Brampton sets goal to be Canada’s first litter-free city

Community groups, residents and the City are coming together to try and make Brampton Canada’s first litter-free city.

City Council heard a presentation from People Against Littering (PAL) on Wednesday about the group’s efforts to make Brampton litter-free and one of the cleanest, most beautiful cities in the world.

The non-profit group of residents has run more than 150 community clean-ups and picked up literal tons of trash in Brampton since 2020, and the City is looking to empower PAL and other groups passionate about cleaning up litter with a goal of making Brampton the first litter-free city in the country.

“The citizens of Brampton need to show pride in our city…we need to take the lead, we all need to do our little bit,” Bill Godfrey with PAL told council on Wednesday.

A Brampton resident for over 40 years, Godfrey started cleaning up the city as a COVID-19 project and spent some 725 picking up trash in 2020 before forming PAL. Fast forward to 2023 and the group says it’s collected some 20 tons of trash, litter and refuse.

Council passed a motion to bring groups like PAL together with the City and large producers of litter, like Amazon and Tim Hortons, for a summit with the goal of making Brampton litter-free.

And while that may seem like a lofty goal, Godfrey said “It’s only impossible until it’s not.”

The city has been moving to a proactive approach to property standards complaints, identifying problem areas and working with property owners on education before enforcement. This year alone the City has received 19,022 property standards complaints, with some 800 relating to garbage. More than 850 fines have been issued at a cost of $250 per ticket.

PAL has found all manner of ancient garbage on their clean-ups, like a copy of the 1988 yellow pages, a license plate from 1965, and thousands of glass shards from Brampton’s old greenhouses, Godfrey said. One area PAL has targeted is Etobicoke Creek where some areas have collected all manner of refuse and never seen a clean-up.

The motion to kick-start the City’s clean-up efforts was proposed by Coun. Paul Vicentee, and Coun. Rowena Santos proposed the collective approach to bring stakeholders and residents together with producers.

Staff will work with stakeholders to organize a summit and will report back to Council by the end of the year on a city-wide plan to make Brampton litter-free.

To get involved or learn more about People Against Littering visit www.peopleagainstlittering.ca.