Woman finds bags of dirty needles while cleaning up neighbourhood

A south side resident says she found the largest stash of dirty needles she has ever found near her home while cleaning her neighbourhood Wednesday.

Linda Gial-Bruins has been "trash bashing" – picking up litter around her home on Wiley Street – since 2006. On Wednesday, Gial-Bruins said she found garbage bags full of dirty needles in her back lane.

"I’m going to say a very modest guess would be a couple hundred (needles)," she said. "It looks like people just had them in bags and had their little stash and just decided to dispose of them that way."

No stranger to discovering used needles, Gial-Bruins said she has been giving demonstrations on how to properly pick up and dispose of them for years. She added that since the Health Unit’s Superior Points Harm Reduction Program and Safe Streets disposal boxes were introduced her neighbourhood has been much cleaner when it comes to disposed needles.

The problem is when new users come through the neighbourhood, she said.

Also people cleaning up her neighbourhood can’t be everywhere at once, she added.

"They are working but the difficulties I’m seeing now is it’s too hard to find the needles when they’re stashed behind bushes. You can’t expect two or three people to go and shake every bush in Thunder Bay to see if there’s something behind it," she said.

"I’d like to have a bin on every block I know it’s not gonna happen but it’s a nice thought. I would love to have one in my back lane or on the corner. I would much rather look at a bin like that then to see another dirty needle down."