Cleanup moves 12 tonnes of trash out of North Central

Imagine moving two elephants out of Regina’s North Central neighbourhood.

That’s about the weight of the trash that was removed as a part of a community cleanup held over the Easter long weekend.

Jackie Tanner has lived in the community for about 14 years and she was appalled to see so much litter appear after the ice and snow melted.

Tanner told the 980 CJME Greg Morgan Morning Show on Monday that she had originally gone to the North Central Community Association about a cleanup but was told the organization wouldn’t be doing one until June.

So Tanner took matters into her own hands, turning to social media to see if there was interest in the project.

“I got a lot of feedback and a lot of people were interested so I thought, ‘Hey, OK, I guess this a thing,’ so I set up the event page and we did it,” Tanner said.

About 25 people showed up to the cleanup effort, with a few of them choosing to spend all three days of the weekend helping pick up trash.

“One guy thought he was just going to be here for an hour on Friday and he ended up coming out all three days, which was just fantastic,” Tanner said. “He helped out a lot.”

The group worked from Dewdney Avenue to the rail tracks on North Albert Street and the alley of Rae Street and Retallack Street.

“(That’s) not a lot of blocks but that’s the worst-hit areas,” Tanner said.

She said they took 15 24-foot containers to the dump over the weekend, which is equal to more than 12 tonnes of trash.

“If we had not gotten the permit from the city for free dumping, that would’ve cost us over $1,000 in fees,” she said.

Tanner also has a theory as to why there is so much trash being thrown out in the area.

“I was actually pretty surprised when I asked people if they knew what they could recycle and they honestly told me they didn’t know so I educated them and hopefully that helps the recycling process,” she said.

The next thing on Tanner’s list is to get the City of Regina to replace the broken garbage bins that are scattered around. Some have broken lids or missing wheels and some are cracked the entire way down the side.