Key takeaways:
- Outer Ring Road in St. John’s closed down for 12 hours of cleaning.
- On Sunday, a government staffer picks up plastic containers during an Outer Ring Road cleanup.
St. John’s underwent all four seasons on Sunday, but it didn’t prevent spring cleanup efforts across the city.
Nearly 200 people headed to the Outer Ring Road before in the morning to help rid the highway of waste. The whole route from Kenmount Road to Logy Bay Road was shut from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. so crews could safely bag and remove the trash.
Despite a cold rain turning to snow in the early afternoon, 15-year-old Lucas Barrett was dedicated to the cause.
“It doesn’t worry me much,” he said about the climate.
“We only live for a specific time, and people come after us. We have to make sure we maintain the world clean.”
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Barrett and his mate, Jay Ivey, had picked up nearly 16 bags of trash between them by midday. They saw a lot of plastics — straws, cups and lids, zip ties, bottle caps, and tarps.
“It doesn’t go out by itself,” Barrett said. “You’ve got to do this and clean it up.”
The Outer Ring Road is a standard way for trucks going to the landfill at Robin Hood Bay. A mix of high winds and unsecured loads has made it an infamous place for trash buildup. With so much waste, people are usually shocked by some of the things they find on the flank of the road.
John Whalen, a staffer with the Department of Transportation and Works, said they lifted transport truck tires and wooden stakes from guard rails. There was also a big TV in the median.
“Yeah, that’s the strangest thing we saw this morning,” he giggled.
Source – cbc.ca
