You probably have a seasonal ritual at this time of year – admiring the bulbs, raking your favourite trail, stockpiling chocolate or painting eggs. One of mine has become a ditch clean-up in front of our place. Once the snow melts, and a year’s worth of garbage, plastic, McDonalds’ wrappers and empties are revealed, kiddo and I grab the gloves and some garbage bags, and give the earth a little love. It’s immensely satisfying, and a tangible way to give back to the natural systems that sustain us. Also, it makes me hopeful that people will be less inclined to treat the roadsides and creeks as their own personal garbage can, if there isn’t already a heap of litter there.

So, you can head out on your own, or you can align yourself with a nation-wide movement, Pitch-In Canada – a week that started in 1967 with a handful of people picking up debris along the shore of Vancouver Island. By 2019, the movement had grown to incorporate 850,000 people from coast to coast, collectively picking up 5.65 million pounds of litter.

The SLRD has declared April 18-24 Pitch-in Week – if you register at pitch-in.ca, they’ll ship you bags, and your tipping fees will be waived.

Encourage your neighbours to do their bit, brag about your clean-up efforts on social, follow Zero in on Waste and tag them with your haul.