Annual London Clean and Green campaign kicks off 28th year

London will be undergoing a spring cleaning over the next two weeks as part of the city’s annual London Clean and Green campaign.

The campaign, now in its 28th year, kicked off Tuesday with a launch event at Westminster Ponds Centre.

First launched in 1996, the focus of London Clean and Green is litter prevention and clean-ups led by the community across the city, including a large community-wide clean-up event on Earth Day.

“After a long winter, the only way to pick up litter is to call on everyone in London to do their part in the month of April,” said Jay Stanford, director of climate change, environment, and waste management with the city.

“The city, we do our part, but we don’t have all the resources to do everything. We really count on Londoners to help spruce up the city to get ready for the warmer months ahead.”

As part of the campaign, Londoners will take part in “12 Days of Cleaning,” by preventing litter and making sure that any unwanted items found while cleaning up their home or neighbourhood between April 11 and April 22 are properly disposed of, the city says.

April 21 will see a “20-minute London Makeover” with residents and local businesses and institutions asked to take 20 minutes out of the day to pick up litter and tidy outside their homes or workplaces.

The London Clean and Green campaign will wrap up on April 22, which is also Earth Day, with a city-wide clean-up effort in the morning, followed by EarthFest in the afternoon along Dundas Place in the downtown core.

“When I think about litter in our city, I think about the amazing people who are going to go out over the next 10 days, and who go out yearlong and help pick that up,” said Mayor Josh Morgan at Thursday’s launch.

“But I also think about those who are dropping it, those who are putting it on the ground, those who are not recycling, not using the waste receptacles, and causing harm to the environment, causing our city to look bad in every aspect of the word.”

Morgan said more needs to be done to change attitudes around littering, highlighting a recent incident involving two of his children that he said gives him hope.

“My son Max, who is seven. .. had a yogurt. Threw it in the garbage. Recyclable yogurt container. My daughter McKenna lectured him for it, basically said, ‘Max, that’s recyclable.’ She went, and she pulled it out of the garbage, she rinsed it out, and she put it in the recycling,” Morgan said.

“To have one of my kids set an example for the others, I think that’s what clean and green is all about, too. It’s about going out, it’s about picking it up, but it’s about having those conversations, talking to your children, talking to others about why this is important.”

Londoners looking to take part can request bags and gloves from the city for their community clean-ups, and can request a curbside location for their collected garbage to be picked up on April 22.

Scheduled clean-up locations can be found on a map posted on the city website. Residents can add their own clean-up locations to the map and invite others to take part.