With their raincoats at the ready and their gloves on, nearly 100 litter collectors tidied up the park, June 5.
The annual cleanup, which saw people picking up garbage along Highway 16 and at numerous day-use areas, is a joint initiative between Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper, and is held each year on World Environment Day.
In total, eight teams鈥攙arying in size from five to 16 people鈥攃ollected 2.89 tonnes of garbage. To put it in perspective, that鈥檚 the weight of three and a half 1967 Volkswagen Beetles.
It鈥檚 hard to believe, but it鈥檚 true; we checked鈥攖wice!
The waste was picked up between the east gates and the traffic lights at the intersection of Highway 16 and Highway 16A, as well as at Pyramid Lake and lakes Edith and Annette.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not all plastic bags,鈥� said Janet Cooper, the environmental stewardship coordinator for the town and an organizer of the annual event. 鈥淭eams also pick up items like metal from vehicles or tires, big heavy chunks of garbage that people pitch out their windows.鈥�
She said the number isn鈥檛 quite as shocking when you consider the fact that each person can collect between five and six bags of garbage in the span of day, and there were 91 people working.
Team 3, led by Leanne Pelletier, collected the most waste, picking up 620 kilograms of garbage between the north end of Talbot Lake and the Palisades picnic area.
Cooper said, although it was an impressive effort, there was actually less collected this year than last because the team assigned to the Highway 16 West was displaced after an aggressive grizzly attacked two cars on the highway.
Those folks made their way to Lake Annette instead.
At the end of the day, everyone who participated in the clean up gathered together at Centennial Park for a barbecue and to compare notes.
Some of the day鈥檚 unique finds included a GI Joe doll, a disco ball, leotards, a single flip flop, sunglasses and a clown-sized bow tie.
This year鈥檚 cleanup also included graffiti removal, with eight people scrubbing and painting the AMA building, benches, the pedestrian underpass and garbage bins.
听Nicole Veerman
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