As the weather begins to turn, Cambridge City Green is encouraging residents to join their community clean up on Earth Day.
The organization is comprised of a group of volunteers who coordinate community projects that are beneficial to the local environment.
On April 22, families, individuals and small groups of up to 10 people can go to any of the five Idea Exchange locations in the city between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to pick up gloves, bags and pickers.
“Cleaning up our parks, trails and public spaces demonstrates we care about our environment and may seem like a small thing but it's directly related to many aspects of the City’s Cambridge Connected Strategic Plan,” Paul Willms, sustainability planner for the City of Cambridge and liaison with Cambridge City Green, said.
“The community should come out, pick up their supplies and afterwards expect to see public spaces and trails ready for spring.”
The warmer temperatures begin to reveal litter in the community that has accumulated over the winter months, which makes a community clean up day important, Willms says.
“Snow melting reveals the 'blue box blowout' of a long winter and combined with low vegetation at this time of year makes for an unsightly harbinger of spring,” he said.
“The Cambridge City Green volunteers mobilize the efforts of thousands of volunteers to clean up. It’s a collective task that demonstrates pride in our community and its public spaces and is one of the simplest things that can be done to improve our natural environment.”
Willms says that pre-pandemic between 3,000 and 6,000 volunteers would come out each year. While numbers have dropped since then, they're beginning to pick back up.
Once people are done their clean up, they're encouraged to stand with their bags in a visible location and use the cambridge.ca/cleanuprequest app to notify city staff who will come by and pick them up.
Staff groups, community organizations or businesses can contact Willms at [email protected] to request supplies for their group and plan their event any time in April.
