P.E.I. man on a mission to make Island roads cleaner, one ditch at a time

Madison Dunn finds it tough to turn a blind eye to the amount of trash littered along Prince Edward Island's roadsides. 

A couple of years ago, the avid cycler and his cousin decided to do something about it. 

"You find yourself constantly looking off into the ditch when you're cycling, and [there's] just a lot of garbage … more than I could stand, so I figured it was time to take action," said the 32-year-old Dunn. 

"It's honestly that easy to take action. You just grab a garbage bag and get out there." 

What started out as a relatively lonely effort to collect trash from P.E.I.'s ditches quickly became a group activity among Dunn and his friends. 

The crew would head out, buckets and bags in hand, play some music, chat and do their small part to keep the roadsides clean. 

This year, though, Dunn decided to spread the word about the cause to motivate more people to come out to cleanups. 

He created an Instagram account called Fast Trash to help spread the word and create challenges, like pledging to pick up 12 recyclables for every new follower or post share. 

'It's pretty crazy'

The Fast Trash crew goes out every weekend and sometimes once during the week to make things look just a bit more spiffy. 

"Especially around this time of year when all the snow's melted, there's so much trash in the ditches. It's pretty crazy," said Dylan Menzie, a longtime friend of Dunn's who was one of about 10 who came out to help collect garbage Saturday in Mount Herbert, just east of Stratford.  

"It's kind of nice just to get outside, hang with a couple of friends and clean things up." 

While it's been a fulfilling and fun experience, it's also a disconcerting one. 

Dunn would like to believe that some of the trash got there by mistake — something the wind blew out of a waste bin, perhaps — but said he's not naive to the fact that many drivers are throwing things away intentionally. 

It's also not to connect the dots between the number of discarded alcohol bottles with the province's impaired driving problem. 

"I haven't found anything truly weird or wild, but just the sheer amount of garbage that's out here is the craziest thing I've ever seen," Dunn said. "I think we go blind to the litter and garbage at the side of the roads." 

I've not seen any active littering, so I love that.— Madison Dunn

He hopes Fast Trash can shine a light on that problem and help curb it. The account's following has grown steadily in its first few weeks, and Dunn has been invited to cleanup events in other communities. 

Island Waste Management, the provincial Crown corporation responsible for trash collection on P.E.I., also reached out to the group to provide them with garbage bags to help the efforts. 

So far, Dunn said the reaction has been positive — and P.E.I.'s roadways are looking cleaner, one ditch at a time. 

"We get a lot of supportive honks, a lot of thumbs up or cheers," he said.

"Nothing negative so far, which is awesome. And I've not seen any active littering, so I love that."