Construction waste 'flying everywhere' in Whitehorse's Whistle Bend neighbourhood

Parts of the green belt around the ever-expanding Whitehorse neighbourhood of Whistle Bend are anything but green.

"All the green belts that I've seen [in Whistle Bend] are just filled with garbage tangled around the trees and it's littered throughout," said resident Chris Green.

From his patio, Green sees all kinds of garbage whip past his new house every day.

"It's just something you don't expect — construction waste, flying through the air, everywhere," he said. "Everyday there is something new, really."

Green moved into Whistle Bend a couple of months ago and his part of the neighbourhood is booming.

"In two weeks there's four houses going up around me," he said. "And really fast."

Whistle Bend has grown to more than 3,000 people and is expected to more than double in the years ahead. With all that construction comes a lot of waste.

Green says it's not uncommon to see construction dumpsters over capacity, with garbage being blown away into ever-growing piles.

"There's a very dominant wind that whistles through Whistle Bend, coming from the southeast and blowing west," said Green.

Kouciah Graham works in the neighbourhood, moving dirt around for basements and installing sewer and water lines. It's a job that he says doesn't produce a lot of waste, but he sees a lot of the debris.

"You got to put it in garbage bags right away or it's gone," he said.

Working nearby, drywall installer Clancy McKenna says finding a solution is tough.

"It's really up to every one of the builders. If they got their guys a bit more conscious of it," McKenna said.

"Other than that, everyone kinda does their own thing, so trying to do one thing as a whole would be kinda difficult."

Local MLA Yvonne Clarke says she's been hearing about the mess from constituents.

"I was so shocked looking at all the green spaces and a lot of garbage," Clarke said.

She says she's written to the City of Whitehorse to see if it can help.

"We need to nip it in the bud and see how we can work together — the city, the residents and the construction companies."

Chris Green hopes that will happen. In the meantime, he's doing what he can to help. Last weekend he organized a community clean up which ended with 70 full garbage bags.

"We had a sore back, I can tell you that," he said.

"In the end, I'm very pleased with what we did but we can only tackle so much in one day."

Green is hoping construction companies might get involved with future clean ups.

"I know they are trying to get these houses built, they're on a time crunch and stuff like that — but also [should] not overfill their dumpsters that they're using," Green said.

"Basically pick up after themselves a little better than they are doing."

Cheryl Kawaja is a CBC North reporter based in Whitehorse.