Hundreds scour riverbanks and pathways for Calgarians’ trash
Volunteers by the hundreds descended on the city ’s riverbanks and pathways Sunday to pick up what careless Calgarians left behind.
After a long, relentless winter, there was no shortage of refuse scooped up along rivers, creeks and 200 kilometres of pathways by an army of more than 2,500 volunteers, coaxed out by sunny skies for the 51st-annual cleanup, said Hadi Fares with the City of Calgary.
“Last year, we picked up about 1,400 kilograms and we’re probably going to have the same this time,” Fares said.
Among the debris collected were sleeping bags, model aircraft, shopping carts and vegetation hardly indigenous to the Calgary region, he said.
“For some reason, every year we’re finding coconuts,” Fares said.
But the Calgary Parks official said he doesn’t think the amount of trash plucked from paths and riverbanks reflects badly on Calgarians.
“It’s a big city and over such a long winter, you get a lot of stuff that gets away,” Fares said.
Less charitable was a spokeswoman for Ducks Unlimited, whose volunteers spent the afternoon cleaning up the reconstructed wetlands of Pearce Estate Park.
“Unfortunately, things fall out of people’s pockets, some people don’t know how to use garbage cans and leave behind stuff that wildlife can get into, and it’s not safe for them,” Jenel Bode said.
But Fares said the turnout among cleanup volunteers was impressive, with 120 groups showing up to pick up trash in as many areas around the city.
“There’s a lot of new groups and big groups coming out,” he said.
About 45 members of SAIT’s alumni and staff scoured pathways and the banks of the Elbow River at Sandy Beach Park for debris, filling “a couple of dozen” garbage bags, said spokeswoman Courteney Garlough. It’s impressive there wasn’t more of a mess to clean up, she said.
“Sandy Beach is one of those places where people come every day and they take care of it,” Garlough said.
Among the heavier items found were what appeared to be discarded natural gas meters and copper pipe, she said.
While some of the trash is hauled off to city landfills, crews are doing their best to recycle what they can, Fares said. He noted anyone interested in cleaning up pathways and rivers can do so throughout the year, and can go to calgary.ca/ tlckits to acquire cleanup kits.