News Release

Audit Reveals Cleaner City but Yellowhead Needs Improvement

The results of Capital City Clean Up’s 2014 Litter Audit show a continued trend toward less litter on Edmonton’s streets.

Since 2009, there has been a 44% reduction in large litter and a 41% reduction in small litter. The Yellowhead Trail Litter Audit, however, showed a sharp increase of litter over the last audit done in 2012 with a 49% increase.

“The results of the Capital City Clean Up 2014 Litter Audit show that, in general, Edmontonians are working together toward a common goal of a cleaner City, but we still have work to do,” said Councillor Bev Esslinger, who thanked business and media partners for their support of Capital City Clean Up during a recognition event at City Hall. “We must continue to challenge ourselves as a City to reduce litter even further. These results show we are on the right path, in many ways, and indicate where we can improve.”

The 2014 Litter Audit examined the same 123 City sites audited in previous years. The collected items were sorted into large and small litter. Overall, there was a 4% decrease in large litter items this year over 2013 with paper napkins and tobacco packaging continuing to be the largest categories of large litter items. There was a decrease of 2% in small litter items this year over 2013 with cigarette butts continuing to be one of the largest categories of small litter items observed.

The Yellowhead Trail Litter Audit examined large litter at 20 sites along the Yellowhead Trail corridor from 107 Street to the Beverly Bridge. Plastic, paper, cardboard and printed material such as newsprint made up the majority of large litter found.

The Yellowhead Trail Litter Audit, conducted every two years, was repeated at the same 20 sites as in 2012 and 2010. The latest audit conducted in July 2014 reveals that litter along Yellowhead Trail is an increasing problem with a 63% increase in litter from this year compared to the first audit conducted in 2010.

There were 834 Adopt-a-Block volunteers supported by 2,718 team members and 45 program partners, who worked with Capital City Clean Up in 2014. Program partners that participated in the Business Supporting Community program also continued to make a noticeable difference in 2014. Participating business locations increased from 118 to 146, contributing more than $91,000 in funding support to the 16 local non-profit organizations that cleaned their locations weekly.

The 2014 Litter Audit is the seventh since 2007.

Highlights and a summary of the 2014 Litter Audit can be found atedmonton.ca/capitalcitycleanup.