Trash trouble: Litter problem rears ugly head after snow melt in Cape Breton

It’s an issue that becomes all too clear, after the snow melts. Litter, and piles of it, across the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is causing concern.

“We see a lot of Tim Hortons cups, fast food products, plastics, and a lot of dog waste bags. It's a big mixture of items,” said Dylan Yates, Cape Breton Environmental Association president.

Yates and his group have been doing community clean-ups since 2015, but this year it has been harder to get volunteers.

“What I attribute that to is, people are getting fed up with going to an area to do a clean-up and going back two to four weeks later and that area being full of litter again,” said Yates.

Still, Yates says a community clean-up will take place on April 22 behind Dooley’s in Sydney at 11 a.m.

The rush is on before the peak tourism season arrives.

“Any little bit we can do as individuals, while we solve the bigger problem, is helpful,” said Kathleen Aikens, ACAP Cape Breton executive director.

ACAP Cape Breton's “Trashformers” will soon hit the streets.

Armed with protective gloves and handy pick-up sticks, their goal is to put a dent in the amount of litter on the ground in CBRM.

“I think that we need to start having some very serious conversations as a municipality, as an island, as a nation, about how were going to get serious about reducing our waste. Some of that is about consuming less single-use plastic and less single-use material,” said Aikens.

Yates says litter can also have a deadly impact on wildlife.

“Through entanglements, ingestion, basically wildlife are opportunists, so if there's litter around and food they're going to make their way into that,” he said.

Yates says there's no easy fix or excuse for the unsightly mess.