Litter Cleanup around the Cameron Recreation Complex, Burnaby – June 24, 2023

Highlights From The Day

• 74 amazing members of the community joined us and contributed over 200 hours total!
  • Thank you so much for your hard work and enthusiasm: Aaron, Akari, Andrew H., Andrew D., Angel, Art, Barb, Caden Qinyang, Cathy, Chau, Cheryl, Chris, Davis, Diana, Edwin, Ethan, Fen, Gordon, Grant, Guangdao, Hanh, Hanxi (Jonathan), Harry, Hoi Ning (Helin), Huaxi (Rebecca), Ian I., Ian H., Jason, Jerome, Ji Hee, Jia (Clarissa), Jiapei, Jiarui (Jerry), Jisong, John, Jonathan C., Jonathan Z., Juan, Julia, Kaelyn, Kathy, Ken, Kira, Kunpeng (Edwin), Lauren, Leoh, Liana, Mina Yuqi, Mira, Mike, Nicholas, Owen, Pagul, Pintai (Peter), Qinmo (Daniel), Rebecca Huaxi, Richard, Robert, Roy, Ryan, Seoan, Sesame, Steve, Sylvie, Tarrah, Tetiana, Tin Yau (Tiann), Trevor, Vince, Vincent, VJ, Xianyi (Aden), Yixi (Cici) and YongLin (Lynne)!
  • Thank you Diana for arriving early and helping us get set up!

• All ages, backgrounds, and experience levels were engaged including families, returning Green Team volunteers, and first-timers!
  • 50 people visited the Cameron Recreation Complex for the first time
  • 35 people cleaned up litter for the first time

• Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley and Councillor Richard T. Lee joined us at this activity to clean up litter and personally thanked our volunteers for coming together to care for the Burnaby community and environment
  • Thank you both for your support of our work in the community!
  • Special thanks to Mayor Hurley for helping make our involvement in this cleanup possible!

• Together our team:
  • Removed 136 pounds of litter big and small (about 1/10 the weight of a Grizzly bear) from areas surrounding the Cameron Recreation Complex to keep litter out of our streets, waterways and ecosystems
    • 1,817+ cigarette butts were removed, a tiny but deadly piece of plastic, toxic litter. This was the most common item found!
    • 1,180+ pieces of plastic were removed
    • 713+ pieces of paper were removed
    • Additional items found included styrofoam, curtains, velcro, a ping pong ball, chunks of brick and cement, hair clips, an eraser, nails, a backpack, an unwound cassette tape, clothing, dog poop bags, bandaids, masks, a button, metal wire, ear plugs, a key and more!
• Scroll down to see some in-action shots!

• John from the Stoney Creek Environment Committee, a dedicated group of volunteers committed to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the Stoney Creek watershed, joined us and spoke about their important work!
  • Thank you to all the members of this local group who do an excellent job caring for and advocating for Stoney Creek and the surrounding areas!

• Thank you to the following local businesses for their support and contributions to this activity:
  • Tru Earth for providing Laundry Detergent Strips to reward our amazing community
  • Big K Clothing for donating high visibility vests to keep our volunteers safe
  • ICS Clean Supplies for donating gloves, hand sanitizer and offering discounts on bags and litter pickers to make this cleanup possible

• Our Community Investment Partner, the City of Burnaby, provided direction and funding to make this activity possible!
  • Special thanks to Erik Schmidt, Zac Dér and Mario Bolognese in the Engineering Department for their contributions before and during this activity to make it so successful!

• This was the LARGEST litter cleanup the Lower Mainland Green Team has ever run!

In-Action Photos

The below photos were taken by our staff, City staff and our amazing volunteers! Lyda baked delicious cookies to give to those who helped take photos to capture moments from this awesome day.

A few of our volunteers joined our Environment Week activity on June 10, 2023 at the Cariboo Heights Forest in Burnaby and recognized an invasive plant, Small balsam, that is super easy and fun to remove. We had an impromptu invasive plant removal when we saw a patch of this invasive plant!

Why Do We Do This Work?

The Lower Mainland Green Team organizes hands-on educational activities that have a positive environmental impact to empower people. Through activities such as invasive plant removals, plantings, litter cleanups and more, we are fostering connections with others and nature so that health and well-being is prioritized, lifelong environmental stewardship is promoted, and community members are enabled to take care of themselves, each other and the places they live. We all have the power to make a difference!

We all experience mental and physical health benefits from spending time in nature, including reduced stress and anxiety, and improved mood, focus, memory and more. While doing so, we can also have a positive impact on the environment as demonstrated through this activity!

Partner For This Activity

This activity was made possible thanks to financial support and direction from the City of Burnaby Engineering Department. Thank you Erik and Zac!

Through this partnership we are combining our expertise to achieve our common goals – a win for all! Thank you City of Burnaby for investing in your community and environment through the work of our organization.

We will be organizing 3 more litter cleanups with the City of Burnaby throughout the summer — Join us on July 29 (Bonsor Recreation Complex), August 26 (Edmonds Community Centre) and September 30 (Eileen Dailly Leisure Pool & Fitness Centre) from 9:45am-1pm!

Local Groups to Get Involved With

The Stoney Creek Environment Committee (SCEC) is a dedicated group of volunteers committed to protecting, preserving, and enhancing Burnaby’s urban forest and salmon bearing Stoney Creek through various stream-keeping activities.

John Templeton, the president of the SCEC, joined us and spoke about their important work. This urban creek, alongside others, faces many challenges, but the work of the SCEC and the amazing feats its accomplished demonstrate the power of coming together and lending nature a helping hand!

Salmon continue to return to Stoney Creek thanks to the voice, dedication and care of community volunteers. This impactful group would love have more amazing people like you join them! Check out their website to learn more about the SCEC and the many ways you can get involved!

What Volunteers Said

“Got to clean up the neighbourhood. Removed an unimaginably large amount of cigarette butts . Once there’s garbage in an area it attracts more garbage so it was great trying to prevent that “spiral” from happening. Can’t wait to join another event!!!”

– Aaron

“I really enjoyed all of the people at the event. The Green Team staff brought positive vibes to the event (and yummy food). Many of the staff at Solid Waste and Recycling are also great people to be around (and knowledgable). It was nice to see so many younger people at the event. The turnout of participants was much greater than last year. The photos taken of the event are very high quality and much appreciated. The many snacks and refreshments exceeded my expectations.

This program seems very impactful. I will there were more scheduled litter cleanups around the city and in other lower mainland cities.”

– Ryan

“It was my first volunteering service in Canada and I enjoyed it. I felt a sense of accomplishment and my team lead was understanding, helpful, and guided me in the whole process. I did meet a couple of new people and everyone was amazing to work with.

I felt that the impact of the program is not only to help clean litter for a small portion of land but to give a sense of not littering to the people who came and those who saw us volunteering.”

– Edwin

“We feel that it is a very meaningful activity for the community, and we also enjoy doing it with you and expect to join the next activity”

– Julia

“I really enjoyed the experience and felt really good after. Thank you so much for this experience!!”

– Diana

Our Staff

This activity was led by the Lower Mainland Green Team‘s Program Manager, Ashton Kerr (left), and Green Teams of Canada‘s founder and Executive Director, Lyda Salatian (right), who also founded our Lower Mainland Green Team in 2011!

THANK YOU!