Climate and Energy
Climate and Energy continues its focus on electrification and reducing carbon emissions. Join us to put advocacy in action by promoting renewable energy, heat pumps, and electric appliances in the Hudson community. Contact: Brian White [email protected]
Education and Outreach
Climate Cafes are happening! They’re fun, they’re informative. We’ve lined up great speakers: January 23—Bart Yeager from Black Earth Compost (see Climate Cafe notice below); February—Jackie Gillis on trash, recycling, and Hudson’s proposed new recycling center; March—not yet finalized; April— Elisa Pearmain with a speaker from Beyond Plastics on all things plastics reduction. Other topics being explored include getting gardens ready for native plants, EVs, and EV school buses. Suggestions of topics and speakers welcome. Cafes take place from 7–8:30 PM and end on time! Come have some goodies, meet new friends, and get inspired to help your town and the planet. Contact: Jeanette Millard [email protected]
Plastics Reduction Committee (PRC)
On December 12th members of the PRC went to the Board of Health (BOH) hoping for their support for a Plastic Reduction petition. Michael Delfino spoke for the Board saying that, 1) “He had done a lot of research, and the restaurants in Hudson were not ready for this.” 2) “That they (the BOH) would rather see the state pass a law so that they can follow their rules.” 3) They (the BOH) are feeling overwhelmed with the refugees that they are overseeing and that they are just now starting to enforce the bag ban and can’t handle anything more.
We do not agree that restaurants are not ready for this. The growing number of towns in MA that
have passed this legislation, and a growing number of states that have also passed similar measures backs up our thesis. It can and is being done. We would love nothing more than for the state to pass comprehensive bans on all kinds of single-use plastics. Unfortunately, year after year bills come up in our state house and die in committee.
The BOH also declined to co-sponsor a bill to ban Styrofoam containers. (We asked, considering our survey showed only sixteen of the forty-four restaurants surveyed continue to use them.)
We sympathize and agree that they are overwhelmed by their new responsibilities.
As head of the PRC, I have decided not to pursue a Green Hudson citizen’s plastics reduction petition for the May town meeting. I propose that we wait and see what the state does with a number of new bills aimed at reducing single-use plastics. We will know their fates by July ’24 at the latest. If nothing significant passes, then I will propose that we move ahead with a fall citizen’s petition that would, if it passes, go into effect in June of 2025.
We will be coming to you soon with a postcard writing campaign with the help of Beyond
Plastics to spur our state legislature to act. If you are interested in reading about the Plastic
Reduction bills now in committee, please follow this link to our website Plastic Reduction. For more information on the PRC’s work and to get involved, please contact Elisa Pearmain,
(781) 640-9499, [email protected]