Spring season unearths mounds of litter in CBRM

Environmentalists in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality say the spring season has uncovered mounds of trash, and they want more to be done to protect their communities.   

Last weekend, 140 bags of litter were collected in the Whitney Pier neighbourhood of Sydney, N.S., within two hours. 

Dylan Yates, president of the Cape Breton Environmental Association, said that's more than double the amount of garbage they usually collect on their cleanups.

And when Yates returned to the Whitney Pier community a few days later, he said there was more litter flying around.

"I don't know if people are doing this for spite or they just, they just don't care," said Yates. "It's very discouraging when you go back to an area and it's full of litter again." 

Yates has been organizing spring cleanups in the municipality for almost a decade.

He said the higher volume of litter is likely linked to fewer cleanups in recent years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, Yates said CBRM has a long-standing problem of people tossing their trash at illegal dump sites. The association's most common finds are black bags that were not picked up at the curb.

"They'll dump them up the road somewhere. Out of sight, out of mind," he said. "And that's what we're seeing now. We've been seeing this for a long time."

In 2018, CBRM tripled its fines for illegal dumping to nearly $700. Yates would like to see that amount increased and more people ticketed. 

He is also concerned about the municipality's proposal to charge a small tipping fee for residents who use their landfill.

CBRM council debated a residential fee during this year's budget deliberations, but so far no decision has been made.

Kathleen Aikens of ACAP Cape Breton, another environmental group, is not sure a tipping fee would make the litter problem any worse.

"We have had free access to the dump for a very long time here in the CBRM, and despite having free access, we still see a lot of illegal dumping," Aikens said.

"So it's possible that increasing the tipping fee may result in an increase in illegal dumping. However, we already have a huge problem."

ACAP Cape Breton runs a seasonal program to collect litter throughout CBRM, and some of the program's funds are provided by the municipality. 

Aikens said their annual student group "Trashformers" removed more than 8,000 kilograms of garbage from communities in CBRM last year alone. 

But, she said, the municipality is not the only entity responsible for reducing litter waste. She said other levels of government, businesses and individuals also play a role. 

"One of the realities that's difficult to face is that we can't keep producing and consuming this amount of single-waste coffee cups and plastics and all the other things," said Aikens. 

"There's limits to how much we can recycle. We need to be focusing on stopping waste at its source."

People living in CBRM can help clean their communities this weekend. On Saturday, the municipality is hosting the Great Cape Breton Clean Up, which runs from 9 a.m. AT to noon.

Officials said so far, 500 people have registered to help reduce the amount of litter spread across roadways and lawns.