North Bay cleanup efforts results in over 7,000 bags of litter

Clean up efforts continue across North Bay Dozens of volunteers came out on Sunday as part of a city wide clean up effort.

NORTH BAY — Dozens of volunteers picked up garbage across North Bay on Sunday as part of a city wide clean-up effort.

"We delivered over 7,000 bags to the community, bio degradable bags, so there’s been great participation," said Harriet Madigan with Clean, Green, Beautiful North Bay.

"Last year, we had 10,000 people participating, this year we think we double that number at least."

Sunday morning’s initiative took place from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. with tables set up outside of Parkers Independent and the Northgate Mall entrance for people to pick up bags to take back to their own neighbourhoods.

"There’s definitely house garbage that gets left out after garbage day, flying around the street on a windy day," said Madison Murphy who was there with several other members from the Nipissing University Volleyball Team.

"Near us there’s a children’s park with a playground and stuff, there’s usually some garbage in there and people will see it and walk by it, so we thought it would be a good idea to pick it up."

The Women’s Volleyball Team was planning to clean up what they call the "student ghetto."

"We’re just really looking to get back and help out the community. We haven’t been back in town for long and with our season being cancelled, we’re looking for extra things to do with our time," Murphy said.

"We just thought that cleaning up our environment and where we live would be a really beneficial thing to do."

Madigan says the initiative has been going on since March and the hope is that projects like this will help open people’s eyes.

"We’re trying to change behaviour here. A lot of the litter we pick up is recyclable. There’s a missing piece there. We want people to feel like their community is there home, just like their own backyard and their front yard," she said.

This is something that TD Branch manager Melissa MacNabb agrees with.

Several TD employees were on scene Sunday morning and this is the second year that the bank has partnered to help clean up.

"I feel like I can see the change already in North Bay," said MacNabb.

Also with TD, our commitment itself is to be one of the greenest banks in Canada. So we have TD Tree Days and lots of other kind of environmental events, so this felt like the right initiative for us.”

People are able to register online to get free branded litter bags which will be picked up from April to September and they aren’t included in the city’s household bag limit on garbage day.

Each bag can contain up to 25 lbs of litter.

"How can you not benefit from being a clean, green, beautiful city?" Madigan asks.

"We’re all in this together, let’s work to make this our beautiful home."