At the corner of Ellice Ave. and Empress St., the winter melt has left behind a significant level of trash.
“So you’ve got a little bit of everything here; you’ve got shopping bags, you’ve got plastic bags,” said Tom Ethans, executive director of Take Pride Winnipeg.
Amidst the abandoned shopping carts, heaps of plastic waste and cans litter the boulevards on the north and south sides of the intersection.
“It’s very sad to see. The accumulation of so much garbage that should not be there,” Ethans said.
“There’s a garbage container no more than ten feet away from where a lot of this garbage is.”
Ethans and his staff have a tall task each spring—surveying more than 680 kilometres worth of Winnipeg streets.
Take Pride Winnipeg’s litter index places the city into 12 areas and rates them on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the worst number.
Winnipeg’s West End remains the highest this year, with a score of 6.8.
“This would take a group of 30 people; (they) would probably pick up 60 or 70 bags of litter just in this half block alone,” Ethans said.
Despite the problems in some areas, Ethans said the city’s overall score has improved from 5.61 in 2024 to 5.35 this year.
His organization said people need to be more responsible with their trash disposal. In the meantime, he’s recruiting more groups to step up and help with the spring cleaning.
“I’ve got to go to about 10 to 15 schools next week to deliver supplies to schools to get their students to go out, and it’s fabulous,” Ethans said.
“This year alone, we’ve been to over 35 schools talking to students about making a difference.”
Even more help is on the way. On Wednesday, dozens of staff from Main Street Project and Downtown Winnipeg BIZ stepped up for their first cleanup of the year.
Starting at Thunderbird House and making their way through the downtown core, organizers say there’s lots of litter and not enough places to put it.
“We’re working with the City of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Foundation, actually to help just increase infrastructure, increase the staffing required to do the cleanup,” said Anastasia Ziprick, director of development at Main Street Project.
“This year, you’re going to see a big improvement.”
Main Street Project is planning a second spring community cleanup for April 16.
2025 Litter index
Here are the full results from this year’s litter index:
Area 1: North West—6.46
Area 2: North Central—5.9
Area 3: North East—5.5
Area 4: Transcona—5.1
Area 5: West -5.1
Area 6: West End—6.8
Area 7: Downtown—5.6
Area 8: St. Boniface—4.9
Area 9: St. Vital—4.5
Area 10: South West—5.0
Area 11: Fort Garry/Linden Woods—5.3
Area 12: South -6.0
