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

Stephen Brun · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 20, 2025 1:34 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

Madison Dunn finds it pugnacious to crook a unsighted oculus to the magnitude of trash littered on Prince Edward Island's roadsides. 

A mates of years ago, the avid cycler and his relative decided to bash thing astir it. 

"You find yourself perpetually looking disconnected into the ditch erstwhile you're cycling, and [there's] conscionable a batch of garbage … much than I could stand, truthful I figured it was clip to instrumentality action," said the 32-year-old Dunn. 

"It's honestly that casual to instrumentality action. You conscionable drawback a garbage container and get retired there." 

What started retired arsenic a comparatively lonely effort to cod trash from P.E.I.'s ditches rapidly became a radical enactment among Dunn and his friends. 

The unit would caput out, buckets and bags successful hand, play immoderate music, chat and bash their tiny portion to support the roadsides clean. 

This year, though, Dunn decided to dispersed the connection astir the origin to motivate much radical to travel retired to cleanups. 

He created an Instagram relationship called Fast Trash to assistance dispersed the connection and make challenges, similar pledging to prime up 12 recyclables for each caller follower oregon station share. 

'It's beauteous crazy'

The Fast Trash unit goes retired each play and sometimes erstwhile during the week to marque things look conscionable a spot much spiffy. 

"Especially astir this clip of twelvemonth erstwhile each the snow's melted, there's truthful overmuch trash successful the ditches. It's beauteous crazy," said Dylan Menzie, a longtime person of Dunn's who was 1 of astir 10 who came retired to assistance cod garbage Saturday successful Mount Herbert, conscionable eastbound of Stratford.  

"It's benignant of bully conscionable to get outside, bent with a mates of friends and cleanable things up." 

While it's been a fulfilling and amusive experience, it's besides a disconcerting one. 

Dunn would similar to judge that immoderate of the trash got determination by mistake — thing the upwind blew retired of a discarded bin, possibly — but said he's not naive to the information that galore drivers are throwing things distant intentionally. 

It's besides not to link the dots betwixt the fig of discarded intoxicant bottles with the province's impaired driving problem. 

"I haven't recovered thing genuinely weird oregon wild, but conscionable the sheer magnitude of garbage that's retired present is the craziest happening I've ever seen," Dunn said. "I deliberation we spell unsighted to the litter and garbage astatine the broadside of the roads." 

He hopes Fast Trash tin radiance a airy connected that occupation and assistance curb it. The account's pursuing has grown steadily successful its archetypal fewer weeks, and Dunn has been invited to cleanup events successful different communities. 

Island Waste Management, the provincial Crown corp liable for trash postulation connected P.E.I., besides reached retired to the radical to supply them with garbage bags to assistance the efforts. 

So far, Dunn said the absorption has been affirmative — and P.E.I.'s roadways are looking cleaner, 1 ditch astatine a time. 

"We get a batch of supportive honks, a batch of thumbs up oregon cheers," helium said.

"Nothing antagonistic truthful far, which is awesome. And I've not seen immoderate progressive littering, truthful I emotion that."