By Cecilia Nasmith
Northumberland County council voted to continue its support of the annual Mayors' Keep the County Clean Challenge after a presentation from Education and Communications Co-ordinator Dan Orr at their August meeting.
Council initiated the project's development in 2008 with a vision of an annual springtime clean-up of litter and trash that had accumulated all winter, and the first Mayors' Keep the County Clean Challenge was held in April 2009.
It became an annual event – though not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – and the 2023 event from April 17-22 marked the 13th annual outing. It has evolved to have two components – a week during which municipalities can organize big clean-up events, and a 20 Minutes Make Over where participants take a few minutes for a quick clean-up around their places of work, school yards and neighbourhoods.
Over the years, more than 27,000 volunteers have collected more than 472,000 lb. of litter and illegal dumping. Orr pointed out that this mass of refuse could fill more than 37,000 garbage bags which, if placed side-by-side, would stretch on for more than 17 km.
In 2023, 2,434 volunteers registered and participated in collecting 19,020 kg. of litter and illegal dumping. This makes it their fourth-highest year on record in both criteria.
And the custom has evolved to include the declaration of winners in two categories.
Highest proportional representation of volunteers – The Township of Alnwick-Haldimand was highest at 5.9% of their population participating, with the Town of Cobourg second at 4.3% and the Municipality of Brighton third at 3.6%.
Hardest working volunteers, expressed as an average amount of waste collected per volunteer – The Township of Cramahe was highest at 25.7 kg. per volunteer, with the Municipality of Port Hope second at 15.3 kg. and the Township of Hamilton third at 11.2 kg.
