‘Think global but act local’: Community-wide clean-up makes big impact in Forest City

As part of Earth Month festivities, London Clean and Green held a community-wide clean-up. CTV's Brent Lale was there.

After a long, hard winter, the Forest City needs a makeover.

As part of Earth Month festivities, London Clean and Green held a community-wide clean-up Saturday that encouraged groups to get together to tidy up their neighbourhood.

“The kick-off to the season is always a big cleanup,” said Justin Sim of Antler River Rally, who organized the cleanup at Ann St. Park. “We have tons of bags out here and pulling all sorts of strange things out of the river like bikes and appliances. Every year we come back to the same locations over and over again, and they’re always kind of back where we left them, so it’s so frustrating process, but good to see the results.”

Across the city, ward councillors were getting their hands dirty.

“This is truly a very special event and a great initiative for our entire city,” said Coun. Jerry Pribil. “All Londoners come together and to make our city nicer, cleaner, better, and especially after the winter. I’m very proud of this and welcoming everyone to come in, help us out and make the city even nicer.”

Among the cleanup crew on Ann Street was Western University students in the Master of Environment and Sustainability (MES) program.

“We’re in a climate crisis,” said Howard Moffatt, an MES graduate student. “It’s undeniable and it’s going to take some hands on, boots on the ground work to get through it. It starts with the community and doing things like this. Our program is a good balance of observing those larger trends and also getting us out and doing some more hands on work to contribute to solutions.”

Along the Thames River, the crew found metal, batteries, water bottles, plastic, and even obscure items like sanding discs and brake rotors.

“Often ... people feel alone when they’re doing things for the environment, so it’s nice when people can come together and feel like they’re part of a community initiative,” said Mary-Ann Hodge, co-founder of Climate Action London. “We need to think global but act local and even the smallest thing does have an impact.”

That’s the message Moffatt also wanted to send.

“If you’re just doing one or two bags in the day, but we have 30 people and each of those people are doing one or two bags, that adds up very quickly,” he said. “You’d be surprised by the end of one of these pickups, the mountain of garbage that you can have is quite astronomical.”