Passing bags around, parents chatted while kids learned how to help pick up recyclables and trash. That was all a part of the EcoPel Fall Town Cleanup Saturday. EcoPel and high school group Pelham Eliminates Plastic worked together on the project.

EcoPel does these cleanups around Pelham, especially after Halloween, to pick up trash that ends up on the ground, in bushes and by fences.

On Saturday, people brought gloves and were ready to work by the time they got to the work area. There, every family collected one recycling bag and one trash bag for the cleanup.

“I feel good about doing this,” said Manu Naik. “Pollution is a really bad issue, and one step can change a lot.”

After volunteers got their bags and were ready to work, EcoPel members recommended places with a lot of trash for the participants to work on. Some candy-wrapper filled spots included Prospect Hill School, Shore Road, Boston Post Road, Hutchinson School, Lincoln Avenue and Wolfs Lane.  In this event, there were really no rules for anyone to follow, so people went wherever they wanted to pick up trash.

“Pelham Eliminates Plastics is a student-run organization” at Pelham Memorial High School, said PEP co-founder S.J. O’Connor. “And we’ve had a bunch of events in Pelham. We’ve worked with DeCicco’s to eliminate their plastic bags. We are mostly an awareness group, and we are really trying to influence the town through education to realize the facts of their actions on the world around us and starting locally is really important. For the Halloween cleanup, it’s mostly like on Halloween people are eating their candy, it might’ve fallen out of their bag, and we’re here to clean up after that because it will end up in the ocean otherwise.”

PEP is focused on spreading awareness on single-use plastics and eliminating them throughout the Pelham community and the world. PEP, after helping DeCicco’s get rid of  plastic bags, is working on the Pelham school district on their sustainability goals and lowering the amount of plastic waste that comes from the schools.

EcoPel is a group that works for a cleaner and greener environment. EcoPel, which stands for Environmental Coalition of the Pelhams, is a not-for-profit organization that focuses on all environmental problems. PEP partners with it for a lot of events, and they support each other.