Spring into Cleanup Mode Toronto!

It’s time for Toronto’s yearly Spring Cleaning.

At 2 p.m. Friday, April 23, Toronto is planning a massive cleaning effort by residents, students, professionals in the business community, government employees and City staff all doing their part for twenty minutes.

This year the City is asking everyone to reuse a plastic store bag while they pick up litter. Once your bag is full take it to one of the participating Pizza Pizzas in the Greater Toronto Area for a pair of free gloves and GLAD trash bags.

During the seven years that Toronto has held the 20-Minute Makeover several hundred thousand volunteers have helped rid the city of litter.

The 20-Minute Makeover is a great time to come together with co-workers, students and others in your neighbourhood to help clean up our city.

For Further Information: Makeover Ad

Earth Day Origins

Earth Day is a powerful catalyst for change. The first Earth Day, spearheaded by Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson and Harvard University student Denis Hayes, involved 20 million participants in teach-ins that addressed decades of environmental pollution. The event inspired the US Congress to pass clean air and water acts, and establish the Environmental Protection Agency to research and monitor environmental issues and enforce environmental laws.

In 1990, two million Canadians joined 200 million people in 141 nations in celebrating the first International Earth Day. In many countries, the global event brought pressure on heads of state to take part in the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to address issues such as climate change and the world wide loss of species.

In Canada, Earth Day has grown into Earth Week and even Earth Month to accommodate the profusion of events and projects. They range from large public events, such as Victoria’s Earth Walk (5,000 participants), Edmonton’s Earth Day Festival at Hawrelak Park (30,000 participants), and Oakville, Ontario’s Waterways Clean-up (2,000 participants) to the thousands of small, private events staged by schools, employee groups and community groups.