Local citizens determined to clean up Bristol

By Rit Carter

In downtown Bristol on Riverside Avenue, in a roadside plaza near the Pequabuck River, sits two trash dumpsters in the back of the parking lot.

One appears nearly filled with trash, the other lying-in wait, its contents unknown. Spread out amid the gritty surroundings are crushed soda cans, paper cups, and four filled trash bags. However, only feet away, camouflaged from the street, an abandoned couch.

Further down Riverside, on a small knoll along the Bristol Health building, discarded facemasks, used plastic bags, coffee cups, cigarette butts, plastic soda bottles, and fast-food wrappers are intertwined with the neatly designed landscape.

To the northwest section of town on Chippens Hill at the top of Battle Street, it’s a similar story with nip bottles, paper receipts, and wrappers lying on the road and the grass (for further details see Laura Bailey’s story by clicking here).

Sights like this play out in Bristol from Riverside Avenue to Willis Street to Chippens Hill and all points in between.

Fed up with littering and the lack of responsibility and community pride, a small but passionate group of 15 Bristol residents have banded together and are determined to make a difference.

As a result, last Sunday afternoon, in Meeting Room 3 at the Bristol Public Library, they met to discuss the problems, find the solutions, and develop plans to marshal support from the community.

The group, comprised mostly of concerned citizens, includes city councilors Cheryl Thibeault, Jackie Olson, and Sue Tyler (Sebastian Panioto and Andrew Howe are also involved, but they did not attend Sunday) held its second meeting on Sunday.

“There are two parts to this problem. We have a trash problem, which the city is working really hard on, and I don’t care attitude; it’s a societal issue,” said Tyler, who chaired the meeting and said she was inspired to run for the city council to enhance Bristol’s image.

In a show of civic pride, most of the participants have taken matters into their own hands and picked up trash in town. However, attendees expressed frustration with the litter on the streets and the neglect of some businesses that produce to-go and single-use waste to be responsible corporate citizens and pick up the trash on their properties.

“I would take a lot of walks around town, and I would see all the trash, especially the nip bottles, because those just seemed to stand out,” said Andrew Collins, who moved to Bristol two years ago, and to familiarize himself with the area, took many walks.

Nearly everyone shared a story about encountering “nips” – the miniature liquor bottles. They are routinely found carelessly discarded on sidewalks, roadsides, walking trails, and most obviously near one of Bristol’s 25 liquor stores.

Jillian Romann echoed Collins’s remarks, saying she sees them while bringing her daughter to the bus stop and taking her dog for a walk. During one such excursion on Willis and South Streets, she picked up a bounty of nip bottles

“Just on one side of the street, there were 38 bottles and all sorts of other trash,” Romann said.

Nip bottles have become a source of frustration in other communities as well. In Massachusetts, the towns of Falmouth, Newton, and Mashpee banned their sale at liquor stores, and just last Tuesday, the Oak Bluffs select board decided to put the matter up for consideration.

And it is not just the Bay State.

In Rhode Island, towns like Johnston, Cranston and Warwick have a problem too.

The hour and half-meeting was not just a venting session or the exchanging of stories from the war front about litter and nip bottles. Participants offered ideas on reducing waste and increasing awareness, such as enforcement measures and partnering with civic organizations like the Lions Club to assist with a cleanup plan.

While acknowledging that the battle will not be easy, participants said they believe it is worth waging. Despite the work ahead in changing people’s attitudes and behaviors, there is hope, they said.

A 2020 National Litter Study published in May of 2021 by Keep American Beautiful (a nonprofit dedicated to educating individuals on how to improve and beautify their community) which is located here, reported there had been a significant reduction in litter in the last decade through educating the public (in schools, extracurricular programs and general education campaigns.)

Next steps

The next meeting is Sunday, March 26, at 1 p.m. at the New England Carousel Museum (95 Riverside Avenue). Anyone interested is welcome and encouraged to attend. Scheduled for an hour, organizers say, “feel free to bring a friend and your brown bag lunch.”

The Bristol Ordinance Committee’s next meeting is Tuesday, March 7, at 5 p.m. at City Hall West (2nd floor above Police Department). A discussion on updating the littering ordinance is on the agenda.

Beautify Bristol is a Facebook page that provides group updates and photos of residents cleaning up neighborhoods.