Protect Our Paths!

Hudson’s Tomorrow runs a program that encourages high schoolers in attendance at Kingston High School to participate in these clean up days along the town of Kingston. This program is meant to spread awareness to Kingston students through the activity of trash pick up and discussion of the detrimental effects of a single piece of garbage to the ecosystems of the Hudson River.

Over the Summer our dedicated 6 members have all contributed to a pick up day and intercepted these pieces of trash before their runoff further polluted the nearby water streams and sewage drains. Our members dedicated to protect our aquatic ecosystems and water quality of the Hudson River have picked up a total of 40 pounds of trash from the path alone in four different separate pick up days.

The event itself shows the annoyance of having to pick after others carelessness and motivates students to better their own future behavior to avoid situations that result in the accumulation of trash along our streets. Along with these several events our students have gained more insight into the problem of waste pollution and the common pieces of trash we have found along the way:

• Cigarettes – releasing nicotine, pesticide residues, arsenic, and lead.

• Plastic bagged dog poop – dog poop naturally fertilizes the ground, it is a inconvenience to walk past but picking up dog poop with plastic bags. However, tossing them aside provides no solutions.

• Bottles (aluminum and plastic) – releasing microscopic plastics into our drinking water and air.

• Glass bottle caps – these bottle caps can contain a toxic chemical, phthalates.

• Glass shards – stick around for generations of years and can be consumed by aquatic species

• Food wrappers – the nonstick property is a result from PFAS, also nicknamed forever chemicals, that negatively affects the water quality.

Keep our trails clean in Kingston by properly disregarding items in proper bins!

Article written by Benny Jiang.