Mayor calls on residents to litter less ahead of Cape Breton's big spring cleanup

CTV News

02-05-2025

The annual Great Cape Breton Clean Up takes place Saturday with hundreds of people coming together with volunteer fire departments to pick up as much trash as possible.
On Friday, a few people got a head start.
'Geez, we're finding everything', said Chris French, a member of the not-for-profit organization Pathways to Employment. He was picking up garbage along Sydney Port Access Road (SPAR) in Sydney, N.S. 'Pop cans, plastic, bottles, paper, wrappers, packages.'
The amount of garbage left each year after the snow melts got the attention of the Mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM), Cecil Clarke. He said this should be a matter of self-respect for the community.
'You go to a community like Cheticamp, N.S., and you don't find a single wrapper on the ground', said Clarke. 'It's civic pride, and we want to establish civic pride here.'
'We can't be attracting people and saying we're the number one island destination to come to if we're not a clean, green community as well.'
Pathways to Employment isn't participating in the weekend cleanup with the rest of the community but members said it was important to contribute.
'It's wonderful for my heart', said JJ Stone. 'It's wonderful for the guys too. It makes us really happy. Every car that goes by beeps to us, we feel really happy about it.'
Clarke said CBRM's residents are partly responsible for the 'significant' trash problem but government needs to crack down on offenders and provide more tools.
'We are going to be putting a concerted effort into more public education as well as enforcement, but also we have to increase our capacity for people to have more disposal opportunities with proper containment', Clarke said. 'We'll be working with our fast-food industry in the coming months.'
Saturday's Great Cape Breton Clean Up runs from 9 a.m. until noon.
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