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In partnership with the
Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Peel Regional Police & Royal Canadian Mounted Police
  
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Tours & EventsBack to Tours & Events main page |
FedEx Hill Trash Cleanup
On Sunday September 11th a group of volunteers from the YYZ Airport Watch came together to hold the first official group event. As many of you know the area we affectionately refer to as the "Fedex Hill" had become an eyesore with discarded trash. Realizing that something should be done, a number of our members had expressed an interest in volunteering their time to clean up this area. The committee had discussed this idea in the past, however issues that required our immediate attention resulted in a delay with getting this event off the ground. After some further discussion we enlisted airport watch member Mr. Steve Cos to help coordinate this outing. The plan was quite simple, send out a message to all our members asking for 20-25 volunteers. Those that offered to come out and help were asked to contact Steve who maintained the list of volunteers as well as formulating the plan of action once on the clean up site. The Airport Watch committee purchased refreshments and provided garbage bags and a supply of gloves.
Our group met at the site (located on Bramalea Rd) at approximately 14:00. Garbage bags and gloves were distributed and Steve laid out the plan. As members set out and began collecting the litter, it didn't take long to see immediate results. Within 20-30 minutes some 10 bags of litter had been collected and more were on their way. Truly amazing the amount of refuse that carpeted the underbrush. It wasn't long after the start of the event that two GTAA employees arrived on scene. One a staff member from the public relations department, the other from the maintenance department. Additional garbage bags and rakes were distributed to our volunteers, a welcome contribution to say the least. Arrangements were discussed for the pick up of the bags and true to his word, the GTAA fellow returned approximately 1 hour later to collect the 20-25 bags of garbage. Our volunteers quickly collected the bags and loaded them into the truck. Meanwhile, after a brief introduction, Patricia Wilkinson (GTAA Public Relations) set out to take photographs of our group. Some of these photos as well as an article appeared in the Nov/Dec issue of the GTAA newsletter "Toronto Pearson Today". To view the article which is reproduced with permission from the copyright holder, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, please Click Here. You will require Acrobat Reader to view the article. To read and/or download issues of "Toronto Pearson Today", please visit their website and select "GTAA Publications" by Clicking Here.
Peel Regional Police made a brief appearance and were met by committee director Andy Cline. Andy introduced himself and explained what the event was all about. The officer seemed quite impressed and stated "great job".
In all some 28 members, nearly 30 percent of our members, came out and made this event a success. We are truly grateful for your help and support. It's not exactly a choice assignment but one that will go a long way in strengthening our relationship with airport authorities. We intend to organize regular garbage pick ups a various locations around the airport perimeter in the future. Details will be sent out to members as they are planned. As a matter of good practice we encourage members keep a plastic bag in their cars and if they happen to see litter while out at the airport, kindly pick it up.
It should be noted that Fedex and/or its employees in no way contributed to, or are responsible for the litter that accumulated in this area. The reference to "Fedex Hill" is only a nickname that our members affectionately have given this area because of its proximity to their YYZ facilities.
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