Day 10 - Fleury Park

Date: Aug 28, 2021

Location: Fleury Park

Garbage (lbs): 1.5

Recycling (lbs): 2.5

This cleanup marked our sixth and final park cleanup in August, which was completed with all 4 members of our project group. Our initial impression of Fleury Park was that it was very well maintained, as it covered a large area but had relatively little trash in terms of its large area. In addition, there was few trash on the high traffic amenities, specifically the tennis courts, soccer fields, and playgrounds. The places where we found the largest amounts of garbage were the vicinities of the amenities (i.e the bleachers near the tennis courts) and the hills surrounding the tennis courts. Since Fleury Park was next to a forested area, we ended up finding a lot of trash near the forest and trails.

One unique feature of Fleury Park, which was observed in earlier cleanups but not so much in the more recent cleanups, was the high amount of recycling compared to garbage we collected. This may indicate the tendency of people in this area to litter their bottles and drinkable containers (such as soda cans), rather than other garbage items like candy wrappers. Since this park is located next to many restaurants, it seems logical that many bottles and recycling objects would be littered from patrons of those restaurants going to the park. In such situations, we observed that it would be prudent to have additional warnings and signs at the entrances of such parks, warning people carrying their drinks and/or food containers not to litter.

In general, this observation can be very important for many parks: the context of the park, including factors such as its geographic location, proximity to amenities or restaurants, etc. is crucial in determining the environmental actions for that park. For instance, extending the example of Fleury Park, for metropolitan parks like Central Park which are large in area and close to many stores/restaurants in urban centres, it is crucial to remind visitors specifically not to litter with their store packaging and/or food packaging. Targeted reminders are often much stronger than general reminders, such as "Do Not Litter", as they directly call out a specific group of individuals. Thus, environmentalists in any country should do their research on the situation of parks in their areas, as using additional knowledge of the local situation would greatly aid in their messaging and advocacy efforts.

#CASCleanup2021