Nearly 100 businesses pitch in to collect litter downtown

More than 1,000 volunteers representing 97 Edmonton businesses are coming together to clean up Edmonton's city centre as part of the second annual Corporate Cleanup Challenge.

The challenge, hosted by the Downtown Revitalization Coalition (DRC), sees volunteers from across Edmonton picking up garbage in the downtown core Friday and Saturday.

Some notable volunteers include city councillors Andrew Knack, Anne Stevenson, Erin Rutherford and Tim Cartmell and MLA David Shepherd; as well as representatives from the Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, the Edmonton Community Foundation and many other local organizations.

Cheryl Watson, executive committee member of the DRC, said the city core should be the pride of any city.

This annual cleanup is important because the DRC and its numerous volunteers believe Edmonton's downtown needs much more care, she said.

“When you think about bringing visitors, whether they're friends or they're people that are thinking about setting up a business in Edmonton, the place that they go really to find out more about our cities is downtown,” Watson said. “Right now, there's many of us that don't necessarily feel the ability to be proud of bringing people to our downtown.”

The DRC is a group of 30 business leaders across Edmonton who came together in 2019 to advocate for the revitalization of the city's downtown core.

In 2023, the DRC drew in more than 800 volunteers from local businesses to participate in the Corporate Cleanup Challenge. This year, the event brings in even more volunteers, and the total amount of garbage collected will be weighed and announced at the end of the event.

Watson said it's in everyone's best interest to treat Edmonton's core as a precious commodity.

“We know that 15 per cent of the city's property tax revenue comes from the downtown core. So it's in everyone's best interest to make sure that our downtown asset continues to be able to bring forward those revenues. This has been active work that we've been doing.”

The event takes place throughout downtown Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Information about the DRC and the Corporate Cleanup Challenge is available on the organization's website at yegdowntown.ca.