Litter Cleanup around the Bonsor Recreation Complex, Burnaby – July 29, 2023
Highlights From The Day
- 109 amazing members of the community joined us and contributed over 325 hours total!
- Thank you so much for your hard work and enthusiasm: Adrian, Alef Zayn, Alexander, Ali Akber, Amilla, Anastasia, Andrew, Ashley, Andrew, Bic, Brandi, Brody, Caden Qinyang, Cheuk Yin, Chris, Christina, Chunguang, Connie, Daniel, Duncan, Echo, Elaine L., Elaine W., Eliska Elaine, Emily, Eshaan, Fay, Evan, Gary, Gina, Girish, Grace, Harry, Hayden, Hoi Ning (Helin), James A.Y., James W., Jamie, Jasper Yibo, Jasper, Jayanth, Joanna, Jiaqi, Jim, Jisong, Jiyuan, Janice, Jackie, Joe, Joice, Joonki, JungWon, Justina, Jules, Kai, Kanav, Kelsey, Ken S., Ken C., Kevin Z., Kevin C., Layne, Leaf, Levi, Lexie, Logan, Lorna, Maita, Marcus, Margaret, Marion, Mary Ann, Melanie, Melinda, Mina, Misha, Mike, Mythili, Nicholas, Noriko, Owen, Phyllis, Pui Ming, Ray, Rick, Robert H., Robert B., Rosie, Sahand, San, Selina, Shaayn, Sharon, Sheldon, Shirley, Steven, Sumit, Sylvie, Tarrah, Tiffany, Tin Yau (Tiann), Tsz Ho, Tyler, Wendy, Yinuo, YongLin (Lynne), Younjoo, Yuan and Yun Zhu!
- Thank you Nicholas for arriving early to help us get set up and Andrew for staying late to help us pack up!
- Together our team:
- Removed over 215 pounds of litter of all sizes (about 2 times the weight of a Giant Pacific Octopus!) from areas surrounding the Bonsor Recreation Complex to keep litter out of our streets, waterways and ecosystems
- 6,491,+ cigarette butts were removed, a tiny but deadly piece of plastic, toxic litter. This was the most common item found!
- 1,596+ pieces of plastic were removed
- 1,386+ pieces of paper were removed
- 124+ pieces of metal
- 67+ pieces of glass
- 55+ pieces of styrofoam
- 51+ pieces of clothing
- Additional items found included unopened cans of cat food, an iPhone screen, lighters, diapers, the leg of a wooden chair, a voodoo doll with pins in it, a toy tomb with a mummy inside, rope, rubber bands, a dust pan, bandaids, masks, part of the suspension of a car, sunglasses, vape cartridges, batteries and more!
- Thank you to our volunteers for tracking and sharing what they found!
- Given the amount of litter there is and the difficulty to track every piece, we estimate the total pieces of litter removed from the day to be over 12,000!
- Removed over 215 pounds of litter of all sizes (about 2 times the weight of a Giant Pacific Octopus!) from areas surrounding the Bonsor Recreation Complex to keep litter out of our streets, waterways and ecosystems
- All ages, backgrounds, and experience levels were engaged including families, returning Green Team volunteers, and first-timers!
- 67 people visited the Bonsor Recreation Complex for the first time
- 65 people cleaned up litter for the first time
- Our Green Team brought together people from all over the Lower Mainland including Burnaby (75), Vancouver, New Westminster, Delta, Richmond, Langley and Surrey!
- Thank you to members of the Vancouver International Volunteer Association for joining us!
- Thank you to Eshaan and students from the Seaquam Secondary’s Volunteer and Events Group for joining us!
- This activity was featured in the Burnaby NOW TWICE! Read the articles:
- We also made it on Global News BC! Part of the news clip can be watched HERE while we wait to get a full clip from Global News.
- Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley and Councillors James Wang, Maita Santiago and Daniel Tetrault joined us at this activity to clean up litter and thank our volunteers for coming together to care for the Burnaby community and environment
- Thank you for your support of our work and partnership with the City of Burnaby!
- Our Community Investment Partner, the City of Burnaby, provided direction and funding to make this activity possible!
- Special thanks to Erik, Zac, Rob, Ron, Warren, Mario and Carli 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, beating our previous record set on June 24, 2023 at the Cameron Recreation Complex!
In-Action Photos
Below are a few before and afters of an area cleaned by our volunteers! Large items will be picked up by the City of Burnaby.
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 strengths 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.
This was the 3rd of 5 litter cleanups we’re organizing with the City of Burnaby throughout the summer — Join us on August 26 (Edmonds Community Centre) and September 30 (Eileen Dailly Leisure Pool & Fitness Centre) from 9:45am-1pm!
Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley addressing and thanking our 100+ amazing volunteers!
What Volunteers Said
“It was a good way to give back to the community. Enjoyed meeting new people from different walks of life. A good learning experience and exposure to our world. Helps to clean up the environment though I am aware we all need to do our part to help out. Keep up the good work!!!!”
– Marion
“It was my first volunteer experience here in Canada, and that was definitely one of my best and memorable times of my life. Many thanks to that in that regard 🙂 I am also motivated and excited to participate and be more involved with any future activities or volunteer events if any to show any kind of support.”
– James
“I enjoyed helping to build up a better community. Very well organized and staff are very helpful.”
– Ray
“Helping to make our neighborhood a better place feels great. It may send a positive message to the passerbys on the streets the significance of litter cleaning by volunteers; serve as a reminder to passerbys not to litter on the streets; and raise the sense of social responsibility.”
– Melinda
“I enjoyed working as a group. I feel the impact of this program is cleaning up the environment”
– Robert
“I had a great time working with the Lower Mainland Green Team today and I am so glad I had a chance to give back to our community! I had a wonderful time today and I look forward to working with the team again in the near future.”
– Ashley
“Thanks for everything. It was our first time doing this and we definitely found a sense of appreciation during the experience. We definitely plan to do another.”
– Elaine
“I didn’t realise that there are so much rubbish (especially cigarette butts) surrounding our living area before. This is a good experience to make our environment better. Thank you once again for organizing such a meaningful event.”
– Tsz Ho
“This is a very meaningful activity and a good experience for me. I would definitely join other activities in the future.”
– Jamie
“I loved how everyone from different age group came to volunteer at Burnaby, it really shows that they do care about the environment and they were not here to joke around. I had a blast, it felt so good to pick up litter, not just because of the volunteer hours i was going to recieve, but because i felt that i was making a change to the environment, that was something that made me feel really proud of myself.”
– Shaayn
“I enjoyed meeting new people, teamwork and a sense of accomplishment. Well-organised and friendly leadership. I feel the impact is awareness of proper disposal of trash, mitigation of global warming and restoration of natural resources and wildlife.
Please make more activities like this kind of community event to welcome more volunteers joining to LMGT.”
– San
In-Kind Supporters
Thank you to the following local businesses for their support and contributions to this activity:
- Big K Clothing for donating high visibility vests to keep our volunteers safe
- Tru Earth for donating Laundry Detergent Strips to reward our amazing community
- ICS Clean Supplies for donating gloves, hand sanitizer and offering discounts on bags and litter pickers to make this cleanup possible
Group Leaders
A huge thank you to our group leaders who led teams of 10-20 volunteers in areas around the Bonsor Recreation Complex:
- Ashton (back, second from right), the Lower Mainland Green Team‘s Program Manager
- Lyda (back middle), Green Teams of Canada‘s founder and Executive Director who also founded our Lower Mainland Green Team in 2011!
- Warren (back left) from the City of Burnaby
- Rob (back, second from left) from the City of Burnaby
- Mario (back right) from the City of Burnaby
- Zac (front left) from the City of Burnaby
- Ron (front right) from the City of Burnaby
Carli (front middle) from the City of Burnaby also helped welcome and take care of volunteers at our home base at the Bonsor Recreation Complex throughout the activity!
