For years, Barrie residents have been working hard to keep our city clean and litter-free during Barrie’s Spring Into Clean event. This year, Spring Into Clean will be held from April 26-28th and involve individuals, businesses, students, and more. This event is held by the City of Barrie, with sponsors, who will be providing gloves, bags, and other tools for the cleanup. What you may not know is that Environmental Action Barrie-Living Green was the organization who started this event back in the day! It was later handed to the beautiful City of Barrie to hold as we began to take on other programs and events.
One of the first Spring Into Clean events was collectively organized by local Tim Hortons restaurants, the Georgian College RATS (Responsible Adventure Traveller’s Society, and EAB (Environmental Action Barrie-Living Green). This event was covered by a local Barrie paper which quotes the 10 year old Cassandra Henderson,
“All this garbage is is polluting nature, and I really like nature. It would be nice if everyone picked up a piece of garbage and didn’t throw it out the car window. We don’t want it on the side of the highway.”
Her words resonate even today. As the fast and ever-growing city of Barrie sees the Spring melt, we also see litter lining the streets. That year, 3000-4000 people were expected to participate in the Spring Into Clean event. In 2018, 18 000 residents participated in collecting 4.9 tonnes of garbage. The number of participants this year is expected to increase. Environmental Action Barrie, or as it is known today as Living Green Barrie, is proud to be a founding member of such a great community initiative. Did you know EAB has been around since 1991, delivering many other environmental initiatives to Barrie? Other projects we have been involved in include: Off the Rack, Barrie Free Clothing Centre and Reskill Institute, the Recycling Depot, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, and more. Learn more about EAB history on our website: https://livinggreenbarrie.com/history/
Today, we are proud to offer a number of environmental and social programs, including Barrie FruitShare, GreenScreen, and Tree Plantings! This year, we are continuing to participate in Barrie’s Spring Into Clean. Living Green Barrie will be in charge of cleaning up Queen’s Park on Saturday, April 27th starting at 9:00 am, and we are looking for volunteers to help us! Visit our Facebook event page to RSVP. Don’t worry, if you are busy that weekend, we have a way that you can participate! Join in our April Change Challenge- Barrie Trashformation. It’s easy!
- Take a before photo of a littered area in your neighbourhood
- Pick up all the litter
- Take an after photo of the cleaned up space, and tag us in your before and after photos!
An excerpt from one of the first Spring Into Clean Event flyers:
“By depositing your litter in inappropriate areas you are not only spoiling our scenic resources, such as lakes, parks, and waterways, you are also creating harmful effects on the environment we live in. Did you realize that litter can cause a potential health hazard to plants, animals, and people? Certain types of litter can cause a decrease of oxygen levels in water as it decays, reducing the quality of the water and negatively affecting aquatic plants and wildlife. Litter can cause blockages of drainage systems resulting in flooding and broken bottles and discarded needles can be a danger, especially to children and wildlife. More and more waste is produced in our consumer society each year. Efforts to reduce packaging and encourage re-using and recycling of waste are needed to reduce litter at it’s source”
-This is why we continue to participate in Barrie’s Spring Into Clean every year!
We want to send a huge thank you to the City of Barrie, and their sponsors for continuing to run this successful community event each year! We also want to thank you, as individuals who have been volunteering your time to help clean up our city and keep Barrie beautiful. Without you, our events and programs would cease to exist. If you would like to volunteer with Living Green Barrie and help our programs thrive, please email: info@livinggreen.info. Now that spring has sprung, let’s Spring Into Clean!