Less plastic, more placemaking: resident-led recycling program in Lakeside Park

Invented in 1898, improved in the early 1900’s and popularized in the 1960’s, plastic is lightweight, malleable, changeable and easy to manufacture. Worldwide, we are now producing 300 million tons of it each year. Half of it is for single use. One tenth of it is actually recycled and nearly three times as much (over 8,000,000 tons) ends up in our streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.

It’s statistics like this that motivate the Lakeside Park Kitchener Group of residents to improve their community.  

Located beside St. Mary’s Hospital, in the heart of our city, Lakeside Park is often described as an “urban oasis.” The park features many natural habitats, including wetlands, open water, forest and meadow, as well as amenities for active living, such as a playground, toboggan hill, winter skating rink and a paved asphalt pathway that runs from Queens Boulevard to Stirling Avenue.

After hearing about LoveMyHood’s Placemaking Challenge Grant, which aims to turn everyday spaces in our city’s neighbourhoods into destinations, a subcommittee of the Lakeside Park Group got to work.   

After only three meetings, the group had narrowed their focus and decided to apply for the Placemaking Challenge’s $2,000 Sustainability Grant with the goal of creating a volunteer-based park recycling program in the park.  

With the “Love Your Lakeside” project, the group introduced a number of improvements to the park, including three recycling bins, a green bin and a TerraCycle bin for cigarette butts. The group even designed signs letting people know about the resident volunteer recycling program.

During the Placemaking Challenge Weekend on Saturday, July 27^th, the group animated the park with a number of educational activities, including Zero Waste and Stormwater Management booths run by REEP Green Solutions, performances and activities from Buskers for Change, a rain garden tour, and colouring books donated by the Landfill Environmental Education Centre. Despite the rain, over 60 residents showed up during the two hour event!

The bins were placed in the park in July, and by September 2018, the group had organized, contacted and scheduled a dozen volunteers to sort the contents of the recycling bins, diverting contaminated materials into the garbage and relocating clean materials.

While the Love Your Lakeside project has had such a positive impact on making our community that much greener, it’s only the start! Learn how you can reduce waste with help from REEP Green Solutions or how to properly sort your recycling to avoid contamination with the Region of Waterloo’s MyWaste App. You can also get involved with the Love Your Lakeside resident-led recycling program by getting in touch with Clayton Klaver and Mary Ann Vanden Elzen, or simply join the Lakeside Neighbourhood Community page here.

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