Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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Uniting to celebrate 'Canada 150' with national cleanup programme
Glad has been partnering with Canadian city cleanup programmes since 2010 but this year, in honour of Canada 150, they took the partnership country-wide to create a unified cleanup under the #CleanCanadaTogether banner.
The #CleanCanadaTogether challenge provides a simple way for people to get involved in their community and to take part.
"This year, Canada celebrates its 150th birthday and with one of the key pillars of the celebration being the environment, we wanted to do something special," explains Mike Pilato, general manager, Glad Canada.
"A cross-city challenge to unite our partner cities in cleaning up across the country seemed like the perfect way to inspire national pride."
The partnership, which began with the City of Toronto in 2010, has since expanded Canada-wide to include 16 cities, Brampton, Brockville, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, Halifax, Markham, Mississauga, Montreal, Oakville, Ottawa, Richmond Hill, Toronto, Vancouver, Vaughan and Winnipeg.
2017 has proven to be Glad's most expansive programme yet, with the company supplying materials including black, blue, clear, yellow and white bags as well as being there on the frontlines with volunteer teams helping clean locations across the country.
"It's a great way of unifying communities, creating corporate responsibility and encouraging businesses to give back all the while inspiring youth to participate - as they'll be the ones leading the charge in the future," continues Mike. "The simple act of spending 20 minutes to clean up an area in your neighbourhood makes a huge difference in helping keep our cities beautiful and vibrant."
Because each city has its own initiative, Glad takes an individual approach, tailoring its programming and involvement to meet that city's specific needs and goals; offering support in any way possible along the way. Below are some of the incredible results that the cities were able to achieve with this year's programme:
Winnipeg kicked off its annual Team Up to Clean Up campaign on April 11th, with over 1,000 students picking up litter in their neighbourhoods.
Tom Ethans, executive director of Take Pride Winnipeg!, says: "All citizens of our great country are responsible for keeping it clean, and the #CleanCanadaTogether challenge was a fun way to engage people across Canada in litter cleanup efforts.
"Over 15,000 people in Winnipeg volunteered, taking over 284,000 kg of litter off city streets."
Toronto's Clean Toronto Together Campaign had the highest participant and number of events it had ever seen with 10,028 residents joining community cleanups, 6,825 employees engaging in corporate cleanups and 176,369 students and teachers throughout Toronto schools working together to beautify the city.
In Edmonton, 13,159 participants collected 9,869 bags of litter over 762 cleanups.
Edmonton City Councilor Scott McKeen says of the initiative: "We are delighted to celebrate 30 years of cleanup in our beautiful River Valley.
"This year is extra special with the Canada 150 celebrations. The opportunity for Edmonton to be part of #CleanCanadaTogether along with other municipalities across Canada shows how we can unite as part of the Three Things for Canada initiative."
Across the province of Nova Scotia, groups participate under Clean Foundation's Great Nova Scotia Pick-Me-Up umbrella. There are over 675 residents enrolled to help clean up the province's shorelines on during Oceans Week.
Canadians are encouraged to follow along at #CleanCanadaTogether or organise a cleanup in their community, school or neighbourhood.
8th June 2017