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From May 6 th through May 11th, 2018, consumers from around the country visited their local Lowe’s home improvement stores as a part of the “Mind the Store’s” Week of Action to urge Lowe’s to remove harmful chemicals from its products – in particular, methylene chloride commonly found in paint strippers. Massachusetts’ Clean Water Action staff Kadineyse Paz, Laura Spark, and myself went to Lowe’s in Braintree, MA to partake in this campaign on May 10 th (pictured above).

In the Lowe's in Dedham we had Clean Water Action New England Director Cindy Luppi join a longtime activist and her

All across the internet and throughout holiday conversations, everyone seems to be talking about what an awful year 2016 was. Between celebrity deaths and the election of Donald Trump, it definitely had some real black strikes against it. But as I’m looking back on the accomplishments of Clean Water Action in Massachusetts, I’m finding some real reasons to celebrate as well.

Here’s a reminder of some of 2016’s better moments!

The Massachusetts legislature passed a comprehensive energy bill that included guaranteed purchase of 1600 megawatts of offshore wind (the largest amount in the US)

This past Tuesday, December 13, Boston City Council hosted a public hearing to address a proposed "bring your own bag" ordinance seeking to reduce waste from plastic bags. Unimaginable numbers of plastic bags are used daily, for an average of 12 minutes before they are discarded. Unfortunately, less than 5% of single-use plastic bags are in fact recycled. Many people do not know how to deal with plastic bags. Really the only option for consumers is a bin in the occasional grocery store. But, like I said, only 5% of these bags ever make it to a recycling center.

The other 95% of plastic bags