Fewer Volunteers Turn Out for Spring Clean Up
Prince George, B.C. – The final number hasn’t been released yet, but one of the organizers of this year’s Spring Clean Up in Prince George figures less garbage was collected this year than last.
Terri McClymont, executive director of REAPS, says that’s likely due to the big drop in volunteers which fell from around 4,600 people last year to around 1,500 yesterday.
Regardless, she isn’t disappointed.
“Everybody always has lots to do and the weather really wasn’t conducive,” says McClymont. “But I know there’s lots of individuals that are always out there picking up litter and that’s one of the things I heard from many people for the Spring Clean Up.
McClymont says 11,000 kilograms of garbage was collected last year and expects to release this year’s numbers in a couple of days.
Comments
How sad that every year a bunch of volunteers have to go out and clean up after a bunch of lazy slobs!
Finally, somebody who sees it like I have stated! Even in the suburbs of Surrey, Delta, Cloverdale I have been on the side streets, bushy areas, etc., those areas are far tidier than around PG. I totally agree Hart Guy!
Weather and Telus Cup may be the reason.
I believe that as a society, we have hit the tipping point regarding volunteers doing work that should be done by paid staff. I am looking at pulling back on most of what I volunteer for because I am burned out and getting frankly tired of being asked to do more and more every year.
We pay for garbage removal so the City should be picking it up.
You’re suggesting we should be free to dump our litter willy-nilly because we pay for garbage removal? I think this is the kind of entitled attitude that is the root of the litter problem. It’s someone else’s job.
Maybe we need to have another job fair. We have had many of them over the last ten yrs. of non existing jobs. The City could be holding a job fair for students to do the cleanup twice a year. After all this is one way to create much needed employment. I also think we could get this done without TFW’s.
From what I have observed over the years, our local litter issue is primarily caused by 3 things:
– careless littering (high schools are shining examples)
– needless littering (overflowing garbage cans sitting out on the street, sometimes a full day ahead of pickup schedule)
– unsecured garbage (in personal vehicles and commercial garbage bins being transported to landfill)
There are other factors too, such as scavengers (human and animals) puling trash from cans.
Packaging of consumer goods is a very wasteful process, much of it is nothing more than cosmetic or related to ease of distribution. Our world leaders talk of saving the planet, but nobody seems to want to deal with the obvious.
It’s shameful that we find the need for a volunteer “clean up day” to clean up someone else’s trash…
BUT to those who get out there to try to make our world a little cleaner/a little better, you deserve recognition… thank you!
Numerous good posts here. Nice to see some people putting the issues out there! Watch dog especially good. Scavengers? Boils down to people having no bear sense whatsoever. Year after year there are idiots in my neighbourhood who just don’t get it that bears forage for food sources before and after hibernating, never ceases to amaze me!
Volunteering hmmm, everyone wants people’s labor free and yet it costs those people out of their own pocket to do these things. Tired of volunteering, who is going to volunteer to cut my grass , shovel my snow, repair my house and car, pay my taxes, etc? No one, time to pay these people some income for their efforts and valuable time. These organizations want everything free and then reap the overall benefits. There are people who collect welfare and many who do not work and expect things free. These people can work……………
manofsteel have to agree. Another thought who is going to take care of you if you are injured while doing this cleanup. You could be hit by a vehicle,cut with broken glass, slip and break a leg and the list goes on. You can bet that Work Safe would not be interested with your claim.
I as well appreciate the hard work of all the volunteers who work hard to keep our city clean.
I would however like to see fast food places take more responsibility for keeping their areas clean of litter. Many years ago I worked at 7-11 on 20th? We were asked to pick litter for a three block radius once a week. I believe Tim Hortons, Macdonalds, Starbucks, A& W etc should be responsible for at least a one km radius around their establishments.
I also think Superstore should make more of an effort to keep their surroundings clean of litter. The shrubs on ferry and Hiway 16 West are continuously filled with garbage. They have a man that empties litter in the parking lot on a daily basis. Would it be too much to ask they hire one extra person once a week to help out.
Just my rant.
I was behind a vehicle full of teenagers turning left off the bypass going towards PGSS, back window opens up and out comes a McDonalds bag full of garbage, honked my horn and got the finger from the driver. Nice!
acrider55, a similar thing happened in front of me a few years ago. As I wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere at that particular moment in time, I followed the car until it stopped in a driveway. When the group of people got out, I politely asked the driver for a few minutes of his time, during which time I pointed out to him that I was behind his vehicle when the door opened and the garbage was dropped on to the street. I politely informed him that I written down his licence plate and that I had now confirmed what he looked like. I informed him that I was on my way to report him to the RCMP and that I was more than willing to take time to attend court if it came down to it.
I then offered him an option. I told him that if he and his friends were willing to go back to the intersection to retrieve their garbage, I would be willing to forego reporting him to the police. The only condition was that I would follow him to verify that they picked up the garbage and that they then took it back home and put it in their garbage can.
By the time that they returned to the intersection, their garbage of course was strewn all over the place, but the 4 young men got out and managed to picked everything up. When they returned to their home and put the litter in their garbage can, I simply responded with a polite “Thank You” and left it at that!
I hope that they appreciated my offer and in turn learned a bit of a lesson, the kind of lesson that might stick with them! ;-)
Great idea abcdefg! As for the finger, too bad you couldn’t bump them to the side of the road! Don’t know what I would have done, but me and my type A character I would have stopped , picked it up, and if at all possible take it to the school. Hard to say as I wasn’t there. Pretty frustrating! Manofsteel I totally agree, as some of these capable bums should be forced to go out and do community work. At least be some kind of asset instead of an anchor!
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