Speed River Trailhead
The trailhead leading to the Speed River Trail on Wellington accumulates a large volume of debris. Julia and I spent about 45 minutes and loaded a shopping cart from top to bottom with fraying plastics, clothing, Styrofoam, packaging and other debris. As the plastic breaks into smaller pieces, this inevitably makes its way into the soil or the river after major storms, and we’re aiming to stop this type of pollution at the source.
After fully loading 7 bags of garbage, we barely made a dent in the amount of debris still present.
A lot of the debris is degraded plastic from single use cups and bottles: once the plastic is out for a year, it breaks down so it’s difficult to recycle or clean (but the microplastic remain chemically active in the environment). Once the materials are free in the environment, cross contamination is also a real issue.
To stop some of these materials at the source, we are looking to pilot a recycling pickup point at the head of the trail. This is a new initiative and we’re excited to help divert plastic from our environments at the source.
Notable Finds
bag of wet clothes, fragmented plastics; Recyclables: 8 cans, 25 bottles