I recently had a little bit of an IT band issue from doing too many hills (I usually run down the hill, which likely overextended things) so I decided to take a break from running at the start of March, and use the opportunity to do some cleanup at Riverdale Park since the snow was melting. Even after my IT band issue got better, I kept at it since it felt good helping clean up the community!
This blog post highlights the first four weeks of my efforts, in which I went out twelve times in total, filling one large garbage bag each time. My excursions have ranged from 25 to 70 minutes in length, depending on the concentration of garbage in the area I focused on.
I’ve estimated Riverdale Park East (the main focus of my efforts) to be about 0.16 square kilometers in terms of area accessible to the public, not including buildings. Wikipedia indicates the entire park (including the west side across the DVP) to be 0.42 square kilometers. So it’s a pretty big area and my favorite training spot. Unfortunately it’s not treated too well by the public.
So far, I’ve found quite an assortment of items, including but not limited to a towel, a bra, a pair of jeans, copious amounts of plastic from sleds (it’s insane how much of this there is!), a pair of toddler mittens, a pair of panties, bags with dog poop (this one is very confusing), a dead (rotting and putrid) squirrel in a bag, a boomerang, a bicycle frame, and around a hundred (yes 100) face masks. Quite the vile, yet eclectic collection!
I’ve been strategically focusing efforts on small sections of the park at once, moving gradually across the park. I’ve found some very nifty cloth bags and buckets/pails as well which have been useful as “intermediate” trash holders before dumping into the big bag. I have received some kind words from people walking their dogs (and also the odd person chipping in!) which has been great as well.
I recently heard there is an “official” trash pickup day (Clean Toronto Together) on the weekend of April 23-24. People are going to be shocked when they find almost no trash in Riverdale Park that weekend! 🤣
I’m planning to post an update after another four weeks. Depending on how things go, I might head over to Riverdale West, and/or do some plogging along Bayview and the Don Trail. I’m also hopefully going to use my GPS data to create an overlay to be able to see which areas I’ve hit and still need to visit.
I’ve also mapped out a few more outdoor adventures for the spring/summer. Looking forward to getting out of the city!
Veg 'n' Alpine 