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MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS \n<\/p>\n
Downtown Winnipeg BIZ CEO Kate Fenske and Mayor Scott Gillingham take part in the spring cleanup on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Due to the surge in interest, the BIZ is now offering to help set up smaller community cleanups over the next few months to keep the work going.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are creating a flexible program for smaller community cleanups\u2026 if folks want to participate beyond this single event\u2026 they can request a cleanup,\u201d said Olivia Billson, the BIZ\u2019s communications director.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Wawanesa Enviro Team will schedule it, they\u2019ll provide the supplies, they\u2019ll meet them on site, they\u2019ll take away the garbage collection. So, it really lets people continue to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s cleanup adds to daily work by the BIZ Enviro Team. Throughout 2025, its members collected roughly 1.7 million litres of litter and 13,400 needles, while also removing 9,380 graffiti tags and cleaning more than 6,700 transit shelters, according to a BIZ press release.<\/p>\n
Kate Fenske, chief executive officer of the BIZ, said the thorough spring cleanup event covers a very broad area of the downtown and helps support the daily cleanups.<\/p>\n
\u201c(This event) gets into the little pockets and the bushes and along the fences and in the back lanes. Our team is 16 people trying to manage 250 blocks, seven days a week. We can\u2019t do it alone,\u201d said Fenske.<\/p>\n
Mayor Scott Gillingham, who participated in the cleanup, said cigarette butts were among the most common type of garbage collected.<\/p>\n
\u201c(For) people who smoke, please butt out and dispose of the cigarette butt (properly). Don\u2019t flick it onto the street or the sidewalk,\u201d said Gillingham.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS \t
\n<\/p>\n Paul Mailhot (left) and Kalyn Pyl take part in the spring cleanup on Thursday.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t Last year, the city added 121 new locked trash and recycling bins in high-traffic areas downtown to help cut down on unsightly piles of garbage.<\/p>\n Gillingham said that effort appears to be helping prevent waste bin contents from being spread over streets, reducing the need for cleanups in some areas.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom what I see, it is making a difference because those bins are much harder to tamper with. It\u2019s difficult for anyone to get in and pull the garbage out. It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s much better than the open bins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n X: @joyanne_pursaga<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Joyanne Pursaga Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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