Welcome back! In my last post I said I was possibly going to pick up more litter. I was able to go out today and get a few more smaller bags of garbage. I expanded my search to burnaby because my mom was visiting a friend. I got a ride from her then I was able to go out and collect trash for an hour and a half. I think this was beneficial to my project. This made me learn that certain cities have significantly larger amount of litter around the neighbourhoods. This was surprising but I was just happy I could try to make the city a bit cleaner.
One of the best things that has happened this week is this response, some people have not been super helpful. I got a lot of responses at first about people excited to participate in the project. Now I’ve only gotten responses from a few people who’ve actually done the project. Specifically this response was super helpful and detailed. ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Hi Katelyn!
Sorry for the late response, but I just came back from picking up two full bags of trash and more from our town of Duvall, Washington, USA. I was surprised by how much there was! I’ve attached the pictures.
As for fun stories, a woman came up to me while I was picking up trash, and started talking with me. She thanked me for what I was doing and said she was interested in picking up trash around where she lived, too.
On my way back to my car, I found metal furniture and bundles of collapsed mailing boxes hidden behind bushes near our grocery store. I couldn’t take the furniture (though I told the staff at the store so they could deal with them), but I was able to bag up the bundles.
Hope this helps! And good luck to Katelyn on her project!!
Love you!
Pat Runolfso
One challenge I faced during my trash clean-up project was getting enough people involved. At first, only a few people wanted to help which made the work take longer and feel overwhelming. To overcome this, I started asking friends and classmates directly. I also explained why keeping the community clean was important for the environment and for everyone who uses the areas. I feel that this was a huge change and made the project more successful overall.
This is my aunt picking up trash near Barnett Beach, she went with her family and tried to make it a family project. This proves that litter ends up in parks, neighbourhoods, and even beaches.
“So I went to go pick up some garbage near the trails by Barnet Beach area. I hope this helps and great job 👏.”
Next I will be wrapping up my project making the final presentation to bring awareness to the trash that is impacting our communities. I will then continue helping with clean-up projects and encourage others to peruse taking care of the environment. I hope to make a positive impact in my community by spreading awareness and organizing future events. 1) We are all responsible for keeping our communities litter-free. I will also be explaining how to make sure our homes stay clean. I might get more emails of people going out to pick up trash, so I will watch out for those!
Resources:
- https://dontloveittodeath.com/impacts/garbage-and-human-waste/ – dontloveittodeath – 2026