with his new project, papineau has not only counted the masks, he has made notes of where they were collected. on a spreadsheet.
from it, he found some patterns. some masks were near parking spots in residential areas, maybe dropped on purpose or by accident by drivers getting out of a car after parking at home. some areas are worse, he told via: alongside parks, schools, bus stops, commercial areas and construction sites. once, he says, he pulled around 30 from a storm drain near a grocery store on fraser street.
south vancouver neighbourhoods have more discarded masks; maybe that’s because more people wear masks there. west vancouver neighbourhoods turned up less, maybe because of its lower density.
now that his injury has healed and he’s running again, the new undertaking has given him reason to get himself out the door. and because “a lot of times i’ll run along the edge of the curb staring down into the gutter,” his pace is still slow. but that’s ok.
cleaning up makes him feel better and, he hopes, helps the general public feel better, too.
“getting (masks) off the ground feels like an important step toward normal,” he told via.
“we live in such a beautiful place, it sucks there’s so much garbage on the ground.”
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plogging, the art of cleaning up discarded masks while jogging