LATEST STORIES:

30 volunteers gathered to help clean up Cootes Paradise

Share this story...

Cigarette butts, pieces of plastic, tampons, discarded needles floating along the shore, and washed up on the path at Cootes Paradise. Volunteers with the group “Stewards of Cootes Watershed” have found over 30 hypodermic needles while sifting for plastic and other garbage.

Alan Hansell guesses the needles and all the plastic tampon applicators were flushed down toilets, and forced into Cootes Paradise when the Chedoke combined sewer tank overflowed during a storm dumping waste into Chedoke Creek.

The water level at lake Ontario is the highest it’s been in more than a hundred years, that is actually helped these volunteers get access to some of the tiny plastic that’s been in this water for decades.

The group says they’ve filled more than 200 garbage bags this week alone, and will be picking up more trash every Sunday morning this month, from 9-12 at Princess Point and they’re always looking for more volunteers.