BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

The Lee Recycling Committee was founded shortly after the Town's landfill was closed around 1990. The town's trash began to be hauled to the Materials Recycling Facility in Springfield, and the Town adopted a recycling bylaw to reduce the waste disposal costs. The Committee's efforts centered on promoting recycling. Over time, it started promoting composting, with the Town offering compost bins for sale at a deep discount.

In 2013, we started working to more actively address the trash issue by setting up stations during Founders Weekend to divert recyclables and compostables. Then in 2016, in honor of Earth Day, we held our first annul roadside cleanup - collecting hundreds of bags of trash and recyclables. The litter problem along most of Lee's through roads was so bad that we began to hold monthly roadside cleanups, attracting both persistent and occasional volunteers. Over time we've removed almost 2,000 large bags of trash and recyclables from our roadsides, along with myriad other items - thousands of nip bottles, a sink, a safe, bicycles, projection tv, car parts, tires, furniture, and more. And then there are cigarette butts. As described in a separate subsection, downtown Lee now has 11 butt collectors. We regularly check and empty them, then recycle the butts. Our collectors have so far kept thousands of butts off our streets and sidewalks.

Roadside litter is an ongoing problem, not just in Lee. Fortunately, the Town's DPW now takes primary responsibility for monitoring our roadsides. This effort has enabled the Committee to expand the scope of our service days. We've worked on community gardens downtown, pulled invasives from the Ferncliff Reservation, Golden Hill Town Forest, and Longcope Park; helped clean gravestones at Fairmount Cemetary; weeded a section of the verges along High Street (where pollinator friendly plants will be placed); and more. We also expect to help the Lee Land Trust with trail maintenance. 

Our small membership limits what we can do on our own, so we rely on volunteers to help us have a greater impact. We announce our service days on the Town website and through the Chamber of Commerce. Committee Vice Chair Valerie Bluhm maintains a list of volunteers and notifies them before each service day. With rare exceptions we hold them the last Saturday of the month, except during the winter, when we hold Learning Events. Rain dates are the following Sunday. Here's the announcement for our March 2026 service day. We then provide some information below about addressing roadside litter and our other service activities.

HOW YOU CAN HELP KEEP LEE CLEAN

Roadside litter is a problem throughout Lee. The litter detracts from one of the most popular recreational activities in town - walking along our roads. It can also adversely affect the environment - from soil quality to animal health. The litter also gives the impression that Lee residents and businesses don't care about our town, which just isn't true, but sometimes it looks like it. While probably a small minority of people litter, it affects the rest of us. 

You can help: After many years of annual and monthly roadside cleanups as Committee-sponsored events, we now include them only during our annual service day in  April in honor of Earth Day. This means that it's incumbent upon individual residents to be aware of roadside litter, pick it up, and dispose of it properly, separating out recyclables. Many of Lee's 55 miles of roadways have stretches with no houses - areas that are most frequently littered. Unfortunately, the litter keeps coming. Our small committee can't do it all. We need all the help we can get. Here's what you can do:

• don't litter
• speak up when we see other people littering
• pick up litter in your neighborhood
• participate in our annual cleanups

If people throughout town get involved, we can KEEP LEE CLEAN! And we can help you do that. We can lend people safety vests, pickup tools, gloves, and some bags. If you're interested, please contact Valerie Bluhm ([email protected]) or Peter Hofman ([email protected]). Thank you! We're grateful to everyone who has participated in our cleanups and to all those who pick up litter on their own! You're all making Lee a greener gateway to the Berkshires...and a more attractive place to live and visit!

Our Expanded Service Day Activities

We noted some of the expanded activities we've undertaken during our service days.Our November 2025 service day spent pulling invasives from Longcope Park was covered by the Berkshire Eagle. Here's the story - it's worth reading.

Here are a couple of pictures of other activities: 

Pulling invasives from Ferncliff Reservation behind St. Mary's School and weeding and planting along the alley next to Town Hall