City council wants residents in the capital city to take time to help keep Edmonton clean.
Until May 2, people are being encouraged to take 15 minutes to clean a part of the city or report graffiti to help with the city’s Capital City Clean Up.
“It makes our city look better,” said Mayor Stephen Mandel. “It’s nice to go with your family and kids and pick up some litter.”
Now in its fourth year, the CCCU program is a continual effort to not only clean up garbage and graffiti, but also to eliminate the problem before it happens.
The program has seen some successes in the past few years, including an 87 per cent reduction in the number of cigarette butts on the streets.
As well, city residents helped by throwing out more than 2,100 tonnes of material that otherwise would have found its way into the river valley and city streets.
“People (were) frustrated that our city wasn’t clean,” said Mandel. “Every year we’ve seen improvements in how we look at our city and how our city shows to the world.”
In 2009, as part of the Capital City Clean Up, more than 13,000 square metres of graffiti was removed from buildings around town.
