To the Editor,
I am writing with reference to the cleanup efforts that are just now being shown by shop owners in South Port. We applaud all involved to have finally taken control of this deplorable condition in this town.
My husband and I moved back to Port in February. We walk for more than an hour every day and sometimes again in the evening. We carry used grocery bags with us to pick up the garbage.
Personally we produce very little garbage, but every week our can is full. On garbage collection days, we are able to relieve our load in the receptacles on the sidewalk. Every day on our same route there are one or two bags to pick up.
With all the talk of saving our environment, one would think that people would realize this behaviour is unsustainable and intolerable. Do the people who drop the trash on the streets think it disappears on its own?
From the items we pick up—coffee and drink cups, cigarette packages, snack food containers, beer cans and discarded work gloves (Anderson/Ship Creek Roads)—it comes from all age groups.
Two nights ago we decided to walk down Ship Creek Road from Cameron Drive and we picked up a full garbage bag plus another smaller one in that short distance. Two teenage boys on Third Avenue dropped some plastic on the sidewalk. When my husband called out and asked them if they were going to leave the plastic there, one of the boys said ‘my bad’ and keep walking toward Cameron Drive.
My husband and I are content with the knowledge that our walk areas are being kept clean. It would be nice if others would adopt a block or more and take along a garbage bag as well.
To the people of Port Alberni, take pride in your community, and therefore in yourself, and keep our beautiful town clean and litter free.
Janet West,
Port Alberni