Volunteers clean up 25,000lbs of trash from illegal dumping in PG

Article has been edited to include a participating organization, Wood Wheaton Supercenter

Some Prince George residents have decided to take illegal dumping into their own hands.

President of the Spruce City Wildlife Association Steve Hamilton said the association got together with Wood Wheaton Supercenter and other “like-minded stakeholder groups” about two and half years ago to tackle the issue. Since they began, they’ve gone to anywhere between 12-15 sites, and cleaned up approximately 25,000 pounds of trash.

At the first site they went to, L.C. Gunn Park, Hamilton said it took just 90 minutes for volunteers to clean up 6000 pounds of trash from one of the local trails in the park.

“The only reason we stopped was that the bins, which had been generously donated to us, were overflowing.”

The last cleanup was from behind Heather Park Elementary, where trash was dumped around 150 metres from the school.  

“We do it as needed, we’ll get a phone call or a text message or a Facebook message and we’ll put together a team and get it clean up as quick as possible.”

Anyone looking to volunteer or report a problem area can message Hamilton himself, or the Spruce City Wildlife Association.