Thank you to everyone who came to our litter clean-up at Langford Station:
Aaron, Abhmanyu, Ania, Chuhan, Claire, Corbin, Elnaz, Eugene, George, Hanni, Helene, Jasmine, Jieun, Jonathan, Juliana, Karen, Katherine, Kimberley, Kyle, Linus, Maria, Mark, Mary, Matte, Ren, Shannon, Siyu, Stephanie, Suyu, Tamara, Tyler, Wayne, and Yufei!
Thank you to our litter leaders who played a vital role in guiding and leading this community clean-up:
Ania, and Juliana
The beautiful sunny spring weather made for a perfect day to be outside! These dedicated community members had a great time working together to clean up the city!
Impacts
- 43 community members were engaged
- 140 hours were contributed to cleaning up Downtown Langford
- 14 participants visited Langford Station for the first time
- 23 community members participated in a litter clean-up for the first time
- 55 lbs of litter was removed – that is the approximate weight of a beaver!
- Over 8,600 pieces of litter were tracked and removed including:
- 7,283 cigarette butts
- 511 Pieces of paper / cardboard
- 366 food wrappers
- 162 pieces of plastic
- 139 plastic bags
- 93 cups & lids
- 60 pieces of metal
- 51 bottles & cans
- 36 pieces of glass
- 26 items of clothing/shoes
- and more!
- Some interesting finds included:
- Pieces of rebar and large drill bits
- Earrings
- Lego
- Badminton racket
- Hair ties
- Gum
- Vapes
- Lighters
- Balloons
- Shoe lace
- Hand warmer
- Lottery ticket
Highlights
- We had an incredible turnout at our first litter clean up of the year!
- City of Langford Councillor Mary Wagner joined us, and shared support and appreciation to everyone for coming together to take care of the community.
- Participants learned about the City of Langford’s Public Engagement Forum: an online way to become even more civically engaged! Check it out on their website here
- Our litter leaders, Ania and Juliana did a GREAT job supporting this activity. Thank you so much for helping supervise and keep everyone safe and having fun! Anyone interested in being a litter leader at an upcoming litter cleanup, can apply on our website HERE
- Community members joined us from all over the region with people joining us from as close as just up the street to all the way from downtown Victoria!
- It was an awesome day wherein new friendships were formed and a ton of fun was had while improving the health of the city!
- Ania, Juliana, and Eugene helped us weigh the litter and pack up at the end – thank you for your help!
- This was our 5th litter clean-up activity with the City of Langford. To see how past activities went, visit these blogs:
- People driving by honked, waved & verbalized their gratitude and residents waved and thanked us from their balconies! This was a very fun way to engage with the larger community and it felt great to be acknowledged and thanked for the efforts everyone was putting in!
- Delicious homemade brownies, strawberries, oranges, veggies, granola bars, and fruit gummies were enjoyed by everyone during our snack break
- We LOVED using our litter tracker app (created by one of our own volunteer’s Chris!!) to document the types of garbage we collected
- This activity was a part of the Canada-wide UNSMOKE Butt Blitz initiative to clean up the country from the toxic cigarette butt litter throughout Earth Month. Through A Greener Future‘s Butt Blitz initiative, the cigarette butts collected will be separated and recycled into usable materials! Learn more about the recycling of cigarette butts on TerraCycle’s website here
What Participants are saying
Community Investment Partner & Sponsor
THANK YOU to the City of Langford for being a Community Investment Partner and providing the direction to make this activity possible!
Together we are achieving our common goals and creating connected, healthy and resilient communities engaged in environmental stewardship.
This was the first of our 2025 litter clean up activities! We will be back with more litter clean ups soon and hope to see everyone out there again!
THANK YOU to Orion Construction Canada for providing the financial support to make this activity possible!
Together we are achieving our common goals and creating connected, healthy and resilient communities engaged in environmental stewardship.
This was the second of two Orion-sponsored litter clean ups! Check out how our November sponsored litter clean up went: November 16 2024
In-Kind Support
A big thank you to our in-kind supporter Green Beaver for providing their natural, environmentally friendly maple syrup flavoured lip balms to our community participants to take home. This Canadian business has wonderful, sustainable products that support more responsible consumer choices!
If you’re interested in contributing in-kind or have ideas for potential partnerships, please contact Kaitlin. Your support makes a difference!
Thank you to the generous local business, Island Cleaning Supplies that helped us out by providing us with the litter pickers we needed to collect litter safely!
Why We Do This Work
The Greater Victoria 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!
Staff Who Made This Activity Happen!
Our staff work hard to bring high-quality community activities to you. Partnership building, fundraising, outreach, social media, activity logistics, leading on-the-ground, reporting on impacts and more – they do it all!
Leading activities on the ground is Kaitlin Warren, Program Manager for the Greater Victoria Green Team, whose positive energy and passion for creating change inspire participants to take further action. Kaitlin is supported behind the scenes by Lyda Salatian, GTC Executive Director and Founder.
Together the Green Teams of Canada staff are fostering communities of environmental stewards and contributing to a brighter, greener future for all.