Have you seen nips – those tiny plastic bottles from liquor stores – discarded around your neighborhood?
Thanks to community clean-up efforts and a potential new “bottle bill,” Rhode Island could begin to see much fewer of these bottles in our streets and rivers!
The Great Nip Pickup Challenge, overseen by Bill McCusker, is a volunteer-led effort to clean up discarded nips throughout the state. Volunteers have collected over 34,800 bottles so far, over a span of 60 days in 31 towns.
Thanks to these efforts, McCusker’s organization, Friends of the Saugatucket, and other partner organizations like Save the Bay, presented photos of all the nips that were collected to a rally on March 9 at the Statehouse in support of a container deposit law, also known as a “bottle bill.” This bill, H5502, would provide a 10-cent refund for containers that are at least 50 milliliters and no more than 3 liters. If the bill gets passed, not only would this provide a financial incentive for people who need it, but it could also help reduce the number of plastic containers like nips getting thrown out and increase recycling across the state.
For now, you can get involved in the Great Nip Pickup Challenge! There are several locations where you can drop off bottles at participating organizations:
- Save The Bay has a recycling bin at the public pier at Fields Point in Providence, where collected nips can be dropped off between 8:30am and 4:30pm, Monday-Friday. There will be a final collection day at that location on March 19 from 9am to 1pm.
- There will also be a one-time collection at the Exploration Center & Aquarium in Newport from 10am to 2pm. Those who bring nips to be dropped off will also receive free admission to the aquarium on that day.
- The WRWC is also participating in the challenge, collecting nips until March 27th. The WRWC’s collection site is at the River Ranger containers at Riverside Park at the corner of Aleppo Street and Bosworth Street, with a drop-off at anytime.
Read the full story from EcoRI News here.