Day 5 - Trent Park

Date: Aug 6, 2021

Location: Trent Park

Garbage (lbs): 1.5

Recycling (lbs): 1

This cleanup marked our first park cleanup in August, which was completed with 3 members (plus one friend who volunteered to help) of our project group. Our initial impression of Trent Park was very similar to that of our previous park, Edward Coltham Park. This park was surprisingly clean and well managed, but there were a few significant areas with some garbage: the tennis courts, the field, and the playground. We suspect these areas were the ones with highest traffic, as citizens were most likely to use those amenities. Interestingly, we also noted that the types of garbage we collected were more so garbage rather than recycling; this is reflected in the total weight of garbage vs. recycling we were able to pick up. This may suggest that citizens in the Trent Park area were well-educated on the importance of recycling, and found it easier to do so. On the other hand, garbage may have been more of an inconvenience to them, and thus they found it easier to simply throw that trash on the ground.

Looking at these conclusions, I feel that one solution should be to place no littering signs in high traffic areas in parks to encourage citizens not to throw their trash on the ground. This is far more efficient than spacing warnings out, as many of the places we noticed (for other parks as well) barely had any garbage, as people did not go to those areas as often. Also, there should be legal consequences posted on those warnings as well to further deter citizens from littering, as it would directly impact them with a fine or jail time. These environmental by-laws are already in place but seldom enforced, given how much garbage we were able to pick up even though we could not find much recycling.

Another idea to convince citizens to care more about the cleanliness of their parks is to make it more convenient to dispose of their trash. Many people litter in high traffic areas where there are sparsely any garbage cans, making it far easier for them to chuck trash on the ground than walk to a nearby can. If the Town were able to install more garbage cans, however small, many more citizens may throw their trash away. This is not an issue of education; citizens clearly know the importance of recycling and garbage disposal. Rather, if we create environments that make trash throwing not as burdensome, more citizens will do it, creating a positive feedback loop where more and more of the community emulates the role models of not littering.

#CASCleanup2021