NORTH BAY -- The amount of litter on the streets of North Bay has City Councillor Marcus Tignanelli disgusted and he says he’s calling for a culture change around the city as a result.
Since the snow has melted, Tignanelli says he can’t help but to notice the ridiculous amount of trash along city streets.
"It’s been frustrating – every day when I walk my dog, we walk about 10km, and no neighbour hood has been untouched," said Tignanelli. "Here in North Bay, we take pride in what we have to offer and that is our beautiful surroundings – the lakes and the forests – we’ve got sort of a serene setting, but that could go by the way side. You know, with the amount of littering."
The frustration, he said, comes from the mentality people carry towards proper waste disposal.
"The matter of fact is – why are people throwing cigarette butts out their window, why are the Tim Hortons cups being thrown on the ground? You know someone is responsible for those and they were being used at one point - so now why are they on the ground? How do we change that mentality?" said Tignanelli.
One of the things he said city council is going to do is to try and better educate the public on how to dispose of trash, adding that this way there would be "no excuse for why [locals] are failing to use the systems."
There are many residents who care about the litter problem the city is facing, according to Tignanelli.
He said that one program, Clean, Green and Beautiful, had over 360 groups in the area that would pick up trash they found on their streets.
For Tiganelli, the city needs to be getting more proactive to its litter problem.
"It was a great response to see how many people came out and it did show – but you know, we go through winter and we’re back to square one. So, we need the culture to change, you know because we can’t just be doing mass clean ups every spring," said Tignanelli .
Clean, Green, Beautiful are launching a Neighbourhood Challenge and are inviting everyone to clean up their own yards. Cedar Heights and Trout Lake have already registered and begun to clean up their neighbourhood.
The official launch of the Clean, Green, Beautiful project will be in the first week of May.
For anyone looking to get involved in the project, or have bags delivered, they can contact the committee at leangreenbeautifulnb@gmail.com, message the Clean, Green and Beautiful North Bay Facebook and Instagram pages and register on the group's website.
