What about us?

This is one in a continuing series of educational columns about fostering environmental stewardship and leadership coordinated by ACES — The Alliance of Climate and Environmental Stewards.

Reading the Boston Globe newspaper on Monday, we were very excited and pleased to learn that a multi-state survey showed “Massachusetts is the only state in the nation to significantly cut food waste.” This is an important achievement because reducing food waste is the major way to curb the greenhouse gasses created by its decomposition. Locally, groups like Our Neighbor’s Table, the Lion’s Club, and others accept and redistribute edible food from restaurants and supermarkets because that prevents unused food from ever entering the waste stream.

As we read more, we thought, “What about us?” Newburyport could have been in that story. We are leading the way toward waste reduction through our volunteer community, our business sector, with Black Earth home pickups, and in our City structure. We are practicing it in our classrooms, in our City’s waste management outreach and policies, and recently in the Senior Community Center, which is now accepting compostable food wastes with their “Drop a Bag, Get a Bag” program, where free food scrap compostable bags are given out and a shiny white container is provided at the front desk to put full bags in for composting.

At our monthly Senior Center ECO Conversation in conjunction with ACES just this past Wednesday, we just naturally had to point out our state’s recent achievement. The reason Massachusetts leads the way on reducing food waste and the greenhouse gasses associated with them is because, at the grassroots level in Newburyport, we have been focused on it for years.

In Newburyport, the City and the volunteer sector have been aggressively working locally to mitigate climate impacts in as many ways as we can. We encourage everyone to reduce their food waste and separate the food they can’t use for composting.  Meanwhile in our school cafeterias we encourage the kids to do so too. And we now are helping make it easy and convenient for seniors to do as well.

The journey to make our own community more green, resilient and sustainable will take years. For the last 125 plus years, the industrial revolution has provided enormous benefits but, alas, it has accumulated numerous byproducts in our rivers, our air, and our lives. It will take multiple teams, or maybe a better phrase, it will take a community, working collaboratively, to make that journey to sustainability together.

So please think about your food waste since that is our topic du jour. Buy only what you need. Ask the person at the meat counter to give you only the amount of meat you really need. Get creative when you do have leftovers. And after that, send the scraps on their way to a better place… the compost bin.

Now, back to that story out of Boston, we have all the media coverage we really need right here in greater Newburyport. We really appreciate the Newburyport Daily News covering important news topics like waste reduction and school, City, and volunteer and business community collaboration. 

Molly Ettenborough is Newburyport’s Recycling and Energy Manager, Recycling Office and may be reached at mettenborough@newburyportma.gov. Sara Landry is the Executive Director of the Senior Community Center and can be contacted at slandry@newburyportma.gov. If you’d like to learn more about opportunities to contribute to the waste reduction of all forms, feel free to contact us by email.

ACES believes we can make a BIG difference together. Team members invite you to stay updated on environmental matters by subscribing to our monthly newsletter via the “Join Our List” link on this page. Please consider joining our community of stewards who are committed to Make Every Day Earth Day by contacting acesnewburyport@gmail.com.

This educational column first appeared in The Daily News of Newburyport on December 6, 2024.