Spring cleaning for Toronto

Apr 20, 2018 | News

courtesy Live Green Toronto Facebook

Chelsea Mendes

After the storm that left many people off the roads and stranded without power, communities and crews are suiting up for the city’s biggest clean-up job.

This weekend 185,000 volunteers will be scheduled to partake in the 15th annual Clean Toronto Together.

 

courtesy of Toronto.ca

Clean Toronto Together is the city’s annual spring cleanup event. Every year, tens of thousands of Toronto residents, schools, businesses, community groups and City staff take part in the spring cleanup to help keep the city clean and green.

The city-wide cleanup job celebrating Earth Day will focus on Toronto’s parks, streets and sidewalks during the two-day event.

The current registration numbers consists of 453 community cleanups, 491 school cleanups, 242 corporate cleanups and 185,937 volunteers.

“Our goal was 200,000 volunteers… we’re still getting participation data, I’ll think we’ll come close,” said Senior Environmental Planner for Live Green Toronto and the City of Toronto, Jeff McCormick.

McCormick said that the city has anticipated that over 1,200 events will take place during the cleanup weekend.

He said that the program has doubled in participation over the past 5 years.

“We’ve seen a 36% increase in public participation compared to last year,” said McCormick.

Travellers should also expect some closures Monday for its annual spring cleaning.

The Don Valley Parkway will be closed from the Gardiner Expressway to Highway 401 on Friday from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. During the closure, crews will work to resurface the road, fill potholes and inspect bridges. There will be no

courtesy of The Canadian Encyclopedia

The TTC will also be shutting down the subway service on Line 1 between St Clair West and Union stations on April 21 and 22 due to signal upgrades. Dupont, Museum, Queens Park, St Patrick and Osgoode stations will be closed.

Riders should prepare for another closure on Line 2 next weekend, when stations between Woodbine and Kennedy will be closed for track work.

From April 21 at 2 a.m. to April 23 at 5 a.m.509 Harbourfront and 510/310 Spadina streetcars will go off route since their will be maintenance to the tunnel at Harbourfront.

This weekend event is led by Led by the City of Toronto’s Environment & Energy Division and is a collaborative effort supported by several City Divisions including: Parks, Forestry & Recreation, Solid Waste Management and Transportation Services.

The Toronto city council supports the clean up by providing litter and recycling bags and co-ordinating special litter collection during the clean up weekend.

“We support this annual event to help build awareness of ending littering and building a shared ownership & pride of our beautiful public spaces,” said McCormick.

To join the cleanup, all interested groups – including community, corporate, school, and councillor-led groups – must register their cleanup event at livegreentoronto.ca.