Armed with trash bags, nitrile gloves and a passion for conserving the environment, Nadine Porter and a number of volunteers are out to clean up the streets of Flin Flon.
There is no official name for the group, but the loose group of volunteers wants to rid Flin Flon of litter, cleaning around town and encouraging others to do the same.
Porter began picking up trash around Flin Flon four years ago.
The cleanups started small, with Porter sometimes doing them by herself. Since her childhood, Porter has cared deeply for the environment. She said it was her father that instilled in her the importance of environmental issues.
“He believed in respecting what you were given to enjoy and taking care of it. I guess that stuck with me and my whole family,” she said.
Slowly, word began to spread about the litter pickups. Last summer, more people became involved as part of an effort to clean up Flin Flon ahead of Homecoming and Canada 150 celebrations.
“They started taking pride in their community and they didn’t want to portray Flin Flon as this place where people throw away garbage. That year, it went wild – everybody helped. It was awesome,” said Porter.
Porter then started promoting the cleanups on social media. She found a new audience there, soon after seeing volunteers show up with friends and children in tow.
Now, the numbers are growing – on June 5, 10 people showed up, pushing the group into double digits for the first time.
“Other people see it and take interest, and pretty soon, they’re doing it too. It’s catching on, more and more. People are coming out and they’re bringing their children,” said Porter.
There’s no telling what unusual items volunteers can find during the cleaning. Not long after getting underway on June 5, volunteer Sheena D’Aoust found an odd piece of trash – a plastic clog floating in the pond near the junction of Highway 10 and Highway 10A.
The shoe was fished out of the water with a stick.
D’Aoust brought along children for the picking session, saying actually picking up trash is a good way to show children the negative impact of littering and pollution on the environment.
“I already tell them littering is bad, but I want them to take care of the earth so that there will be a planet left, more than just picking up garbage or recycling. I teach them a lot about that, so they’re aware. We’re for awareness,” she said.
“Lots of kids, they just don’t know how bad a cigarette butt can be if a bird or a fish eats it, and then the whole population dies off a hundred years from now.”
Porter said that she has heard of other Flin Flon residents going for walks and picking up litter. There’s no formal network of pickers, but Porter is pleased that the idea is spreading, adding that she enjoys seeing others cleaning on social media.
“We’re in a day and age now where we have to share everything good that we can. People need to see good, they need to do good, they need to feel good. They need to see that people care. Too many people don’t care anymore. I’m hoping that seeing people picking garbage and people caring more and more, maybe it will lead to people disposing of less garbage in our ditches,” she said.
More bits and pieces of refuse can be found along the shoulders of Highway 10. Whether it is litter thrown from passing cars or refuse blown to the area from elsewhere is not known, but it doesn’t take long for those looking for trash to find it.
Detritus can be found along the roadside – an empty hairspray bottle and multiple empty bottles of mouthwash, dozens of empty beer cans, even a discarded sign for a former political candidate.
Once the group is finished, they typically fill a number of full-size garbage bags – during the June 5 cleanup, it easily reached double digits – and leaves them by the roadside. Not long after, city disposal crews drive by to pick up the bags.
There isn’t a clear time or location for the litter pickups. Porter organizes them online whenever her schedule permits, reaching out to volunteers to find where litter problems exist in the community and how they can be fixed.
“Any time we get more people, it’s good,” said Porter.
