PORTLAND, Maine —The Natural Resources Council of Maine organized a cleanup of Portland’s Back Cove Sunday afternoon.
About 20 people came out for the annual Baxter Boulevard Green Up and Clean Up event. They removed and sorted about 20 pounds of trash.
“We found 25 bags just in one group alone today at this cleanup,” said Ryan Code of the Surf Rider Foundation of Maine. “We’re only one out of eight groups doing this, so it’s clearly a problem and we want to do something about it to stop the amounts of plastic getting into the ocean.”
Organizers said most of the trash they collected was plastic wrapping, bags or Styrofoam containers. They said the trash is proof the city needs to approve an ordinance that establishes a five cent fee on plastic bags.
“We found toothbrushes, bags of all kinds, polystyrene cups, quite a few, one plastic deflated ball floating, an old foam dog ball,” said John Hinck, a Portland city councilor.
Portland Public Works donated trash bags to help with the cleanup and hauled the garbage away afterward. The city council is expected to vote on the ordinance Monday night following a public-comment session.
