Julie MacMillan hopes a little public pressure will help clean things up around the Alouette Greenway Trail.
For the second time in a few weeks, MacMillan has seen used needles dumped into the public parking lot near the trail at 132nd Avenue, west of 224th Street.
She came across them while on one of her daily walks of her three little dogs, Cowbowy, Tim and Zoe.
MacMillan has twice seen the needles in the parking lot in the last few weeks. Her friend, who’s a nurse, told her they were steroid needles.
MacMillan hasn’t called the City of Maple Ridge’s parks and leisure services department.
“I am hoping a bit of publicity will make them think twice about leaving their trash behind again.”
There are lots of kids and pets in the area, she adds.
Parks and open spaces manager Geoff Mallory said anyone who finds needles in parks or trails should call the department at 604-467-7346.
Workers will get to the scene as soon as possible and clean up the needles.
“We track where we find the needles and see if there are hot spots.”
People are asked just to leave the needles where they are and not touch them.
“We want them disposed of properly,” he said. “We treat all of them as being hazardous. That’s what we tell everybody. It’s so easy to get jabbed.”
Workers use litter pickers to retrieve the needles then dump them into a sharps box for safe disposal later as hazardous waste.
Needle boxes are kept at the Maple Ridge library and Leisure Centre for the same reason.