Thank you so much Lower Mainland Green Teamers for joining us to make a difference together:
Aaron, Abigail, Albert, Alexander, Amber, Andrew, Angel, Anton, Anwar, Art, Athena, Changle, Chun Kit, Crystal, DaiBin, Edwin, Emily, Emma, Etsuko, Francis, Gary, George, Hao, Hong Nee, Hyerim, Ian, James, Jennifer, Jiaoxiang, Jie, Jim, Jon, Kelly, Kevin, Lena, Leo, Lincoln, Liuliang, Lynn, Lynn, Machi, Min, Nazila, Nobu, Parwinderjeet, Ranjit, Richard, Sherman, Troy, Viresh, & Winsom!
This activity was the first of five litter cleanups we are organizing in partnership with the City of Burnaby in 2024! Thanks to activities like these, we are helping to build a sense of community and belonging, fostering a deeper connection to the environment, and inspiring people to take action to care for the places they live in their everyday lives!
Keep reading to see our impacts, highlights and more from the day…
Impacts
- 51 community members engaged
- 31 people visited Christine Sinclair Community Centre for the first time
- 26 people picked up litter for the first time
- Over 4,000 pieces of litter were tracked and removed including:
- 2,575+ cigarette butts, they continue to be the most commonly found litter at our cleanups!
- 431+ food wrappers
- 308+ paper & cardboard
- 195+ plastic bags
- 137+ cups & lids
- 71+ bottles & cans
- 60+ pieces of metal
- and more!!!
- Some interesting finds include a broken hockey stick, fireworks, 3 car tires, a suitcase, shopping cart, a rusty propane tank, license plate, large pieces of scrap metal, part of a little tikes playset, window wiper, model car, and a cute hedgehog sticker!
- We removed many more pieces than what was tracked, due to the difficult to track every piece. The goal of tracking is to add to the experience of our community, not take away from it.
- Over 253 lbs of litter of all shapes, sizes and weights were removed from areas around the Christine Sinclair Community Centre, about 3/4 as heavy as a Panda Bear!
- 155 hours contributed to keeping our community and environment clean
Highlights
- We were excited to work together with City of Burnaby Engineering Department to co-run this activity together!
- Thank you Zac and Rob for helping lead groups of participants along cleanup routes, weighing all our garbage bags, and properly disposing of everything that was picked up!
- Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley and Councillors Richard Lee and Daniel Tetrault joined us, with Mayor Hurley sharing his thanks to everyone for coming together and giving back to the community!
- Having snacks and water bottles went a long way in keeping us all fuelled and hydrated on this sunny day!
- Andrea baked everyone vegan brownies and Zac and Rob treated everyone with donuts & Timbits!
- We cleaned up litter of all shapes, sizes and weights, including items so large they couldn’t be bagged and weren’t included in our final weight count! City of Burnaby staff have scheduled pickup of these larger items.
- One of our awesome community members, Chris, has helped us develop an app we use to track the litter we pick up (click to see it)!
- A majority of those we engaged live in Burnaby (39), with others joining from across the Lower Mainland, including from New Westminster, Surrey, Langley, Delta, Richmond, Port Moody, Maple Ridge, Vancouver, and more!
- Among those who joined us were families with small children, students, working professionals, retirees, first timers, returning LMGT and City of Burnaby volunteers, including Burnaby Adopt-a-Street participants who help keep their neighbourhood clean!
- Imagine the impacts if each person who joined us adopted their street or block!
- Learn more about the City of Burnaby’s Adopt-a-Street program HERE. Don’t live in Burnaby? Many municipalities and organizations have Adopt-a-Street or Adopt-a-Block programs. Reach out to your local municipality to learn about options where you live!
- Special thank you to:
- Anwar for arriving early to help set up, and Anwar & Lynn for staying late to help us get packed up
- Gary for helping to lead in one of our cleanup groups
- Every single person who joined us for spending this beautiful sunny day making Burnaby a cleaner place together!
Community Investment Partner
THANK YOU to the City of Burnaby for the providing 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 1st of 5 litter cleanups we are organizing with the City of Burnaby this year. Learn more about & sign up for our upcoming cleanups here!
In-Kind Support
Thank you to Big K Clothing who generously donated safety vests to keep our participants visible, ICS Clean Supplies for donating hand sanitizer and helping us acquire many litter pickers, and the fantastic local eco-friendly businesses, Green Beaver, LUSH, and Honey Candles, that donated products for our hard-working community members to take home!
Please contact LMGT Program Manager, Ashton Kerr, if you are interested in providing in-kind or have suggestions for businesses to contact.
Why 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!
Staff Who Made This Activity Possible
Lower Mainland Green Team Program Manager, Ashton Kerr, and Program Coordinator, Andrea Robles, work hard behind the scenes to bring these high-quality activities to you.
Partnership building, fundraising, outreach, social media, activity logistics, leading on-the-ground, reporting on impacts and more – they can do it all!
Our Founder and Executive Director, Lyda Salatian, has done an excellent job leading and laying the foundation for our organization to do what we do. She joined us for this litter cleanup activity!