Saturday: help clean up Ninigret Park

Charlestown Beach Cleanup Hits Shoreline Saturday

Time to clean up after the summer people

Jaxon Veridian, Entertainment & Culture

Rhode Islanders can join a two-hour shoreline cleanup at Charlestown Town Beach on Saturday, contributing hands-on effort and data to state and global marine-debris tracking.

Listen, there is a very particular late-September energy along the Rhode Island coast — the crowds have cleared out, parking gates flip open, and South County beaches settle into that crisp, quiet post-season groove. But if you think the shoreline simply takes care of itself once the lifeguards pack up their umbrellas, I have some numbers for you.

On Saturday, Save The Bay and the Town of Charlestown are summoning volunteers down to Charlestown Town Beach for a two-hour sweep from 9 to 11 a.m. The meetup point is 557 Charlestown Beach Road, and according to the town's notice, the clean-up corridor heads from the beach down toward the Breachway. It is quick, it is outdoors, and frankly, it is an easy entry point into a massive global undertaking.

When plastic companies write the lesson plans

Keep plastic industry propaganda out of schools

Joseph Winters

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This fall, 54 million K-12 students are headed back to the classroom for another year of lessons in all the classic subjects: math, English, history, biology. But there’s another subject that’s been sneaking into school curricula: plastics.

A new report from the nonprofit Plastic Pollution Coalition documents the many ways the plastics industry has been inserting its agenda into classrooms across the U.S. — including through lesson plans and worksheets, hands-on science experiments, and a program called “PlastiVan” that travels from city to city teaching students about “the contribution plastics make to modern life.”

Industry interests offer these resources to teachers for free or for cheap, according to the report. The materials tend to highlight the necessity of plastics while downplaying their significant downsides to human health and the environment. 

“When that information is provided to kids, it obfuscates the true impacts of plastic pollution,” said Madison Dennis, senior policy and advocacy manager for Plastic Pollution Coalition and one of the report’s main authors. Besides harming marine life, plastics can expose people to hazardous chemicals, clog storm drains and contribute to flooding, and release planet-warming greenhouse gases. Dennis’ organization is calling for stricter school policies against the use of industry-sponsored learning materials. 

Green Report Card Gives Rhode Island’s Climate Change Actions Bad Grade

Rep. Tina Spears and Sen. Victoria Gu score "A" grades, Sen. Elaine Morgan gets an "F"

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

Tina and Victoria fought hard for the environment

Rhode Island has slowed its actions against climate change in the past two years, and environmental groups have found themselves playing defense.

That’s the takeaway from a new report by the Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI), a coalition of some 60 organizations dedicated to environmental advocacy. The group released its biennial Green Report Card on Aug. 27, less than two weeks before the state primary elections.

It’s a big difference from just four years ago, when the report card for the legislative sessions of 2021-2022 called them “the best two years of environmental policymaking” in state history.

Elaine Morgan didn't

“We need to act quickly and decisively to slash emissions from buildings and transportation and get on track to meet our climate commitments,” said Jordan Miller, ECRI’s executive director. “We must ensure that all our communities benefit from a just transition to a net-zero future. The next steps we take are vital if we want to secure a healthy and sustainable future for all Rhode Islanders.”

Environmental organizations have had a tough few years in the General Assembly. Of the 68 priority bills ECRI identified in 2025, only 21% passed the Legislature. The group fared a little better this year, with a third of its 78 endorsed bills securing passage out of legislative chambers.

None of the group’s eight top priority bills from the past two years passed into law. Those priorities included a package to fund the Rhode Island Public Transit Agency, new offshore wind procurement, a bottle bill and extended producer responsibility omnibus bill, and building benchmarking legislation.

That doesn’t mean the General Assembly has been completely hostile to the group’s priorities; ECRI noted in its Green Report Card that the past two years saw some significant wins in standards for labor and workforce development, new protections against PFAs and rodenticides, and a stronger Green Bond for voters in November.

Why so many of us can’t let go of our old electronics, and what we can do about it

Lost in your junk drawer

Eric Williams, Rochester Institute of Technology; Payam Saeedi, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Stacey Watson, University of Waterloo

Think about the last smartphone, tablet or smartwatch you stopped using. Odds are it is not in a recycling bin or a new owner’s hands; it is sitting in a drawer.

From our survey of 4,000 American consumers, we found the single most common thing people did with a device they were finished with was nothing at all: 39% simply stored it. Recycling and reselling, outcomes better for the environment, each accounted for only about 1 in 10 devices. Throwing devices in the trash claimed another 9%.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, our multidisciplinary team blended our expertise in causal inference, sustainability and cybersecurity, to work on the tangled question of what people do with their consumer electronics when they’re done using them. We used statistical models to connect what people say – that is, their stated knowledge and attitudes – to what they actually did.

Why the drawer wins

Two main forces keep devices in the drawer. The first is anxiety about data. People who worried that recycling or reselling a device would compromise their data were 14% and 9% more likely to store it instead.

The second force is simply not knowing how to. People who did not know where to recycle were 10% more likely to hold onto a device, and many also kept old gadgets as a perceived data backup.

Recycling and reselling electronics are a lot easier than a lot of people think. In the U.S., the national chain Best Buy accepts devices for recycling; reselling online is convenient with vendors such as Back Market and Gazelle.

Misquamicut Pilot Composting Program Off to Strong Start

It's a start

By Dan D'Ambrosio / ecoRI News contributor

Sharon Saunders is encouraged by how well a pilot composting program is working at Misquamicut Beach. The program was launched June 1, after Saunders successfully pitched it to the board members of the Misquamicut Beach Foundation, on which she serves.

“It’s been very exciting,” Saunders said. “We’ve already had 13 people sign up to participate in the program. It’s easy to recruit people who are aware of the benefits and are educated about some of the negative components of throwing your food scraps into the landfill — the methane that’s produced in landfills that are close to capacity.”

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The pilot program is starting small, with a collection bin provided by Black Earth Compost, based in Massachusetts. The bin — labeled “Food Scraps” — is in Saunders’ yard, because the foundation was unable to secure a public location.

“We did explore several options to see if we could come up with a more public space, either on town or municipal property or some other private property, but this was the best solution in the end for this year,” Saunders said.

The pilot program, which will run for the summer, can handle up to 30 families.

“I do believe we’ll easily get there,” Saunders said.

The foundation provided $2,000 to cover the purchase of the bin, some small canisters for people participating in the program, and a service contract for Black Earth Compost.

David McLaughlin, sustainability coordinator for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, said the state’s Central Landfill, in Johnston, is projected to reach capacity by 2046.

Be the first in Charlestown to apply

Course applications now open for fall Food Recovery for Rhode Island program at URI

Kristen Curry  

URI’s Food Recovery Course lets participants get hands-on
experiences with Rhode Island food systems; applications
are open now.  (URI Photo / Vanessa Venturini)

Applications are open for Food Recovery for Rhode Island at the University of Rhode Island, a community education program offered through URI Cooperative Extension. The six-week online course includes field experiences that can be completed at participants’ convenience — and, for many, the experience kickstarts greater involvement in Rhode Island’s food system. 

The program celebrated five years of food action this spring. To date, 250 Rhode Islanders have enhanced their food literacy through the Food Recovery for Rhode Island program, all the while tackling a large problem. Thirty-four percent of Rhode Island residents experienced food insecurity last year, and demand for food assistance has also increased. With the rising cost of food, more people than ever are interested in maximizing their groceries at home. Food also remains the largest component of Rhode Island’s single landfill, with harmful greenhouse gases released as it breaks down.  

Vanessa Venturini, the program’s co-founder at URI Cooperative Extension, says Food Recovery for Rhode Island addresses residential food waste through grassroots change. 

RI General Assembly session produced mixed results on the environment

McKee's effort to slash green energy funding rebuffed

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

No more pencils, no more books, no more speaker’s dirty looks: lawmakers last week bid farewell to Smith Hill for the year Thursday night, when this year’s legislative session concluded.

It was a roller-coaster ride for environmental advocates, who spent most of the session playing defense. Gov. Dan McKee had proposed rolling back the renewable energy standard and slashing solar financing programs and energy efficiency initiatives as part of an affordability agenda to reduce electric and gas bills by any means necessary.

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McKee wasn’t the only politician in New England proposing cuts to such programs. Lawmakers in the Massachusetts House passed a bill in February cutting $1 billion from their energy efficiency programs, more commonly known as Mass Save.

But ultimately, in the version of the Rhode Island budget signed into law by McKee on June 12, most of Rhode Island’s climate programs will remain intact. The only changes will be to virtual net metering, which will introduce a voluntary opt-in rate, and reduce the total cap of future solar projects eligible for the program to just 175 megawatts.

Environmental advocates also notched another set of small wins in the budget: the director of the state Department of Transportation was removed as chair of the board of directors for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, and lawmakers allocated the embattled transit agency with enough funds to close its deficit.

Here’s some of what else lived, died or stalled:

First the big news: building decarbonization lives, from a certain point of view.

Previous sessions saw lawmakers attempt to pass a single bill that would require buildings in Rhode Island to track, benchmark, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. That single bill always died in committee, so this year advocates tried a more traditional tack, the tried-and-true General Assembly two-step.

They spun off the more unpopular elements of building benchmarking — the emission mandates — from the main bill that pushes large buildings owners to start tracking emissions. Advocates acknowledged just starting a benchmarking program for all buildings in the state would require years of lead time to draw up regulations and spur adoption.

The two-step worked, and lawmakers passed H7813/S2260 in concurrence Thursday night. Starting in 2028, property owners with buildings larger than 50,000 square feet will have to track and report their emissions for the previous year. Buildings larger than 25,000 square feet start tracking in 2030.

Sen. Victoria Gu gives her review on the recently ended General Assembly session

Highlights from a productive session 

By Victoria Gu

Dear Friends and Neighbors,  We’ve finished another legislative session! After many nights of long committee hearings, bill sponsors and committee chairs work on their bill edits, and June is when bills can be approved for votes in committee and then gain final passage in the House & Senate.  New Leadership: In the past month the RI House of Representatives also elevated Majority Leader Blazejewski to the position of House Speaker and Majority Whip Katie Kazarian to the position of House Whip. Congratulations to them and the outgoing Speaker Joseph Shekarchi for their years of service.

Bills I Passed

Shoreline Access Disclosure for Oceanfront Property Rentals: The House & Senate passed my bill S-2734A to help make sure renters and short-term rental guests understand Rhode Island’s shoreline access rights. Part of the motivation for this bill came from seeing some short-term rental listings advertise a “private beach,” even though Rhode Island law protects public shoreline access up to 10 feet above the recognizable high tide line. This bill helps make sure visitors and tenants get clear information about those rights before they stay at an oceanfront property.  Food is Medicine: The General Assembly has passed my Food as Medicine bill, which creates a task force to design a Medicaid pilot program that uses medically tailored meals or other nutritional supports  to improve the health of patients with chronic, diet-related conditions.  Food insecurity is strongly linked to many of the most costly preventable chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, which drive enormous health care spending.  Medicaid accounts for about one-third of our state budget and is growing at an estimated 6% per year. Our budget will have a growing deficit unless we look at evidence-based programs like food as medicine. 60 Days Advance Notice of Home Insurance Non-Renewals: Insurance companies are being a lot more selective about the location and the condition of the houses they insure, declining to cover homes in coastal areas or with older roofs or water heaters. The bill that Rep. Azzinaro and I passed requiring 60 days’ advance notice will help homeowners find alternative insurance coverage and find tradespeople if they need to fix something at their house in order to continue insurance coverage.

Spotlight: Youth Mental Health

988 on Student & Staff Ids: Last week the General Assembly passed a bill Rep Earl Read & I sponsored to put suicide prevention and substance use crisis hotline numbers directly on student and school staff ID cards. At a time when young people are facing growing mental health challenges, we need to promote awareness of resources like 988. The General Assembly also passed a youth crisis response service bill that codifies a successful pilot program into law. The program helps kids in crisis by getting them fast, specialized care with behavioral health clinicians (avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits) and connecting families to ongoing support. Thank you to constituents who wrote to me about the importance of funding 988: This year, the Senate also advanced a separate bill by Senator Melissa Murray to protect the long-term funding of Rhode Island's 988 crisis line and BH Link services. More than 90% of 988 calls are resolved through phone support alone, connecting people with trained counselors before a crisis escalates. The bill stalled in the House, but we hope to pass it next year. More info here

Looking ahead: Vote for the Green Bond this Nov & Op-Ed on Managed Retreat

We got an extra $5 million for climate resiliency in the Green Bond which will be on the ballot in November! Annually, each town can apply for grants from this pool of funding to strengthen their infrastructure. One example: Westerly received funding for a flood wall around a pump station for the wastewater treatment plant.  Managed Retreat: These photos I took in South Kingstown show how shoreline armoring—like rock walls and elevated structures—disrupt the dynamic beach ecosystem and make it harder for people to walk along the beach. As sea levels rise and more coastal property owners build hard structures to protect against erosion, the public part of the beach gets narrower, and in these pictures, it has become impossible to pass along the shoreline. That's why we need to plan ahead before the next major storm. Instead of repeatedly rebuilding in areas that face increasing flood and erosion risks, towns can identify safer places for homes and infrastructure over the long term. Read more about our work to help Rhode Island communities prepare for rising seas and protect public access to our shoreline:  https://www.providencejournal.com/story/opinion/columns/2026/04/18/rhode-islands-managed-retreat-plan-for-rising-seas-opinion/89628806007/

Next rail advocates meeting: June 22nd 6pm @ Westerly Library

Budget Highlights

62-65 year old early retirees will now get the same exemptions from Social Security tax as people 65 and older. Seniors still must have incomes under $107,000 for single filers and $133,750 for married filers in tax year 2025, to qualify. Child Tax Credit - see this press release Rural Health Transformation Grant - RI received over $150 million in the first year of this federal program and will use it to implement innovative programs like Community Paramedicine - see this website for more information. Stay tuned for more healthcare highlights and impacts of HR1 on our healthcare system

Read the full budget press release

Senate Highlights

Labor Protections: We passed many noteworthy bills like S-2921 to give domestic workers the same protections under the Fair Employment Practices Act (FEPA) as other Rhode Island workers. Immigration bills: see this press release and another for protecting constitutional rights Education Funding Formula: only minor changes this year by increasing the “student success factor” - which is an additional amount of funding for each low-income student - from 40% to 43%. We will need to monitor the new Senate commission to study the funding formula, specifically the one suggested by the Blue Ribbon Commission Status of CRMC reform bill: The bill that passed last year required the Governor to appoint members with expertise in coastal matters. There are some new members that the Senate confirmed this year with expertise with civil engineering, coastal wetlands, law, etc. but it remains to be seen whether the political dynamic will change and I still support the overall reform that would restructure CRMC so it’s similar to DEM, with a staff and director making the decisions instead of a politically appointed all-volunteer council. Status of Bottle Deposit & Recycling bills: The bill that passed last year began the first stage which is a needs-assessment to look at our recycling system as a whole. That is still in progress

Bottle Bill, Producer Responsibility Again Topics of Legislative Debate, with No Resolution in Sight

Looks like we're going to kick the can (and nips and water bottles) down the road again

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

House Environment and Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. David Bennett, D-Warwick, tells the same story every year.

One year, for Christmas, he gave his 5-year-old grandson a toy truck. His grandson asked him for help opening the packaging on the truck, which had hard plastic, wire ties, buttons, and cardboard. It was difficult for his grandson to open, and, as Bennett tells the story, just as difficult for him as an adult to open.

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“It took me penny cutters, write cutters, scissors, and pliers just to open the packaging on the truck,” Bennett said during a committee hearing May 27. “About 15 minutes later I’m done, and I turn around and he’s got three more trucks.”

For years now, Bennett has told that story when introducing his legislation (H7910) for extended producer responsibility (EPR) program for packaging and paper. The program puts the onus on producers of plastic and paper packaging to come up with a recycling program for the materials.

There’s no easy way to recycle the hard plastic that encases toys, electronics, and other high-value products. The traditional catechism from some producers of some packaging is it makes it harder to shoplift and cuts down on theft — but it also all but guarantees packaging fills up Rhode Island’s already limited landfill.

“It’s a theft, we’re throwing all that stuff in our landfill,” Bennett said. “We have to pay for that.”

Stronger EPR legislation has struggled to make it out of the General Assembly in recent years, due in part to local business opposition to its close cousin, the bottle bill (H7911).

Bottle bills, or beverage container redemption systems, attach a fixed fee — 10 cents per container, according to this year’s legislation — that can be redeemed once returned to a recycling collection center.

The redemption fee is aimed at incentivizing consumers to recycle empty water bottles, soda bottles, and other plastic waste associated with drinks. Similar programs exist in Rhode Island already for two categories of products: mattresses and paint.

Bottle redemption programs, like EPR programs, are run by producer responsibility organizations, entities made up of the producers of the waste being recycled.

Pick up Charlestown trash on Saturday

Researchers develop biodegradable, plant‑based packaging from natural fibers – new research

The on-going search for a safe and practical plastic substitute

J. Carson Meredith, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jie Wu, an engineering graduate student, was studying a type of striking white beetle found in Southeast Asia and attempting to figure out how to mimic its brilliant color when an unexpected discovery upended the experiment.

Jie and I had been hoping to identify naturally occurring whitening pigments that could be used in paper and paints. The beetle’s white exoskeleton is made from a compound called chitin, which is a type of carbohydrate – one that is also commonly found in crab and lobster shells.

First, Jie extracted chitin nanofibers from crab shells obtained from food waste that are chemically the same as those found in the white beetles. But instead of creating a white material as intended, Jie produced dense, transparent films. The nanofibers more readily assembled in tightly packed films than in the porous structures Jie desired.

An attempt to mimic the striking white color
of Cyphochilus beetles led researchers to a
unique discovery. 
Olimpia1lli/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-ND

On a whim, Jie measured the rate at which oxygen passed through the film. The result was astonishing: The barrier allowed less oxygen through than many existing packaging plastics.

That serendipitous finding in 2014 shifted my team of engineering students’ focus from color to packaging. We asked whether natural materials could rival the performance of common plastics. In the years since, our team has used this discovery to create biodegradable films that offer a more sustainable and effective alternative to plastic packaging.

Challenges of plastic packaging

Plastic packaging is commonly used to protect food, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. These plastics keep out moisture and oxygen from the air, so products stay fresh and safe.

Most packaging has several layers that work together to keep air out, but these layers hinder reuse and recycling efforts. As a result, most of this plastic barrier packaging is discarded to landfills as single-use materials.

Many researchers have sought alternatives that are renewable, biodegradable or recyclable, yet just as effective. At Georgia Tech, my team of students and post-docs has spent more than a decade tackling this problem. This journey began with that beetle.

‘The Cigarette Surfboard’ documentary draws attention to dangers of beach litter

The film will make its Rhode Island premiere at URI on Jan. 28

Neil Nachbar 

One of the cigarette surfboards that was designed and
 made by Taylor Lane. (Photos courtesy of Ben Judkins)

During the International Coastal Cleanup in Rhode Island from September to November 2025, cigarette butts made up 17.8% of all trash collected. 

In all, 20,908 cigarette butts were picked up from Rhode Island’s beaches—making up the largest single category of trash items collected. 

The documentary “The Cigarette Surfboard,” which will make its Rhode Island premiere at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m. in Corless Auditorium on the Narragansett Bay Campus, draws attention to this environmental hazard.

The film screening is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.

R.I. has a rising tide of tiny trash on its beaches.

But it still doesn’t have a bottle bill.

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Cigarette butts strewn across the sand and plastic bottles bobbing in the waves are the most obvious targets of frustration about litter on Rhode Island beaches.

But the button-sized plastic and foam pieces less visible to the casual observer might be a more serious problem. More than 14,000 of these 2.5-or-smaller centimeter pieces were collected from state shorelines as part of 2025 volunteer-led efforts through the International Coastal Cleanup, according to a new report from Save the Bay. 

Tiny trash came in second to cigarette butts, which claimed the dubious honor of no. 1 trash item among the 15,561 pounds of trash collected from September to November 2025. “Other plastic waste” was the third most prevalent, followed by food waste, bottle caps and plastic beverage bottles and cans.

Everyday Plastics Could Be Fueling Obesity, Infertility, and Asthma

Rising Concerns About Plastic Exposure in Early Life

By NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Childhood contact with chemicals used in everyday plastic products appears to carry significant health risks that can continue well into adulthood, according to experts from NYU Langone Health.

This conclusion comes from an extensive review of hundreds of recent studies published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.

Evidence Linking Plastic Chemicals to Disease

In the new analysis, researchers summarize decades of work showing that additives commonly incorporated into industrial and household plastics may raise the likelihood of disease and disability, especially when exposure occurs early in life. The review highlights three major groups of chemicals — phthalates, which increase flexibility, bisphenols, which give plastics their rigidity, and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which make products heat resistant and water repellent.

Together, the evaluated studies followed thousands of pregnant people, fetuses, and children. The findings connect these chemicals to long-term health problems that include heart disease, obesity, infertility, and asthma.

“Our findings point to plastic’s role in the early origins of many chronic diseases that reverberate into adolescence and adulthood,” said study lead author and pediatrician Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP. “If we want kids to stay healthy and live longer, then we need to get serious about limiting the use of these materials,” added Trasande, the Jim G. Hendrick, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Here's a great new issue for the CCA

An environmental guide on how to shit in the woods

Shari Edelson, Penn State and B. Derrick Taff, Penn State

A pilot program to distribute waste bags to hikers on
Mount Elbert in Colorado successfully cut down the amount
of human waste on the massive mountain. Shari Edelson, CC BY-ND

If you’re one of the 63 million Americans who went hiking last year, chances are you’ve found yourself needing to go, with no toilet in sight.

Aside from personal inconvenience, why is this such a big deal?

Human fecal contamination is a public health concern in natural areas.

Pathogens in human poop can remain active for a long time – over a year in outdoor environments – meaning that waste left behind today can cause severe gastrointestinal disease and other sicknesses for future visitors. Fecal waste can enter waterways after storms or snowmelt, harming water quality. 

Finally, it can be upsetting – or at the least, unpleasant – to encounter someone else’s poop and used toilet paper in nature.

Toilet paper waste on Mount Elbert in the San Isabel
National Forest in Colorado. Shari Edelson, CC BY-ND

As a researcher and a Ph.D. candidate who study human impacts on parks and protected areas, we have been thinking quite a lot about poop and ways people can tread more lightly on the landscape. 

Our focus is on Leave No Trace, an environmental education framework – created by an organization with the same name – that helps people implement minimal-impact practices in the outdoors.

Study reveals for the first time the extent to which nanoplastic pollutes the North Atlantic

Underestimated sources of marine pollution

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

Plastic particles less than one micrometer in size are found across the globe – from the peaks of the Alps to the depths of the oceans. A research team from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Utrecht University, and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) investigated the presence of nanoplastic in the North Atlantic. 

The findings show that nanosized plastic particles are present at all depths between the temperate and subtropical zone of the ocean. By mass, the amount of nanoplastic is comparable to that of microplastic. An article published in Nature concludes that nanoplastic plays a far greater role in marine plastic pollution than previously assumed.

Plastic waste pollutes oceans across all regions of the world. Marine animals may become entangled in larger plastic debris such as nets and bags or mistake smaller pieces for food. Ingested plastic can block or injure the gastrointestinal tract. The smallest plastic particles in the micro and nano range are mostly excreted, but a small proportion can pass through the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream.

URI Cooperative Extension program aims to rescue and recycle food by changing the way Rhode Islanders interact with it

Course applications now open for six-week Food Recovery for Rhode Island

Kristen Curry

Applications are open for Food Recovery for Rhode Island at the University of Rhode Island (FRRI), a community education program for Rhode Islanders offered through URI Cooperative Extension. The six-week course includes online coursework and field experiences that can be completed at participants’ convenience.

Attendees learn how to make the most of their grocery purchases, preserving and storing them properly. Through hands-on experiences exploring the local food system on farms, community gardens, and in kitchens, participants will:

• Gain skills in canning, pickling, dehydrating and freezing the harvest
• Improve their home composting 
• Get involved with community composting
• Rescue surplus food
• Network with inspiring organizations making changes at the grassroots level
• Learn about employment helping schools establish share tables and compost sorting stations in the cafeteria

The reasons for making changes are clear. Wasted food is the most common item in Rhode Island’s Central Landfill with 100,000 tons entering the landfill each year. Yet 38% of state residents experience food insecurity and the demand for food assistance has increased 9% in the past year. Each month, approximately 84,400 Rhode Islanders seek assistance at food pantries across the state.

All Rhode Islanders benefit from reduction of greenhouse gasses by diverting material from the state landfill. In the meantime, community members also benefit when food can be diverted to hunger relief agencies, helping to bolster the state’s emergency food system. 

One participant, Laurel Spears, is using what she learned in her work at the Tomaquag Museum, teaching the indigenous community about modern composting methods, exploring traditional food preservation techniques, and promoting the importance of foraging, growing, and utilizing produce in its entirety.

Bad bottle bill news

Bottle bill shelved in favor of another study while CRMC reform effort is set adrift

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Upon first mention of the phrase “bottle bill” at the State House Tuesday night, Rep. Carol McEntee’s face dropped.

“I am not happy,” the South Kingstown Democrat said.

That’s because 24 hours earlier, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Valarie Lawson unveiled amended legislation gutting McEntee’s 57-page bill. Gone is the proposed 10-cent fee on recyclable bottles redeemed upon return to designated redemption sites. 

In its place, another study, this time, by a third-party consultant hired by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM). The compromise aims to find middle ground for environmental advocates and beverage makers and retailers, who failed to reach consensus on a deposit-refund program.

Meanwhile, a separate environmental priority to overhaul the troubled Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) also appears dead in the water amid hesitation at the corresponding price tag, with a less extreme alternative in its place.

R.I.’s bottle bill faces fierce industry opposition despite commission’s two-year effort

Spending big bucks to block needed legislation

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

It was supposed to be a compromise between environmental and business interests. Rhode Island’s beverage sale industry representatives agreed to help work on a solution two years ago when a legislative study commission formed to study the best way to craft a deposit-refund program for recyclable bottles and cans.

But at least two of the commission’s 20 members, both of whom work in the industry, remained firmly opposed to two of the “three bottle bills” receiving an initial vetting before the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture Wednesday.

Their displeasure was targeted toward a bill sponsored by Sen. Bridget Valverde, a North Kingstown Democrat, and another bill by Sen. Mark McKenney, a Warwick Democrat, calling for a 10-cent fee on individual beverage containers. Consumers could get their money back upon returning the containers to designated redemption sites run by a nonprofit contractor hired by beverage producers.

The point of a redemption program is twofold: to discourage littering and to reduce the waste accumulating in the state’s Central Landfill in Johnston. A report published last month by the commission notes roughly 1,000 tons of microplastic was detected by University of Rhode Island researchers within the sediment of Narragansett Bay — which ultimately end up being consumed by marine species that humans then eat.

Of the six New England states, only Rhode Island and New Hampshire do not have a bottle refund program.

But reaching a compromise with industry leaders was always going to be an uphill battle. Even before the final report was issued in April, five beverage industry members who sat on the commission issued a letter stating they supported none of the recommendations for a proposed bottle deposit program, citing concerns over cost, implementation, and balance issues in the region.

“The intention of this bill is definitely honorable,” Rhode Island Food Dealers Executive Director Scott Bromberg, who served on the commission, told lawmakers Wednesday. “But we beg the question: Is this the right time to propose additional fees to everyday, regular Rhode Islanders?”

He added that businesses would ultimately pass on the 10-cent fee to consumers — at a time when tariffs threaten to drive prices even higher.

“While 10 cents may not seem like a lot on one bottle, $2.40 for a case of $5 bottles of water is significant,” Bromberg said. “This can be recouped, but return is often unpredictable.”

Nicholas Fede Jr., executive director for the Rhode Island Liquor Operators Collaborative, also served on the commission, said the state should instead focus on updating existing curbside infrastructure to better sort out recyclable materials that may end up crushed in the landfill.

“People want to do the easiest thing possible, and that is curbside,” Fede told the committee. “The fact that we’re going to make people take their recyclables to a redemption center is a massive inconvenience.”

McKenney, commission co-chair, sees a bottle bill as an obligation to a cleaner future.

“We can kick the can down the road — it can be our children’s problem, it could be our grandchildren’s problem,” said McKenney, a Warwick Democrat. “But we do have to ask what kind of state we are leaving for them.”

Lack of consensus

Bottle bill supporters and opponents have tried to show the public is on their side. But the results of surveys on the subject favor whoever commissioned the poll.

A survey released Tuesday by a group calling itself Stop the Rhode Island Bottle Tax found that 60% of 600 respondents were opposed to the legislation. The group is backed by the American Beverage Association. EDITOR'S NOTE: I was one of those called for this poll. I said I supported the deposit bill. It was a "push" poll where the questions were designed to give them the answers they wanted, but not with me. - Will Collette