Volunteers clean up Assiniboine River banks left exposed by low water levels

WINNIPEG -

With low water levels exposing more of the riverbank, volunteers spent an afternoon picking up garbage and waste along the Assiniboine River shoreline in Assiniboine Park.

On Saturday afternoon, Assiniboine Park Conservancy and Pride Winnipeg hosted a shoreline cleanup.

Marc Brandson, the curator of animal care at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, said the problem of litter is an issue all around the world.

"It's definitely something that is a problem in municipal places where you have more people, therefore more litter," he said, adding the litter on the shorelines can eventually wind up in lakes and other bodies of water.

Because of this, Assiniboine Park and Pride Winnipeg teamed up to clean up the shoreline. The organizations are joining the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, a national conservation program encouraging Canadians to pick up litter in their communities.

The volunteers collected the litter and brought it to sorting sites where it can be properly recycled or thrown out.

Renata Machado, the sustainability coordinator at the park and the sustainability director at Pride Winnipeg, said it's an issue that has been getting worse.

"You don't understand how big the problem is if you don't go and pick up waste ourselves," said Machado. "Once you do that, you realize it's a big problem, and maybe once you're here at the park, you say, 'Hey, let me rethink my ways.'"

Brandson said more than 60 volunteers took part in the cleanup. The organizations plan to hold another shoreline clean up in the spring.