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Clean Green Beautiful to extend services into winter

Clean Green Beautiful North Bay (CGB) has been cleaning up the city’s litter and will continue to do so heading into the winter months.

Miller Waste, the company assisting in the cleanup, will continue to offer its services to the grassroots organization until November 30. Sarah McGowan, a committee member with CGB says that the partnership is indicative of the work that she and the volunteers have put forth.

“They definitely see that it’s really helping the city and it’s been keeping it cleaner. For them to help us with this is amazing,” McGowan said.

CGB provides biodegradable bags to volunteers who wish to clean up litter in their communities. Miller Waste has been the company responsible for collecting the biodegradable bags, which can be included in households’ curbside waste collection without it counting against the city’s bag limit.

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This year, over 7,000 of the biodegradable bags have been given out to volunteers to clean up litter in the community. McGowan says that the number is both good and bad.

“It shows that there are 7000 bags of garbage around North Bay on the streets and in the woods,” she noted. “We’re hoping that it will start making people think about their habits and what they’re doing to contribute to the environment and its detriment.”

CGB put forth a presentation to city council in September requesting municipal support for the organization. McGowan says that the presentation has produced some positive results.

“We’ve been pleased to see the amount of support that we’ve seen from city councillors and the general public. We’ve been contacted by people to say that they’ve appreciated the work that our volunteers are doing,” she said.

Part of CGB’s goal is to also educate the younger generation about their waste habits. McGowan says that students at both Nipissing University and Canadore College have been involved, with clean-ups also happening in the city’s secondary and elementary schools.

“We think it’s important to leave a legacy for the younger generations that they’ll keep up these good habits as well,” McGowan explained.

According to CGB using data collected from the Canada Research Chair, North Bay produces over 50,000 tons of garbage a year.

McGowan believes that the data paints a stark picture of the waste that Canadians produce.

“It’s a lot of garbage and that’s just our city. I can’t even imagine what it’s like in Toronto or Ottawa or some of these bigger cities. I think that it’s really important that businesses and the general public are knowledgeable that whatever we do it adds to the greater amount of garbage,” she said.

In its second year, CGB has seen increased interest from the community. McGowan is hoping that it will lead to good things.

“I think that if we’re successful through a year like this year with COVID, we have good things coming ahead,” she said.

CGB will be delivering the biodegradable bags to volunteers until November 20, with Miller Waste collecting the bags until November 30.

To get involved, visit cleangreenbeautiful.com

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