With Canada’s big 1-5-0 just on the horizon, it gives Canadians a chance to reflect on the things that make us feel grateful to leave in this country. Near the top of my already very long list is the cleanliness of Canada. While not every city is the same, there are certainly areas more clean than others, I feel a sense of pride when visitors comment on how green and clean everything is. While Canada is undoubtedly naturally beautiful it isn’t naturally clean… at least not without the help of Canadians everywhere taking pride in their city and using waste bins, recycling and composting as much as we can.

While I know we all try to do our part, it’s especially nice to do a little bit extra and we really don’t mind if the weather keeps trending towards summer!

This month I teamed up with Glad in an initiative to keep Canada clean. Glad is working with people from coast to coast to take part and initiate city cleanups by providing garbage, recycling and compostable bags.

Last week my family and I took to Maple Ridge to do a park clean-up. I chose to initiate my Clean Canada at Haney Nakoi Park because it’s close to my Grandparents, who when I told them about this initiative wanted to participate and for them, they spend much of their day enjoying this park! So why not clean it!

My grandparents and I were joined by my mom, my sister Steph, my best friend Natalia and my godson Kamil, my cousin Kirsten, make-up artist extraordinaire Huda and my Uncle Todd and Aunt Paige. With plastic gloves on hand, we got to work spending a total of three hours enjoying each other’s company, taking in the fresh air and picking up pieces of scrap litter that hadn’t quite made its way into the garbage bin. Once we had a few bags full we flung them into a nearby waste container and went to grab a drink on the patio.

I didn’t think this initiative would have been all that moving considering I went into it already feeling like I do a fair bit to reduce waste but wow was I ever surprised! As we sat around the patio enjoying the afternoon sun we all had comments about the things we had found and how it truly made us think about the little pieces of garbage we produce in our daily lives. A piece of plastic discarded on a newly opened bag of quinoa, the packaging surrounding and segmenting my pack of gum and the straws that come with every ice coffee or juice box! It really made us consider ways we can reduce the frequency of which we’re creating waste. I will absolutely be investing in reusable straws, bringing jars and buying bulk as well as getting together with friends for bulk purchases to reduce the amount of external packaging on products we both already use.

In honour of Canada’s 150^th Birthday, I would like to invite everyone to join me in both making more sustainable choices that impact our direct environment as well as participate in a city cleanup! Choose a park, street, city block; get a group of friends together; snag a few Glad bags and get down to business!

Happy cleaning, Canada!

Natalie xx

 

Photography by Jaimie Griffin 

Makeup by Huda 

Overalls by Livify 

Thank you to Glad for sponsoring this post. All comments and opinions are my own.