Community Involvement the Best solution to Cleaner Beaches

Community Involvement is Essential For Cleaner Beaches
Today, in spite of learning that littering is not ethical, the mountains, lakes and beaches are filled with litter and the need for education and community involvements has become all the more essential considering the large amount of trash that is taken out. Cultus Lake alone accounts for a huge volume of trash.

According to the Recreation Officer, Alistair McCrone, insists that educating the general public about littering is essential. Discarded food items are the main reason for the intrusion by bears which can endanger man. It also results in the closure of the camping grounds and trails and one of the trails near Pemberton has already been shut down by the Ministry of Lands, Forests and Natural Resources due to such intrusions. Officer McCrone is of the opinion that students must imbibe the lessons on camping etiquette, using junk removal bins and bear awareness before they graduate, which have begun through the initializing of the Vancouver’s TREK program in certain districts in BC. The trash also affects the birds that are seen eating the toxic waste and plastics.

Community Involvement
A very effective method is to get the community involved in the cleaning up of the beaches and ensure that they follow the guidelines set for segregation into specific trash bins. This has proved to be an effective method as results show that the number of cigarette butts reduced from 1460 butts in 2016 to 640 a year later and some months later it was just 17 butts. A step forward in creating awareness is the cleaning up of the beaches on World Ocean’s Day.