Collingwood Clean and Beautiful – Keeping Our Community Litter-Free
With the arrival of Spring in Collingwood, Town Staff continue to work hard on essential services including keeping neighbourhoods, parks, waterways, and our historic downtown clean and free of litter and waste. Residents will see Public Works and Parks, Recreation, and Culture staff carrying out a number of Spring Cleanup services, including street and sidewalk sweeping, boulevard repairs that remove sand and salt, garbage removal from trails and downtown, storm sewer protection, and much more.
Keeping Collingwood clean and green is everyone’s responsibility. While the Town does its part to keep the community litter-free, we need your help too! Typically at this time of year, the Town facilitates community-wide cleanup events. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, we aren’t able to schedule community gatherings yet.
On Tuesday, May 12, join the Town of Collingwood and the Province of Ontario in a Day of Action on Litter, kicking off a Spring and Summer where we all become more aware of the impacts of waste on our environment, take action to prevent, reduce, and divert waste at home, and continue to keep Collingwood clean and beautiful for current residents and future generations.
How can you get involved?
• Follow health guidelines and exercise physical distancing.
• Pickup litter around Town when you go out for walks to reconnect with nature and get fresh air.
• Report litter and waste that has been rudely dumped in our community, so that Town Staff can respond.
• Divert waste: recycling or composting materials when and where possible to divert waste away from landfills. For example, by using your blue and green bins.
• Reduce waste: giving old products new life instead of throwing them away. For example, using old containers for storage
• Prevent waste: stopping waste before its created. For example, by choosing to buy goods with less packaging.
• Share thanks to our neighbourhood waste collection and sanitation workers for keeping our community clean and safe during COVID-19.
Report Litter
Collingwood prides itself on being a clean, green, litter-free Town that acts as an environmental steward for our beautiful waterfront, green spaces, parks, and recreation trails. Like most communities, litter is an ongoing concern.
Is litter a problem in your area? Report it to the Town of Collingwood:
• townhall@collingwood.ca
• 705-445-1030
• Contact Us Form
Learn More
• Greener Collingwood – the Town’s evolving actions on environmental stewardship.
• County of Simcoe Recycling & Waste Management
• Visit Ontario.ca/ActONlitter
• Look for possible public and corporate cleanup events across the province later in the year during Waste Reduction Week, which takes place October 19 to 25, 2020.
Quick Facts:
• Ontario generates nearly a tonne of waste per person each year.
• It is estimated that every 1,000 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill generates seven full-time jobs, $360,000 in wages and more than $700,000 in gross domestic product.
• More than 80 per cent of litter collected during volunteer clean-ups along the shorelines of the Great Lakes is plastic.
• Every year, Canadians throw away over 3 million tonnes of plastic waste. This represents up to $8 billion per year in lost value and wastes valuable resources and energy.
• About one-third of the plastics used in Canada are for single-use or short-lived products and packaging.
• Almost every plastic item manufactured since the 50s is still in our environment.
• In some municipalities, up to 30% of what’s put in the blue box ends up in landfill.
• Ontario households generate an estimated 1.4 million tonnes of food and organic waste per year.
• As a province, Ontario generates 3.6 million tonnes of food and organic waste per year.
• About $31 billion worth of food is wasted annually in Canada.
• 95% of clothing sent to landfills could have been donated or recycled.
• Making a can from recycled aluminum uses 95% less energy.