Earth Day community clean up a success in Cambridge

The community was a little greener on Monday morning thanks to the hard work of volunteers over the weekend.

The Cambridge Community Clean Up event held on Saturday saw roughly 1,500 people head out to pick up waste.

Run by the city in partnership with Cambridge City Green, an environmental advocacy group, the number of participants has been inching closer to pre-pandemic levels each of the past few years.

"In general we’ve seen a slow and steady increase in volunteers since COVID, however, pre-COVID we were seeing 4,000 to 6,000 volunteers," Paul Willms, sustainability planner for the City of Cambridge, said.

"Despite the cold, hail and snow, we still had over 200 people show up to pick up supplies at the Idea Exchange branches and about another 1,300 or so in 30-plus small groups also participate."

Each participant received one bag, gloves and a picker if required but Willms said it's not uncommon for certain volunteers to gather 10 to 15 bags of garbage once they get going in their neighbourhood.

Over the past 20 years, the amount of waste delivered to the landfill on Savage Drive has ranged between three and five tonnes.

"About 80 to 90 per cent of the litter in general is from the blue box," Willms said.

"The wind is the worst litter bug in the city."

Residents who weren't able to participate in the weekend clean up will have other opportunities throughout the rest of the year.

Various children's summer camps get involved and several litter-related events in the fall months such as the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up and World Clean Up Day are set to take place again, Willms said.

Anyone with a small group looking to do a clean up day on their own can contact [email protected] to arrange for supplies.