The Nip Bottle Report, Final Edition

 

We're just past peak foliage in the Meriden area. As the sun rose over the city, it warmed up nicely and would turn out to be a comfortable fall day.

Visit #1392, Sunday 30 October 22, 7:05-10:10AM, 4.25 miles, 27.2 lbs. of litter.*(see note, below)

Just another day trimming the road side up to East/West Peak. Now that I've reached the fork in the road to East/West Peak, I've pointed my pole saw toward Castle Craig.

When I approached this week's starting point for my trimming, I found a traffic cone and some signage.

I was unaware there was a Halloween-themed running event being held in Hubbard Park today, and I read the newspaper religiously!

While I didn't see a black dog, I did see a German Shepard, a brown lab, a Shih Tzu, and a pair of white full-size poodle-like things. They could have been Black Dogs in Halloween costumes, but I wasn't gonna ask.

Best I could do for my part was pick up litter on the portion of the road I was working on, and around the Castle Craig parking lot and surrounding area before the runners arrived at the turnaround.

I hiked the trails back, and reached the parking lot as runners were returning through the timing chute.

The real news this week is about nip bottles.

I first reported on nip bottles in Hubbard Park back in September 2013.

And again in February 2019.

But one year ago, I got the bright idea to see just how many nip bottles I could collect in Hubbard Park in one year.

Mind you, most of my work is away from the developed portion of Hubbard Park but when the occasion arose I would pick up litter there as well and save the nip bottles.

There is clearly a greater concentration of people using the developed portion of Hubbard Park, and by my casual observation, many more nip bottles to be found there as well. I'm sure I missed the opportunity to collect more.

So how many did I collect from October 2021 to October 2022?

The answer- 307. *They weighed 14.2 lbs., which I added to this week's litter collection tally.

I wouldn't be surprised if I could have doubled my annual haul by concentrating on the developed portion of the park.

You can revisit the original Record-Journal article HERE.

And a Record Journal Opinion column HERE.

Had the State of Connecticut imposed a five cent deposit on nip bottles, I might have been fifteen bucks richer.

But a deposit makes no sense for when you're getting poopy-faced on a nip, you aren't thinking straight enough to care about the environment. For that matter, you probably don't care enough about the environment even when you're sober.

The five cent surcharge the state eventually settled on makes more sense. Obviously the legislators were not pounding down nips when they made their wise decision.

Happy Halloween!