Our 'Trashy' Story

A few years ago my family moved out of the city centre. My daughter Madi and I went for a walk to explore our new greener neighbourhood. We were shocked with the amount of litter we encountered.  Previously thinking litter was more of a city problem, we were shocked to discover so much along the roadsides, in the parks and the vast green spaces. 

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We decided we had to clean it up our walk because it was ruining the natural beauty of our new greener neighbourhood. So, everyday for a week we carried tongs and garbage bags and quickly filled them with litter. Then we lugged them home to dispose of properly. We were surprised to find most of the litter we found was recyclable. 

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As the weeks went by our walk was soon littered with trash again. The garbage bags we used to clean up litter just weren’t cutting it anymore. They were awkward (particularly on a windy day) and messy – another single use plastic destined for the bin. There had to be a better, easier way to pick up litter and still enjoy our walk. We began the task of brainstorming and designing a better solution. Starting with a paper mock-up and many iterations later, THE LITTER RIDDER was born! An eco-friendly backpack designed specifically for picking up litter and made of Eco RPET recycled plastic water bottles!    

 

We originally picked up the litter on our walk simply for aesthetic reasons. It was not until we began to educate ourselves on the harmful effect that litter has on the environment that we felt compelled to take action.     ~ Kathryn