City of Grande Prairie parks staff has waded through over 20,000 pounds of garbage since crews began their spring scrub at the start of May.
Lead Hand Kristine Van Otterloo says they picked up 11,500 pounds of garbage from Highway 43 from 116 St to the west end city limits alone.
“It’s 7 kilometres of a ditch and we had probably 80 staff out there and it took us probably three and a half hours to pick that. We’ve had our 30 cubic foot roll off bin three times this year and one of them was strictly from the highway.”
Van Otterloo believes people aren’t going out of their way to dump trash wherever they want, and it could be a fairly innocent reason for many.
“Some of them are probably purposely but, It’s unsecured loads in trucks, too. You throw your empty coffee cup in the box of the truck and it blows out.”
She adds the explanation doesn’t apply for everyone.
“We have stuff dumped off in ditches all over the place like mattresses or couches. People don’t want to bring it to the landfill because of fees. In parking lots and ditches people dump off their household stuff.”
Van Otterloo says she isn’t here to point the finger of blame at anyone but says at the end of the day, the clean up is taxpayer funded, so the more garbage the more expensive it becomes.
(Ed: This article contained an inaccuracy regarding a monthly drop off available at the landfill. It has been taken down. We appreciate your understanding.)