Talking Trash With Dan Nardini

Dan Nardini bags litter at Southington's Recreation Park PHILIP THIBODEAU PHOTOS

Heat rolled from the blacktop at Recreation Park and the sky was white with smoke from distant Canadian wildfires. On this humid Saturday afternoon in Southington, most people who were outside were trying to get relief: splashing in a swimming pool, cruising in a convertible, or spooning gelato at the Italian-American festival. Clearing a public space of litter might have its benefits, but cooling off was not one of them.

From Dan Nardini’s point of view, however, sometimes you have to look at more than your personal comfort. As he sees it, our environment is fouled with trash and other forms of pollution; since we are the ones who put it there, it’s our duty to deal with it. The place to start? Wherever you happen to live. “’Think globally, act locally’, is my motto,” Dan says.

Besides, he points out, you can get in your steps – Dan tries to hit 10,000 a day – and when you’re finished, you can look back with satisfaction on a job well done. Once free of trash, most areas will stay clean for the remainder of the year.

Armed with a gripper stick capable of grabbing items as small as a soda-can tab, Dan set out to patrol the southern half of the park, expecting his bag would be full within the hour. Litter can turn up anywhere, but tends to collect near fences that act as windbreaks, and places where crowds gather, like spectator stands. Plastic straws and mylar packaging are easy picking, while paper products tend to cling to the soil.

Removing litter has become more rewarding for Dan after a minor brush with fame. Back in April, after an early effort to gather trash along the Farmington Canal trail, he took a picture of his haul and posted it on the Southington Talks Facebook page. He expected a photo of some garbage to score a few laughs before vanishing from sight. Much to his surprise, it became wildly popular, garnering several hundred hearts and thumbs-ups.

Others were inspired to imitate his project; the United Way joined in, organizing a litter clean-up Day of Action in June. As a result, Southington’s portion of the canal trail is now much cleaner. Dan has now shifted his focus to Recreation Park, and hopes to tackle Panthorn next, which he sees as a formidable task, given its size.

Asked to name his least favorite bits of trash, Dan mentioned cigarette butts (which don’t break down) and plastic bags of dog poop (there the gripper stick proves its worth). Another nemesis: nip bottles – the small, 1.5 ounce liquor bottles sold at the counters of liquor stores.

A discarded nip bottle

It is hard to walk far along any stretch of public road without encountering an empty nip bottle on the shoulder. The reason for this has to do with state law. The ten cents one can receive for redeeming glass, metal, or plastic bottles provides incentive for people to gather empties from trash cans or public spaces.

However, the state treats revenue from the nip bottle tax differently, returning it directly to the towns. Over the two year period from October 2021 to September 2023, 671,911 nip bottles were sold in Southington and the town received $119,371 from the state. According to the CT Beverage Journal, towns are encouraged, but not required, to use the funds for recycling and litter removal efforts. Since the bottles have no redemption value, there is no incentive to gather or return them, and as a result they tend to be one of the major components of curbside trash.

Dan would like to see the law changed to address the littering issue. This past spring, at a library town hall held by Representative Poulos, the audience offered vocal support for such a measure.

After collecting for nearly an hour, Dan had a half a bag’s worth of litter. Recreation Park, already reasonably tidy, was in good shape. Little Leaguers can now enjoy unspoiled playing fields; when workers from the Parks and Recreation Department mow, they don’t have to worry about chopping plastic cups into pieces.

A retired software engineer, Dan has other pastimes, including golfing and walking dogs at the animal shelter. He also has a personal project – to attend at least one college basketball game at every Division I arena – that involves flying as far away as Hawaii. Picking up trash, by contrast, takes him about an hour a week. By doing so and publicizing it in a way that has inspired others to follow suit, Dan is on his way to making all of Southington’s most popular public spaces litter-free.

Lock Your Car, It's Zucchini Season

A Recipe for Stuffed Zucchini and Peppers

Each summer, gardeners face an abundance of zucchini and are often in desperate need of good recipes to use them up. You may be used to stuffed "zucchini boats," where the cook slices the zucchini the long way and scoops out a space for the filling. This recipe cuts, cores, and stuffs zucchini Lebanese-style, hollowing out a tube for stuffing.

I was lucky to find small, round zucchini at Carmody Farm in Cheshire, but this recipe works equally well if you chunk a large zucchini into several 4" segments.

JILL R. KELLY PHOTOS

Carmody also had a pretty variety of small peppers.

Stuffed Zucchini and Peppers is a very forgiving recipe. All amounts are approximate. The result will be good with a bit more or less of anything. If you leave out the chili sauce, it makes a meal that is popular with children.

I have written this recipe with instructions for cooking in the Instant Pot, for convenience on a busy week night, but you can also cook it on the stovetop for a long, slow simmer.

Two ingredients in this recipe may be unfamiliar to some readers, but both can be easily obtained: bulgur wheat and Asian chili-garlic sauce. Bulgur, also called bulgar or burghul, is the grain used to make tabbouleh, the popular Middle Eastern parsley salad. The recipe will turn out fine with any type of bulgur; you don't need to find coarse, but it is nice and chewy. The chili-garlic sauce can be substituted with any hot sauce (if you like it) and a crushed clove of garlic.

Ingredients:

several peppers, depending on size, stems and seeds removed

1 or 2 big zucchini, cut into 4” segments and cored

or several small round zucchini, cored

(It's not a bad idea to place the raw vegetables into your pot to see how many will be able to fit comfortably.)

1 cup bulgur wheat

8 to 16 oz. ground beef (optional)

1 onion

1 heaping tbsp tomato paste

1 heaping tbsp Asian chili-garlic sauce (or to taste)

3 tbsp olive oil

4 ripe summer tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, crushed

about 2 tbsp white vinegar

1-2 cups broth, any kind

one handful each fresh parsley and mint

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Heat the olive oil and saute the tomato paste and garlic-chili sauce for a few minutes. Add the bulgur. Mix and fry for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add one cup of water and set aside to cool and soak.

Use that time to get everything else ready. Grind the onion and the herbs in a food processor. Separately grind the tomatoes to a puree.

In a large bowl, combine the ground onion and herbs, salt, pepper, and a few spoonfuls of the tomato. Add the bulgur mixture and the raw meat and mix well. Stuff the vegetables with this mixture. If there is extra filling, make a few meatballs. Pile the stuffed vegetables and meatballs into the Instant Pot (or other pot).

Pour the tomato puree over the vegetables. Add garlic, vinegar, salt and pepper. Then add the broth. These will get mixed as the Instant Pot cooks.

Set the Instant Pot to low-pressure cook for 30 minutes.

If cooking on the stovetop, cover and bring the pot to a boil. Turn to low, cover, and simmer for one hour.

Serves 4-8, depending on your choices about the number of vegetables and quantity of meat.

Extra: Yoghurt Sauce

We usually eat these stuffed vegetables with an easy yoghurt sauce.

Combine about a cup of plain yoghurt with a crushed garlic clove, a few teaspoons of lemon juice, a splash of olive oil, and salt to taste. Mix well to fully incorporate the oil.

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