Skip to content

Guelph family helps keep things clean in east Guelph

The Baker family took it upon themselves to make their neighbourhood a cleaner place

A Guelph family wants to keep green spaces in Guelph litter-free, one piece of trash at a time.

Colleen Baker, her husband, Rob Baker, and their daughter, Emma McKendry-Baker, have been picking up litter in their east end neighbourhood. 

Moving to Guelph last summer, Baker said her family fell in love with the green spaces within their neighbourhood.  Over the past few months, the family began to notice more litter appearing, especially on trails and roadside along Eastview Road between Summit Ridge Road and Watson Road. 

“Since the McDonalds opened, there has been an increase in food paper waste, that's because there weren't many options for people to grab and walk with their food,” said Baker, noting brands like Tim Hortons and Starbucks were also on the ground.

The idea to do something about the litter came from Emma, who organized the family to go out and clean up trash on July 9. The family then went out again on Aug 27 with a couple volunteers. Between both events, they filled a total of eight bags of garbage.

"Even though green spaces are important to us, it was Emma who pushed us and said, 'Come on guys,'" said Baker and Emma.

Emma said she was inspired to take action from Sam Demma, a youth activist and entrepreneur who started the volunteer organization, PickWaste. 

Emma began messaging Demma on social media after they gave a virtual presentation to her student council when she was in Grade 8.

“He has this day called 'Pick Waste Day' in Pickering, Ontario, because that's where he's from, but Guelph is a long ways away from Pickering, so I decided to do it in my own community,” said Emma, who will be entering Grade 10 at John F. Ross.

"Since I live in the city now, I thought it would be nice to clean up the green spaces so that everybody can enjoy them."

Besides organizing both clean ups, the family also advocated to get a new trash can installed at the south side bus stop on Eastview Road and Watson Road. The idea also came from Emma.

"I was happy when they set up a garbage receptacle out there, because now people can put their garbage in a bin, not on the ground where it's just polluting everywhere," said Emma, "and because there's litter everywhere, people can't enjoy the green spaces."

"It was nice to see that there had been an amalgamation of four or five iced coffee cups sitting right by the bus stop, and when we went past with the garbage can, they were gone," said Baker.

Baker adds the city was quick to respond to their request for the trash bin, which was installed Aug. 28.

"This past time, we've reached out about how we handle the garbage we pick up, so we are going to be able to coordinate with them, and whenever we know our next day, they will assist with the actual pick up of the bags," said Baker, noting the mayor and two representatives from McDonalds also reached out about helping at a future event. 

Previously, the family had lived on a 2.5-acre rural property in Everton. During the clean up events, the family came across different types of litter, from cups to workers clothes. Sharing their clean up efforts on social media, Baker said the hope is to build awareness and encourage other people to join in cleaning up litter.

“It's always been important to us, even Emma's been right there with us, doing the gardening and weeding and that's just what we've grown up with," said Baker, "just because we're in the city doesn't mean we have to stop those passions, and giving back to the earth and appreciating the land that we live on."

"There are people that care,  for sure, we see that with the responses from people walking past, but the next step is figuring out how to encourage people more, and I don't have the answer yet."

As for Emma, she plans to continue picking up trash monthly in different spaces. The family is also planning to organize a garbage pick-up event in the spring of 2023 during Guelph’s Clean & Green event.

“It makes me proud that I'm doing something that will have a positive impact on the green spaces that we have," said Emma about this project.

"Even if it's a couple bags of garbage, it's still making a difference and it's still cleaning up the green spaces."