Cans, plastic bags, a “nasty cat thing” and even a bed frame.
These are some of the things pulled out of the ditches last year in the first annual, Clean Up Bowen.
And for this year’s event — Saturday, April 21 — organizer Karen Munro says, she hopes to get double the participants and cover a wider area.
“We need a lot more people to do a lot more of the island,” she says, adding last year there was about 40 or so people involved. “I’d love to double that.”
Last year’s event mainly focused mostly on main roads.
“I'm hoping this year neighbourhoods will take on more of a role, and then want to set up something where each neighbourhood does it in the fall as well,” she says. “And just keep up on it.”
The clean up is eye opening for people, she says.
“When they go into the ditch and see how much is really in there — people are floored,” she says.
“When you get into the ditches it’s actually quite vile.”
Like the "nasty cat thing," she said, a scratch stand they had to dig out of the ground.
It’s also frustrating since it’s hard to imagine who would toss garbage into ditches.
“We don’t know who’s doing it,” she says, adding higher fines might help.
This year’s event is the day before Earth Day, and it also coincides with the municipality’s Dump Day. (Full details on this at www.bowenislandmunicipality.ca/clean-up-days or call Bowen Waste Service at 604-947-2255.)
In other words, plan on tackling some trash.
"It's just a giant clean up day for the whole island on the Earth Day weekend," Munro says.
"So much waste gets brought in by everybody. Yes, you're cleaning up your own stuff but why don't you consider walking out to the front of your property and just cleaning up the front of your property on the road. That's what I would ask everybody to do."
To organize a neighbourhood team for picking up localized litter, e-mail [email protected], and to join in the Clean Up Bowen on-location, meet at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 21 at The Legion.
