When Memorial University marine biology student Carter McNelly organized a shoreline cleanup of Quidi Vidi Lake, he was caught off-guard by the number of needles spotted in high-traffic areas.
“This is where people are walking their dogs and stuff like that, and heaven forbid if something were to happen,” the 21-year-old said.
He said the cleanup crew found about a dozen syringes, but its members didn’t have the proper equipment to collect the needles using just garbage bags and gloves. All they could do was notify the city.
For McNelly, the experience was a seed that grew into a project he's launching this fall.
With funding from Ocean Bridge, one of the federal government’s Canada Service Corps youth programs, McNelly assembled needle cleanup kits.
Each kit has puncture-proof gloves, a sharps box to store the needles, a trash grabber to pick them up from a safe distance, and instructions on how to do that safely.
Any individual or group in the St. John’s area can request a kit from McNelly by filling out the form at http://bit.ly/stjcleanupkit.
When the kit is full or an organized cleanup is complete, it can be returned to McNelly, and he’ll give it to the Aids Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador to have it discarded appropriately.
McNelly said he’ll also ask people where and when they collected the needles so he can pass the information along to the city in hopes that it will help inform or improve how the city deals with discarded needles.
“Obviously, the city’s trying, but there are still needles that are being found all over the place.”
The city has 12 sharps disposal containers in various locations, including at Quidi Vidi Lake, Martins Meadow Park, Southlands Community Centre and Bannerman Park.
McNelly recently did a couple of pilot cleanups around Quidi Vidi Lake and Mundy Pond using the kits, and he picked up 25 needles.
While his short-term goal is to ensure sharps are properly discarded and not posing a danger to people, animals or the environment, he also hopes the project increases awareness.
“To, hopefully, push for better services to those who use drugs and eliminate the need for them to discard the needles improperly,” he said.
McNelly is one of 160 young people aged 18-30 across Canada selected for this year’s Ocean Bridge program, an Ocean Wise initiative funded by the Canada Service Corps through the federal government.
The program supports participants to be ocean leaders in their communities.
Ocean Bridge describes McNelly as a young ocean leader in St. John’s who is spearheading change in the city through his work with the program.
“These Ocean Bridge Ambassadors from all across Canada work together, receive funding and learn from experts in marine conservation and education through an online platform and in-person learning journeys to develop service projects related to ocean health and ocean literacy in communities across the country,” reads an Ocean Bridge news release.
While McNelly said he was inspired to create the kits because of the shoreline cleanup at Quidi Vidi Lake, he said people can use the kits to collect needles from anywhere around the city, not necessarily near waterways.
Twitter: @juanitamercer_
