Construction waste, couches, clothing and everything in between has taken over a Kingston, Ont., property.

The wooded area off of Neil Road is being used an illegal dumping site — which has caught the attention of two Ottawa valley environmentalists.

“We have been around the world cleaning beaches, forests, and other areas of garbage and this is one of the worst we’ve seen,” said Shannon MacLaggan an environmentalist and co-owner of Anupaya.

Shannon and her husband Peter sold their yoga studio in 2017 to pursue environmentalism by, in part, developing a clothing brand. For every product they sell they remove a pound of waste from wild spaces.

In this case, though, Shannon tells Global News they expect to remove over 20,000 pounds of waste from Neil Road.

“When I arrived, I saw the couches stacked on top of each other, and when I walked further onto the property the garbage increased,” said Peter MacLoggan environmentalist and co-owner of Anupaya.

Shannon and Peter say they were contacted by a local environmentalist who had been following the couple’s work, and they urged them to come to Kingston and arrange a group clean up of the property.

“We created a Facebook event for Sunday [March 26] and we quickly had 50 people reach out and offer their assistance,” said Peter.

The City of Kingston tells Global News that they are aware of the Neil Road dumping site and they are hoping its investigation will find those who are responsible.

“We go through the garbage and what we’re trying to find is any identification or anything that can tie the garbage to the person who dumped it there,” said Amy Grenier a municipal enforcement officer for the City of Kingston.

Shannon and Peter will begin the garbage removal at the Neil Road property on Sunday morning and are inviting the entire community to join the efforts. The City of Kingston says public works has also donated two dumpsters to help take the debris away from the site and to a legal dump.

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