The Central Long Island Chapter was successful in having the Town of Babylon add covered recycling containers on the beach alongside the trash containers at the town-operated Gilgo Beach. For a long time there were only trash containers on the beach and no recycling at Gilgo town beach. The existing trash containers were open and often spilling over with garbage, especially after busy summer weekends. Much of this plastic waste surely ended up on the beach or in the ocean. The Chapter wrote a letter to the town Supervisor Steve Bellone, encouraged our members to write the town, and were getting petition signatures when the town produced the recycling bins just in time for the summer season of 2011. The Town of Babylon prides itself on its curbside recycling program and other environmental measures within the town, so it only made sense for them to provide that on their beaches too. NY now has an expanded bottle deposit law (see April 2009 victory) so all those plastic water bottles are now worth five cents.
