While police say the first night of the Celebration of Light was relatively incident-free, many West End residents are frustrated by the piles of trash left behind on English Bay Beach by spectators.
Leane McGee watched Team USA's fireworks show with delight on Wednesday night, but was upset after seeing the beach littered with trash.
"Coming here this morning I am disgusted to see how people would treat a neighbourhood this way, because I know the people who live here would not do this, and it's just disgusting that they would leave their garbage," McGee said.
She thinks this year the litter is worse and that people don't respond well when she asks them to pick up after themselves.
"When I was here people were sitting down, they were just leaving stuff and I have mentioned to them, and politely said, ‘Please put your garbage away,' and they get nasty," she said.
Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Herbert believes the trash left behind on Wednesday night is about the same amount as last year, but he expects more on Saturday night.
"I think the vast majority of people do put in the effort to take home what they bring down, but all it takes is a couple of them when you have hundreds of thousands of people," he said.
"We'll have to remain vigilant for sure, and Saturday night, just putting a call out now: reduce, reuse and recycle and be kind to the neighbours, and behave!"
Brent Granby, president of the West End Residents Association, believes some people are taking clean-up crews for granted.
"When people know there's somebody there to pick up the garbage, they just throw it on the ground," he said.
"We're asking people if they're going to bring it down here that they should take it out, and we're really trying to urge people to use reusable containers as well, just to support some of the efforts of the city in terms of trying to create zero waste."
Resident Leane McGee also has a message for spectators.
"It's all our beach so respect it, respect it and take your garbage. You're welcome to come and enjoy the beaches, I mean look at it. We make sure they're nice and pristine and clean for everybody, and leave it that way," she said.
