Community cleanup
Children around Pictou County participated in a community cleanup in honour of Earth Day
A Lismore youth led other children in cleaning up litter in their neighbourhood Saturday morning as part of an Earth Day weekend fightback against garbage.
Danielle MacEachern from Bailey’s Brook led a group of other children in collecting tossed garbage from roadsides around Lismore, ahead of Earth Day on Sunday.
“I think it’s very important, because there’s lots of ongoing issues with the environment and I don’t think people realize how much garbage is really out there,” said MacEachern, who started the Lismore Youth Initiative.
Indeed, garbage is a global problem, with plastic waste pouring into oceans and killing off marine life.
A swirling mass of plastic garbage has collected in the Pacific Ocean across an area estimated to be roughly the size of France, posing a major hazard to sea life.
Closer to home, fishermen using the Northumberland Strait are protesting against Northern Pulp’s proposal to pump treated effluent from its mill into the sea.
But MacEachern’s main concern Saturday was thoughtless motorists who toss litter out of vehicles.
“I would advise them to keep it in the car until they get home and then throw it out properly so it’s not harming the environment,” said MacEachern.
On Earth Day itself, MacEachern is partaking in an Earth Day celebration at Lismore’s community centre. The event will inform people about small things they can do to help the environment as well as global environmental issues.
Her own community drive comes just days after students at Stellarton’s G.R. Saunders Elementary School and Pictou Landing First Nation School launched their own litter pickup drives to help clean up Pictou County.
Both MacEachern and the school groups are operating under the banner of Go Clean Get Green campaign, which promotes a healthy environment and greater environmental awareness in Pictou County.
By teaching children about picking up litter and other good environmental habits early on, GCGG hopes to instill greener habits for life.