Every day is garbage pickup day in Winnipeg when the snow melts

Winnipeg sidewalks, boulevards and streets are not garbage cans, but some people don’t seem to know the difference.

As the snow melts away, along with the emerging grass and pavement are numerous take out cartons and bags, coffee cups, cigarette butts and plastic bags discarded by people through the winter.

And, according to Take Pride Winnipeg’s annual litter index, there are areas of the city worse than others.

Tom Ethans, Take Pride’s executive director, said what’s glaringly obvious to anyone out on the streets is while Mother Nature was dropping snow during the months of winter, a lot of people were tossing trash.

“Some streets are just filthy,” Ethans said on Monday while announcing the results of the index.

“It is amazing how many people just don’t seem to get it. I’m always shocked when I see people tossing stuff out their car window or tossing it out when they’re walking instead of taking it home. There are many areas of the city that can use some help to rid the streets of months of unwanted litter.”

Ethans said the scale of the index starts at one — no litter — to 10, indicating “a lot of litter.” He said no area of the city reached 10, but on the other hand, no part is anywhere near one, either.

This year’s “winner” — Winnipeg’s north central area — registered 6.88, which was slightly worse than the West End, last year’s filth champ at 6.8; that neighbourhood appears to be cleaning up its act to some degree, coming in at 6.07 this year.

The north central area includes everything north of Notre Dame Avenue, between McPhillips and Main streets, and north to the Perimeter Highway.

The cleanest area of the city is the Fort Garry/Linden Woods area, at 4.83.

The city average is 5.92, up from last year’s 5.51.

Darryl Friesen, owner of the King Cob Market Pub next to the West End Cultural Centre on Ellice Avenue, said this is the worst time of the year for seeing garbage outside his business.

“Cleaning is always needed on a regular basis,” Friesen said. “The back lanes are much worse, to the point of almost giving up.

“It’s a never-ending battle, with all the empty lots being used for dumping and scavengers going through all the garbage bins. (You) do some cleanup and the wind will just blow more in the next day.”

Keith Horn, owner of the Northern Hotel on Main Street — and chairman of the North End Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) — said he can’t believe how much garbage is out there.

“I see businesses putting out their garbage bags and then they are all torn open,” Horn said.

“I see people opening up garbage bags and leaving a large mess all the time. I ask them all the time: what are you hoping to find? It’s called garbage for a reason.”

Horn said his area of the city will look decidedly better once the BIZ’s Green Team gets out in May to clean up.

“But that’s not for another 3 1/2 weeks,” he said. “It feels like a losing battle a lot of times.”

Joe Kornelson, executive director the West End BIZ, said his area has been working hard the past few months to keep litter down, so he is glad to hear the results are reflected in the index.

“We are proactively going out there to pick up during the winter when we can,” Kornelson said. “But I was just out and while there are definitely some streets which look great, there are others where I say, ‘Oh, we need to send a team here.’”

“We try to keep up, but part of it is there are a lot of people and businesses in the area… 35,000 people live here and there are lots of businesses and a lot of people walking on the sidewalk.”

Meanwhile, Ethans said he is helping schools get ready for students to volunteer their time to clean up neighbourhoods in the coming weeks. And Ethans said local businesses are also going to be part of the cleanup effort, too.

“Last year, 11,000 students went to pick up litter,” he said. “Also, employees at the CIBC on Empress (Street) went out and picked up 60 bags of litter.

“Today, I would be embarrassed to bring somebody to the city, but not when it is June, after the cleanups.”

Ethans said areas desperately in need of litter cleanups include Sherbrook and Maryland streets, Abinojii Mikaneh, Bison Drive and Main Street from Euclid to Logan avenues.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca