Tired of seeing trash, a frustrated walker decided to do something about it.

Each day, Deborah Raddall hikes a route from her home in Summerville to Broad River. Part of her walk takes her along the abandoned connector between Highway 3 and Highway 103.

For months, she has watched the garbage strewn along the path pile up.

“There’s another Tim Hortons Cup, there’s another Tim Hortons cup. There’s a this and that, and I just kept seeing more and more trash, going, why do people do this and why am I looking at this and who’s going to do something about it,” asked Raddall. “I just realized, I’m going to have to do something about it.”

Raddall thought about posting photos of all the trash to Facebook but quickly realized bringing attention to the problem was not enough, more affirmative action was going to be needed.

She decided to, as she says, put her money where her mouth is.

“And I said, okay, I’m going to do a clean up. Even if it’s just me, I’m going to pick up a couple of things, realizing that it would be a huge job but I’m going to do a little bit maybe each day. That’s what I was thinking in my head. I said, I’m going to do a clean up if anybody wants to do it with me, and it just sort of went from there,” said Raddall.

She posted an event to Facebook that she would be cleaning up the stretch of road Monday the 24 and it wasn’t long before a list of volunteers signed up to help.

She wondered about getting supplies to clean up the litter safely and learned from some of the volunteers who had done this sort of clean up before, that the Region of Queens provides the necessary equipment.

Raddall made arrangements to pick up gloves, bags, buckets, trash grabbers, safety vests and road signs from the region and was pleasantly surprised when a public works truck dropped everything off at her door.

On clean up day, a crew of 11 spent two hours picking litter off the road, out of the bushes and even up embankments to fill 10 garbage bags with trash.

Trash bags. Photo: Deborah Raddall

Raddall says despite the dirty work the mood was very upbeat.

“It’s not pleasant. At the same time, there’s a real satisfaction with picking it up and doing it,” said Raddall. “If you can imagine it, we did have fun.”

Raddall says Region of Queens staff even saved her a trip to the dump.

“And then they came and picked up the garbage from my house. It was easy, breezy, that part of the putzy stuff. They are so, so interested in making sure they make it easy for us to do it and they are so grateful,” said Raddall.

Her volunteer team’s good work will also benefit another group in the community.

Since 2018, the Region of Queens has supported the solid waste community litter collection program, setting aside $3,000 each year for non-profit groups to conduct litter cleanups. The fund pays the groups $100 per kilometer up to a maximum of $300 per year.

Because the volunteers cleaned an approximately three-kilometer stretch, they’re eligible to receive $300 which Raddall plans to donate to the Queens Universally Designed Play Park.

Pair of volunteers pulling garbage from the bush. Photo: Deborah Raddall

While she is pleased with what they’ve accomplished, Raddall recognizes a single effort won’t solve the littering problem.

“Like any other clean up project it never stays done. You clean your kitchen; you don’t clean it once and don’t do it for the rest of your life. Well, it’s the same as this. People are still going to chuck things out,” said Raddall.

She says she doesn’t have plans to organize another clean up in the near future but is grateful for the community’s support for this effort.

“It just, is a small step,” said Raddall. “But if everybody did a bunch of these little tiny things, and I think a lot of people do, that’s what makes our community great.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson