Thank you to everyone who came to our litter clean-up at Langford Station:
Adam, Ariadne, Aurora, Carolina, Ceridwen, Charlotte, Clarence, Corbin, Daiang, Earl, Erwin, Eleve, Glenn, Gloria, Hasana, Hayoon, Hernan, Hoyun, Isabella, Jee Youn, Jhon, Jieun, Karin, Marissa, Mason, Mohammad, Nafiseh, Navpreet, Otone, Owen, Rachelle, Riley, Ruri, Sebastian, Shannon, Sherry, Tia, Zihan & one more child!
Thank you to our litter leader & Staff who played a vital role in guiding and leading this community clean-up:
Ania, and GVGT staff Nicola, Madison, and Lyda!
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
- 40 community members were engaged
- 130 hours were contributed to cleaning up Downtown Langford
- 9 participants visited Langford Station for the first time
- 30 community members participated in a litter clean-up for the first time
- 25 pounds of litter was removed – that is the approximate weight of a river otter!
- Over 8,400 pieces of litter were tracked and removed including:
- 5,371 cigarette butts
- 933 Pieces of paper / cardboard
- 933 Pieces of paper / cardboard
- 725 food wrappers
- 387 plastic bags
- 137 cups & lids
- 57 pieces of metal
- 54 bottles & cans
- 132 pieces of glass
- 20 items of clothing/shoes
- and more!
- Some interesting finds included:
- Balloons
- A sprinkler
- A bike tire
- A Spring
- Nail clippers
- A camera
- A box of cigarettes
- A wooden block
Highlights
- We had an incredible turnout at our last litter clean up of the year!
- We had community members from Langford, Victoria, Esquimalt, Colwood, Oak Bay, Saanich and View Royal join us
- We also had many newcomers participate, namely from Korea, Japan, China, Equador, Columbia, Mexico, Iran & the Philippines.
- Youth from FOUR different schools joined us (Belmont Secondary, Oak Bay High, Royal Mount Douglas Secondary and Royal Bay Secondary)
- We got to pet a beautiful and friendly malmute mixed dog enroute
- Our volunteer litter leader, Ania 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 link: HERE
- Many people driving by loudly expressed “Thank yous” to participants
- It was an awesome day! New friendships were formed and a ton of fun was had while improving the health of the city!
- Thank you to Adam and Otone for picking up our directional arrows!
- Thank you to Mason for coming early and helping us set up!
- This was our 6th litter clean-up activity with the City of Langford. To see how past activities went, visit these blogs:
- A variety of delicious snacks (granola bars, cakes, mini muffins, tomatoes, juices) 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 featured in the news! Check out the Goldstream News Gazette article HERE
What Participants are saying
Video of Rachelle talking about the importance of keeping these spaces clean!
Video of Tia talking about how much she enjoys cleaning up her community and the benefits it has!
Video of Riley talking about helping out the community!
Video of Shannon and Corbin talking about collecting cigarett butts in their community!
Video of Gloria talking about picking up cigarette butts!
Community Investment Partner
THANK YOU to the City of Langford for being a Community Investment Partner and providing the financial support and 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 last of our 2025 litter clean up activities! We will be back with more litter clean ups next year and hope to see everyone out there again!
In-Kind Support
A big thank you to our in-kind supporter LUSH for providing their natural, environmentally friendly personal care products 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 work the Greater Victoria Green Team does is about more than restoring ecosystems, it’s about building belonging, cultivating leadership, and supporting well-being. Research shows that spending time outdoors reduces stress and anxiety, boosts mood, focus, and memory, and improves physical health. At the same time, these activities directly strengthen local ecosystems, enhance biodiversity, and help communities adapt to climate change.
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! Every action, big or small, contributes to a ripple effect of positive change.
Staff Who Made This Activity Happen!
Our staff work hard to run high-quality community activities. Outreach, activity logistics, social media, reporting on impacts, partnership building and more – they do it all!
This activity was run by special guest Lyda, Green Teams of Canada’s Founder and Executive Director, with support from the Greater Victoria Green Team’s Program Assistants, Nicola and Madison!
Interim Partnerships Manager, Kaitlin, who works hard behind the scenes to run and grow our Greater Victoria Green Team, also supported this activity behind the scenes!