of both surveyed groups: 80% at Misquamicut and
62% at Scarborough.
The
majority of both groups also gave each beach high marks on a scale from 1 (not
clean at all) to 5 (very clean), but Misquamicut was rated slightly cleaner.
The survey also suggested that Misquamicut’s visitors placed a higher value on the dumpster than beachgoers at Scarborough. Most of the Misquamicut respondents said they would be willing to pay more for dumpster service, compared to 37% of those surveyed at Scarborough.
More
than 80% of the beachgoers who took the Misquamicut survey said they were
satisfied with the new trash bins and dumpsters and would use them to dispose
of their trash going forward. Nearly 80% also said they thought having the
receptacle and dumpster would decrease the beach’s litter.
“We
did see some improvements” after the program started, Ogren said. “But we still
were seeing a tremendous amount of trash in the parking lots. It’s almost where
people would just come back to their cars and leave the trash by the vehicle
wheels and then take off.”
Internal
emails and the 2019 Trash & Recycling Study results following the summer
season suggested it was the staff increase that made the biggest difference in
litter reduction.
In
a June 3 email from that summer, Rhode Island State Parks regional
manager Kyle Cahoon wrote, “The trash initiative with the dumpsters is having
mixed reviews at this time as people are still leaving trash in the parking lot
but I am optimistic that this will get better once I am able to hire these new
positions designated to staying on top of this.”
The
study results also noted “the addition of seasonal staff to collect litter and
trash has more of an impact on litter prevention than the dumpsters.” It
recommended keeping the four seasonal staff members at Misquamicut and
increasing staffing at all state beaches.
It
also proposed looking into the use of cameras to deter littering and/or
implementing a surcharge to cover trash fees. Ogren said they decided not to
use a camera because enforcing littering fines would be difficult to manage
unless someone was caught littering, and, although parking fees did increase at
Misquamicut last year, that money goes into a general fund and doesn’t pay for
any trash expenses directly.
DEM’s
internal study also suggested that the Big Belly system be eliminated, because
they filled up with trash and water too quickly, and decrease the number of
dumpsters at Misquamicut and concentrate them around the main entrance to the
beach around the pavilion. But when the bins were reduced during summer 2020,
trash pile-up issues increased, according to emails reviewed by ecoRI News.
Ogren
said the dumpsters have become a part of the beach management strategy at
Misquamicut.
“We’re really committed to trying to keep [the dumpsters] just because we believe people traveling back two or three hours back home should not be bringing soiled diapers,” Ogren said. “Do we have issues? Yes. We find surfboards shoved down, blankets, like everything you can think of.”
Cooke,
of Westerly, acknowledged that some people will always litter, but who want to
be responsible will use the dumpsters. “The people that want to not be pigs,
but don’t want to bring their trash back home to Springfield, Mass., in the car
with their kids, they are using those dumpsters,” he said.
“They’ve
come a long way, and we’re very happy that they’ve got something, but it’s
still not enough,” Cooke said, adding that he would like to see some enclosures
placed around the dumpsters and more signage.
Charles
Trefes, the MBA president and the third-generation owner of the Atlantic Beach
Park and the Windjammer Surf Bar, drives by the state parking lot to and from
work every day. He agreed with Cooke that more could be done.
Before
establishing the carry-in carry-out policy, “before the state decided to try
that mess,” Trefes said, there were many more garbage cans around and on the
beach that visitors used.
“We all have garbage cans, either at the entranceway or at the top of our parking lots that are on the beach side,” said Trefes of the local businesses in Misquamicut. “We all provide trash receptacles for people to be able to use to keep our property and our resources clean. The state, on the other hand, doesn’t feel the need to do so.”
Through
the business association, Trefes said, he receives a lot of negative comments
about the trash, but they arevmostly directed at the litter on the state beach,
not the condition of the other public and private beaches along the shore.
“It’s
been a bit of a problem down here. We, as in Misquamicut, get a bad reputation
for being a mess. The problem is Misquamicut, in a lot of people’s minds, is
that one parking lot and that one parking lot only,” Trefes said. “We’re not a
parking lot. We’re a village.”
About
50 businesses operate within that area, he noted.
Trefese
would like to see more trash cans, with some placed on the beach itself.
Ogren
said she is not sure if Misquamicut would employ more dumpsters in the future
but said they will not add trash cans. “It’s a proven issue that we’re bringing
more problems to the beach than solving if you bring those trash cans back,”
she said, noting that “aggressive wildlife” would likely have a feeding frenzy.
(The workers at Salty’s Burger and Seafood warn customers to hold on tight to
their food because seagulls have a tendency to snatch it right out of people’s
hands.)
“We
would have to be emptying them and washing them continuously throughout the day
and that’s just kind of an impractical situation,” said Ogren, calling the
addition of trash cans a “logistical nightmare.”
Staffing
is an issue on its own. Although the 2019 Trash & Recycling Study
recommended more staff at all state beaches, and DEM has positions open and
room in its budget to hire workers, the national labor shortage has meant fewer
applicants for the jobs.
The
state would usually hire between 450 and 500 seasonal staff to help maintain
the parks and beaches during the summer, but this year DEM has only hired about
65% of that number, according to Ogren.
“I
know no one likes to pick up trash. It’s gross, but when you’re walking by
something, if it’s a cup that’s blowing or a plastic bottle that’s rolling down
the parking lot, I have yet to see our patrons just bend over, pick it up, and
take that responsibility,” she said. “Just a little bit of effort on their part
makes a massive difference in how we can manage and continue to manage these
amazing places.”
A
worker cleaning a port-a-potty at the beach, who asked not to be named, said he
has found mountains of trash in portable bathrooms, even when the dumpsters are
a mere few feet away.
“They say a dog will make a mess on the beach,” he said, referring to the restrictions on pets at state beaches, but “a dog won’t make a mess, people do!”
Still,
he said he was glad the dumpsters were there for the people who didn’t want to
make a mess.
The
No. 1 item left on the beach and in the parking lot is plastic, according to a
trash composition study from 2019. About 55% of the litter was plastic, with
the next most common trash being processed paper and lumber.
Bob
Siral, the state advocate for the Leave No Trace Center for
Outdoor Ethics, said beyond increasing signage and education,
reducing the plastics and waste that visitors bring onto the beach could go a
long way in reducing the trash that is left behind.
Just
a few years ago, then-Gov. Gina Raimondo started a Task Force to Tackle Plastics.
The state and DEM already have some projects to reduce pollutants and litter
before they get into ecosystems. Both DEM’s Pollution Prevention Program and
its Rhode Island Green Certificate
Program offer assistance to businesses to reduce waste and
single-use plastics.
Vendors
at state beaches also have stipulations in their contracts to reduce the
packaging and waste for their food products, Ogren said.
That
means, in part, that anyone stopping by the Del’s truck for a lemonade has to
savor it like a true Rhode Islander: without a plastic spoon.
