This digital story was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Students at the Amsterdam Environmental Study Team, by Schoharie River Center and New York Folklore Society.
Speaker 1: So, I'm out at Mayfield Lake. And, just showing the shore line here. So if you come up to the shore line, everything is starting to recede. And you can see. You can see all these little pellets.
Speaker 2: What's that?
Speaker 1: Those are plastic pellets. So over here, some of the melting. You can see all these little plastic pellets.
Speaker 3: [:40] Coleco was a toy company that exploded in popularity in the early 1980s, before quickly falling off due to bankruptcy in the late 1980s. In the early 1950s, before it was a huge name brand, Coleco opened a plant in the small town of Mayfield, New York. Which at first produced themed Moccasin kits, but then in 1956 the company began experimenting with plastics to produce new toys such as miniature golf sets, and would later expand to producing wading pools, toy army helmets, sleds, and video games.
Speaker 4: [1:13] There was a Coleco plane up there and they would bring in these plastic beads and blow them into Coleco's you know, silos or whatever they had to store them in. And then they made toys and games and all that other stuff. And that's when they would use their plastic in them all. But when they did that, they were all over the streets up there. And when it rained, they'd wash down and they'd wash into the street drainage system. What goes in the streets, goes in the Mayfield lake. There are literally billions of them. It's very common now, that's been doing that for since probably back in the 60s.
Speaker 3: [1:55] The Mayfield town historian provided copies of village records that we analyzed for any mentions of Coleco's presence or of plastic in Mayfield's lake in the past. The examination of village meeting records provided information indicating that the public had raised concerns about the presence of plastic in Mayfield Lake, dating back to 1973. This knowledge was collected from the Village of Mayfield's meeting notes from a meeting between Coleco and the village board on June 10th, 1974. During the meeting, there were 8 points of discussion brought up. One of which stated, "There are some plastic pellets in Mayfield Lake, but the problem is much improved over 1973."
Speaker 3: [2:33] The plastic pellets are again referred to in minutes from a village board meeting, on April 10th, 1977. Where a resident who lived on the lake, "brought in a sample of plastic pellets collected from the shoreline which had found its way from the Coleco plant into the lake." According to the town's meeting minutes, on May 2nd, 1977. The Coleco plant acknowledging the issue, promised to clean up "any concentration of pellets around the Lake." This was a promise that was never delivered upon as in 1989, Coleco sold all of its assets to Hasbro. Closing its stores in Mayfield and leaving behind seemly endless amounts of pollution that would maintain its presences on the land in which it was left for many years to come.
Speaker 5: [3:17] We use the definition of microplastics as particles that are 5 millometers or less, in size. So that's about 1/5 of an inch or a little less than a quarter of an inch, something like that.
Asset ID: 8538
For a complete transcript, please visit the Museum on Main Street website: www.museumonmainstreet.org
