Mission: The Green Acton Plastics Subcommittee works under the auspices of the Materials Committee to reduce the use of unnecessary and (especially) single-use plastics in the Town of Acton. The subcommittee researches plastics issues, educates the public about them, and advocates for reductions in plastics use, sometimes including work to change Town bylaws, policies, and/or… Continue reading →
Water Committee
Mission: Green Acton’s Water Committee works to protect and improve Acton’s ground, surface, and drinking water through information gathering, public education, advocacy, and collaboration with other concerned groups.
Land Use
How is Acton’s land used? How can it best be used to support long-term, sustainability? And how do we get from here to there? Land use is a large and complex topic. You can learn more from these pages:
Housing
After World War II, and in the past couple of decades, particularly, Acton has undergone a shift to being a bedroom community for more-or-less affluent people seeking excellent schools, single-family housing (and increasingly, luxury housing), car access for jobs in the greater Boston area, and a materially wealthy lifestyle. (Of course, not everyone who has… Continue reading →
Open Space
If a map of Acton eliminated all the buildings and roads and other human structures on the surface, what would be left is what is called “Open Space”: woods, meadows, marshes, streams, ponds, and rivers.
Trees
From the air, Acton appears to be a continuous forest of trees, interrupted from time to time by smaller features such as meadows, rivers, roads, and buildings.
Zoning
Acton’s zoning bylaw divides the town into multiple areas in which different uses of the land are allowed, limited, or prohibited. In one sense, zoning is a map of a desired future, and can lead us to consider: what would be the best ways to choose and arrange what happens in town?
Plastics
The term “plastics” is used for a wide variety of synthetic compounds built up from long chains of carbon with different compounds hanging off as side chains. The long chains give them the ability to bend, and the side chains mean they have many different properties that have made them popular in manufacturing.
Perspectives: 1,4-Dioxane in Acton Water
By Lucy Kirshner A year ago, I passed a neighbor on the street who shared her anxiety. “There is poison in our water!” she began. “It’s 1,4-Dioxane and the town knows, but all they’re doing is diluting it, not removing it.”
Unanimous vote in favor of Conant land purchase
There was standing room only at the Acton Water District special district meeting for the vote on whether to authorize the district to purchase 11.23 acres of land in the groundwater protection zones for the Conant 1 and 2 wells. Green Acton President Debra Simes read Green Acton’s position statement. The vote was unanimous in support… Continue reading →