Community cleanups save Calgarians a trip to the dump

Spring is in the air—and that means birds chirping, flowers blooming, and the weekend rumble of dump trucks.

The annual springtime community cleanup is back, and for the next few months Calgarians can save themselves a trip to the dump by taking a trip to their local community association. The cleanups run every weekend until the end of September.

“This is a great way for residents to clean up their back alleys, clean up their yards,” said Mary Kuipers-Morris, a volunteer organizer with the Glenbrook Community Association cleanup.

“A lot of people can’t take their items to the dump, so they know that we have this event every year,” she said.

Unlike taking a load of unwanted household items and waste to the dump, the community cleanups are free. Items the City of Calgary accepts includes furniture, toilets, broken recreational products, old lumber, and even some weirder things like garden gnomes and taxidermy collections.

Large appliances like stoves, barbecues and lawnmowers are not accepted. Neither are any items containing hazardous chemicals like car batteries, cooking oil, or old paint cans.

Demand is growing year-over-year

Last year in 2021, the city collected more than a million kilograms of garbage and organics.

Kuipers-Morris said that the Glenbrook Community Association has had to revamp the way people access their community cleanup due to demand. The association used to have people access the cleanup from 45 Street SW, but now has people line up around the block starting at 33 Avenue SW.

“It’s growing—we’re getting more and more people come and our lineups are longer than we’ve ever had,” she said.

Kuipers-Morris has been organizing the cleanups for her community for the past 10 years. She said that they moved their community cleanup from the fall to the springtime to better match with people doing spring cleaning.

And although the Glenbrook Community cleanup ended at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, she suggested that anyone who missed it could take advantage of the other upcoming ones. The cleanups are open to anyone regardless of what community they live in.

“And if you can’t make it to ours, you can take your stuff to any other community,” she said.

May schedule for cleanups

Unless otherwise noted, all community cleanups begin at 9 a.m. and run until 2 p.m. For a full listing of cleanups, see the City of Calgary’s website at calgary.ca.