Volunteers with the Okanagan Forest Task Force collected 22,700 pounds of waste on Saturday, June 3, 2017.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Okanagan Forest Task Force
June 06, 2017 - 4:35 PM
KELOWNA - To those who continue to dump illegally, get ready to be publicly shamed.
On the weekend, over 40 volunteers with the Okanagan Forest Task Force took part in the group's biggest cleanup yet in Kelowna's Posthill Lake Road area, according to a media release. More than 22,700 pounds of junk comprised of 15,880 pounds of scrap metal and 6,834 pounds of garbage were collected on Saturday, June 3.
Now, the organization says they will be turning to the public to shame those who are responsible for the dumping by using trail cameras.
“People need to be made an example of for people to change,” organizer Kane Blake says in the release. “We didn’t want to do it, but nothing is changing. If we catch someone dumping on one of our cameras, it will be on the news. It’s time to grow up.”
Volunteers have cleaned up 111,000 pounds of waste since the non-profit organization was formed about ten months ago.
“I feel sheer disgust,” Blake says. “A lot of the sites we go to are constant dumping spots. People don’t seem to get it or care.”
Another concern for the organization is the impact the illegal dumping has on wildlife.
“Nobody is speaking up for the wildlife walking through the broken glass or the nails or getting tangled in Christmas lights dumped in the bush or volleyball nets,” Blake says. “They suffer in silence.”
He says he is disappointed by the lack of government support.
“I hear from people all over and yet I hear nothing from our own government,” he said. “They have not reached out to help us funding wise, or offered to see how they can help. We’re doing their job for free.”
Find past stories on Okanagan Forest Task Force here.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2017