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URI Honors Class plans visual display on the quad of impact of river pollution
Photo: River Stories Class at Wood River Field Trip. Photo Credit, Dr. Heather Johnson
How students are working to make a difference
URI Honors 411 River Stories Class is hosting an event on the URI Quad on December 7th, 2023 from 11-3 pm. The event will feature a visual display of the great impact of pollution, using only plastic bottles gathered from litter.
The class has also drafted a petition which is a major move for helping Rhode Island reduce plastic pollution, aiding the University and state in its mission to keep our rivers and roads clean. In 2022, 13,905 plastic bottles and bottle caps were found in a massive coastal cleanup that covered one-third of Rhode Island’s shoreline in just one day. This pollutes bodies of water that are a huge part of the tourism industry here in Rhode Island, as well as negatively impacting fishing and ecosystems.
This event comes in the wake of recent trips HPR 411 has taken to bodies of water around Rhode Island and is a cumulative effort to share findings as well as make efforts for a change.
The event will include:
• Petitions that attendees can sign advocating for the RI Bottle Bill
• Opportunities for learning about how bottle bills can benefit recycling
• Student-designed stickers to advocate for the usage of reusable water bottles.
About HPR 411: We are an honors class working towards making an impact. Throughout the semester, we have learned about incredible examples of environmental stewardship, and we want to do our part in helping the environment stay clean from plastic pollution.
The JAYCEES welcome all our URI comrades back to the award-winning Arboretum-Riverwalk, where the confluence of the largest river body in Rhode Island, the Pawtuxet meets along the trail with its North & South Branches.
Please have your Professors and Volunteer Coordinators schedule an event for the upcoming season that is always full of Nature’s great findings and mysteries we can all celebrate – Best Wishes & Blessed Holidays! ‘Peace’
Plastic bottle ban will not work as if these plastics were found on the shoreline they likely floated here from CT, NY, or NJ. Banning them in RI will only negatively impact RI. A bottle bill will be a failure as MA has a bottle bill and MA is the filthiest it has ever been. If Plastics are banned what material will they replace plastics with? Glass? now we will have broken glass everywhere and cut feet and popped tires and our dogs will have cut feet. Lets face the facts RI has an extremely large number of slobs!