lew Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 For anybody not familiar with Toronto, it's a massive city with 2 ½ million people. What's really nice though, is only about ½ of the city is actually built up and the rest is a beautiful valley system that criss crosses the city east to west from Pickering to Etobicoke and from Lake O right up to the northern boundary. There's streams and rivers and probably over 100 miles of bike and hiking paths. You can literally ride a bike from one end of the city to the other and not need more than 1 mile of roadway. You can wander for hours and never see a house or even hear a car and you'd think you were a million miles from nowhere. I rode a very expensive mountain bike for years and would ussually go anywhere from 20 - 40 miles everyday thru this system. If you look at Toronto from the air, there's nearly as much undeveloped, beautiful, isolated treed land as there is asphalt. Trouble is lately though, alot of people seem to think this valley is a perfect place to unload all their crap that they're too lazy to dispose of properly and thewy just throw it anywhere they want. Every day when I'm walking down here I see foxes, rabbits, raccoons and have even seen the odd deer track. I took these pictures this morning while out walking my dog and am going to send them to the Toronto Mayor on Tuesday, but thought I'd put them here too. This is Toronto, but unfortunately this is happening all over our province lately. I don't know what the answer is, but things are getting to be pretty sad. A coffee table Garbage can tossed off a bridge Shopping cart tossed from the same bridge Wicker chair at the top of picture Mattress on the river bank Tire Patio stones 2 bikes, mattress and bed frame on the bank Yesterday I saw a little fox sitting beside this tire The poor critters just don't know the difference I spose. It's just soooooo sad but I'm afraid that's the way alot of our society treats our country lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brickNblock Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 HIya there Lew.........longtime bud! I doubt Mayor Miller or any other politician gives a hoot really..sorry to say this. But the good citizens like yourself are the ones who 'DO' make the diff. The punks and 'Havenothingelsebettertodo's' get somekind of kick out of this and prolly those who have no way of disposing of household items. Again.....the good citizens will be the ones to make the diff. I think just one person cleaning these types of messes up will soon be joined by others doing the same...better as a group. Hopefully the ones who do the damage will be embarrassed amongst their peers for adding trash to what should be beautiful settings as those in your pics. Best of luck Bud......... It's a good thing you are doing if even falls amongst deaf ears. I think it starts with one person getting out there and starting the clean-up. Not the best of ideas..but what do you think of an OFC G2G for 1 full day of clean-up where we all would bring our trucks down to lend a hand.................before the fishing season of coarse. my $0.02.........peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFR Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 I understand you annoyance Lew, Up hear it is not uncommon to drive the county roads, and find bags of garbage in the ditches, along with other debris. Poeple are soooo laxy and cheap. Our landfil and transfer stations are open to the public and you can take your household items there for disposal. We also have a two bag a week limit. You can put more out, but you have to pay $2.00 per extra bag. On some vacant farm land you can find the work of unsrucpulous contractors who just jump their waste in the field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Cliff Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 You are so right Lew, it is sad! Living where we are, I see it almost every day, garbage tossed at the side of the road, tires, computers old boats, the one that bothers me the most though is the old drums of god knows what dumped where it can leach into our water systems. There is a beautiful little section of gravel road not too far from our house that runs through a bit of bush. The sides of the road are littered with old furnature, tires, you name it. Every year it gets cleaned up, within a week there is more stuff thrown in there. I am thinking of donating a game camera to the city of Kawartha Lakes so that they can catch some of the abusers. Not that they would ever do anything about it but.... Why do people have to be like that, there is a dump just a few miles down the road and most of the stuff there wouldn't even be a charge for. Just too lazy I guess! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lew Posted April 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Alot of folks seem to think this sort of thing only happens in big cities, but unfortunately it's a problem everwhere. In this particular spot where I took the pictures, there is an annual clean-up by volunteers every spring, but the trouble is, it looks really nice for a few weeks, and then it starts all over again, and by summer it's right back to where it was. I'm down there at least twice every day with Marvin and some days it's 3 times, and I'm constantly picking stuff up and throwing it into the garbage cans that are along the trails, but I often feel like I'm the only one that ever does it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccmtcanada Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 I hear you Lew! Our local tribs have the same kind of garbage everywhere too. Bly pulled a garbage can out of of a popular hole just yesterday!! We try to pick up garbage when we go out...leave the place a little better than when we arrived.....if everyone did a little, than the net result would be huge. Some things we couldn't get out of the water...they are just buried too much from the current. Sad really...these areas are very nice....until you take a real close look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easton13th Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 (edited) Some of the human race are a disgrace. Edited April 8, 2007 by Easton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAH Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 yes Lew people just don't care anymore, just wait untill your city councill and Mayor Miller charges a fee for garbage pickup. it will only get worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAH Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 yes Lew people just don't care anymore, just wait untill your city councill and Mayor Miller charges a fee for garbage pickup. it will only get worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyb Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 (edited) $50 deposit on tires, $100 on matresses, $20 for wicker chairs...Remember my genious theory? I gaurantee you that you would have more people out searching for junk on their free time to bring in for the deposit refund ca$h, oh wait! people wouldn't ditch their junk in the first place, that'd be equivalent to burning money The sad part is that money is the driving force. Our culture places more importance on cash than a clean environment...until...? Tony Edited April 8, 2007 by tonyb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmaster Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Very Sad indeed .....you would think thats some good local anglers would clean that up ..i no it sucks to clean up someone elses crap but if we dont it will only get worse i think they should hang the GARBAGE DUMPERS ....my friend went for a walk down one of his Fav streams the other day where the season is allways closed for Trout and counted over 30 belly slit Bows ...now thats really Sad.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douger Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 I don't get how people can just not care at all. I've seen people toss their garbage on the grass in a park with trash cans 50ft away. I just don't understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernie Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Twice a year our Lions club does a cleanup along our piece of sponsored highway. Unbelievable the stuff that accumulates over a period of six months. Some of the stuff we clean up is absolutely gross . Timmies cups are the most common. People that get caught littering should be made to come out and help us for 10 consecutive years. Maybe that would make them think twice about dumping garbage!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrap Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Same thing down here in Hamilton. You try and drift a nice pool you snag into a tire or a bike. Very sad what this world is coming too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moose Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 iam with gun and fishing club in the near north and we do a clean up of the streams every eyr . why doesnt this site get to gether and set up a clean up day for the tribs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whopper Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 I know we have kicked this topic around a few times and yes Lew it a shame. We have the same problem here. Let's look at the bigger picture, If a person can take another human being's life and not be held accountable how in the world are we going to eliminate victimless crime like littering. Not saying that the two crimes are the same but I think it starts at the top and filters all the way down. All we can do is try to educate the people around us and play nursemaid to those who don't care. My office is on the same street as a county collection center and a land fill and people will dump stuff along the road right out in front of both places just so they don't have to pay. The county then will bring the jail birds out about once every six weeks to clean up the mess. Now I personally think that using the jail birds is great and they should probably have them out and about everyday, but no we wouldn't be able to do any thing like that it would violate "their rights" as prisoners. Whopper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 A big problem is too much of our tax money is in administration and less and less is in action. We pay more taxes, have a bigger population, and yet we get so much less services than ever. Also goverment is wasting so much money on Global Warming, something that man has about maybe 5% impact on. Wasting money when that money could be used for a real polution problem. There's no reason to charge people to dispose of garbage, and most garbage can be recycled and even a profit made on it. My biggest beef is with broken beer bottles, these are refundable, yet they can be found all around shorelines and at most crown land campsites. These pose a danger to our kids, pets as well as us. So many beautiful places I've been to, couldn't spend any time to enjoy, because I didn't want my dogs or kids to hurt themselves. I've even thought of talking to the city and see if they would pay me to go out and clean up all the trash with truck and trailer, and not charge me to put it in the dump. As for just picking up other garbage, it would cost you money to bring others junk to the dump. Many people don't have any respect for themselves, so they sure aren't gonna have respect for nature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyk Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Some people just have no respect for anything these days especially mother nature. It makes me so MAD! When will people learn that we can't treat the environment like a garbage can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clampet Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 I..All we can do is try to educate the people around us and play nursemaid to those who don't care... and people will dump stuff along the road right out in front of both places just so they don't have to pay. T.. Whopper 10 Percent of the population are great human beings. 90 percent are useless trash. Sad, but a reality. It doesn't matter where you go. I work in an office environment, where people where suits, white shirts, and ties. Very professional ambience/atmosphere,however;when you visit the washroom, you get to see how wearing dress clothes does not guarantee quality people, as some leave the facility in a disgusting mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fliptheslop Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Saw the same thing at Port Hope yesterday more garbage flowing down the river than you cam imagine and than some morons thought it would be a good idea to fill balloons with water and throw them in the river must have been more than 100 float past me, top it off with some great outdoor folk feeding the swan and ducks there, once they have every shithawk for miles around running into our fishing lines, they leave, but low and behold they dont take their garbage with them just throw the empty bags from the bread and their coffee cups beside the car and drive away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjsa Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Same thing up here, but in remote locations where people do not have walking trails and such, just bush roads. We often find trash dumped, shingles and refrigerators are the big ones, but couches and chairs, truck bed liners even, etc. etc. The bad thing about the refrigerators, or freezers is, if the perp is not caught, the MNR has to remove them, at cost. They are mandated to have them removed, or pay someone to have it done, to recover the gas in them, so, ultimately, we all pay for it as taxpayers, and the MNR budget gets smaller, and smaller, for enforcement, or other duties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setomonkey Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 It's bad enough to see all the litter on the streets of Toronto (am I the only one who thinks it's been getting worse over the past 10 years?), but it really bugs me to see trash and garbage on trails and in parks and campgrounds. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ch312 Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 the major problem would be that you have to pay tipping fees at the landfill to get rid of junk. $5 minimum and then $60/ton around here. $5 per tire as well. i know it isnt alot of money but people having to pay to dump their garbage definatly makes alot of people throw their garbage in ditches. im not trying to defend people that throw their garbage anywhere, i just think it would make a huge difference if it wasnt so pricey to dump garbage at the landfill. ive taken a few loads to the dump from my house renovations and im up to about $170 just in tipping fees so i can understand why some people throw their garbage anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanheritage Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 How about we (OFC COMMUNITY) put together "A CLEANUP DAY" with some schools? Like a day in june? It can be a volunteer thing for an extra mark. This is something I have been thinking of doing since I saw The "float you fanny down the ganny" devistaion. We could maybe get some sponsors? City approval and help? maybe some media attention? I dunno but it is soo sad to see what people are doing to the rivers and creeks.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilkynan Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 It is every where!!! - When I worked on the middle of the ocean, we dragged up a bunch of tires, barrles and other things I wount mention.. So So Sad!!!! Pick up your mess!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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