Letter: Reader upset with park litter

Editor:

For 34 years I have lived in Cardiff Echoes and for over 15 of those years I have been going to Cardiff Park on a daily basis, sometimes twice a day. The park has evolved over the years and is a beautiful little gem that I appreciate and count my blessings to be within walking distance to enjoy.

The park folks do a great job maintaining it and since they installed the mutt mitts stands there are very few instances of dog poop anywhere. Sometimes I see coyote or deer remains but that’s it. That being said it’s organic matter and breaks down.

I have a  pet peeve and have had for the past several years as the park has gained in popularity and that is the amount of litter left behind by people especially on the weekends. My husband is forever picking up debris and putting it in the garbage on our walks, sometimes within steps of where it has been thrown. One day at the edge of the kids’ playground there was broken glass (callous and inconsiderate that someone never thought of the little kids playing there), on more than one occasion there’s evidence of people emptying  their car garbage in a parking areas. Bottles, old foil and paper wraps, you name it you’ll find it.

Monday of the last long weekend a group had ‘reserved’ one of the shelters (their signs were posted), the next day it rained and the following day I was in the park. I had never seen such a mess, so much so that it could not have been just the birds or the wind. It was strewn all over and there was tons of it – bigger boxes that had obviously held some of the garbage, green plastic bags and garbage all over. It appeared to be all packaging as there was no evidence of food remains.

To give the group credit – maybe they did pack it up but they didn’t do a good enough job. Perhaps the wind did catch it and/or  the crows got to it which meant it wasn’t disposed of properly.  If it won’t fit in the provided garbage cans it should be toted out. People should leave the area they are enjoying as they found it. There are many garbage cans throughout the park and it is rare to see one 3/4 full in the summer so there is no reason not to use them . It seems they are serviced on a regular basis.

Thursday I encountered a parks crew, told them about it and on my return on Friday it was back to being pristine.

Littering shows a  lack of respect and appreciation for the beauty of the park and a lack of consideration for other park visitors. Please think twice and take those extra seconds to dispose of your garbage responsibly.

Thanks a million

Linda

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2 Comments

  1. Park Litter
    Perhaps those reserving sites, need to pay a deposit for clean-up, that would surely solve the problem.

  2. same is with people that fish there.they just get their bait/hools whatever and leave the waste. there are used hooks and all this stuff on the ground of the fishing spots,also some people driving like crazy through the park(not 30km/h for sure what they should do!!!!!)

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