Every day for the past three weeks, retired city resident Bill Summers wakes up early and makes his way along the Speed River and the downtown core at 6:15 a.m. to pick up garbage for two hours using rubber gloves and a trash picker.
As of Friday, he has filled 110 garbage bags with trash.
Lots of dog poop in bags, Tim Horton's cups, clothing and the occasional miscellaneous item like a suitcase are some of what Summers picks up on a daily basis.
He says he has taken it upon himself to make Guelph look just a little bit cleaner, and with the lockdown in place it’s also an activity that helps him cope with the crisis.
“Walking the banks of the Speed and Eramosa with the first sun of the day can be so invigorating and is such a tonic during these trying times,” says Summers.
“It’s lovely to see the beautiful sites but when you see a bag of dog s***, it kind of takes your view away from the beauty.”
He says while he tries to clean up every year, a cancelled two-week hiking trip to Scotland as a result of the pandemic was all the more reason to use the time and energy he had toward his home city.
Every time he’s done collecting trash, he places the full garbage bags in the city's garbage bins and informs the city so they know some garbage bins may be full.
After making his way along the Speed River all the way up to Woodlawn Road and Eramosa Road, he says he will now spend at least the next two weeks trying to work the other way down the Hanlon Expressway.
“It took me a day to clean around the police station. There’s tons of garbage there and another day to clean up around the Basilica because it was pretty bad too,” says Summers.
Occasionally, he says some of the items he sees just make him reflect on the crises of the city, such as a pail of used needles by the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate and a wooden box where homeless individuals sleep at night.
He says with all the garbage he collects, actions by dog owners particularly anger him because they make up most of the garbage he finds along the river.
“If you’re going to put your dog s*** in a bag, put it in the garbage can. The number of bags of dog s*** that I pick up that have been thrown in the bush is disgusting. It’s already in a bag! They’ve already done the hard work! And sometimes you look and its only 20 feet from the garbage can,” says Summers.
“Why are you so bloomin' lazy?”
With the pandemic, a second runner of common garbage is disposable gloves and wipes and the third is random articles of clothing that is usually hidden away in the trails.
Now that the City of Guelph’s annual Clean and Green community clean up has been cancelled, Summers says being out in Guelph cleaning helps him contribute to the city and is just one of the many ways one can help their community.
“There’s no question that when someone walks by and says thanks, that makes my day for another hour and it happens a lot,” says Summers.
“I mean that itself is kind of nice because it puts a smile on people’s faces and of course these days if you can get a smile, its a big deal.”
