City to celebrate Earth Week with several of activities!
This year’s Earth Week — which will culminate with the City of Cornwall’s 2nd annual Eco Day — will be bigger than ever!
Scheduled to take place from April 18-23 throughout the City, Earth Week will feature several free, informative and exciting activities to raise awareness to current environmental issues and will peak with Eco Day celebrations.
“The state of the environment — and the challenges it faces —is a very important issue for the City and council,” said Cornwall Mayor Glen Grant. “That’s why we are spearheading several different initiatives to better our environmental footprint. These include planting more trees and introducing new innovative processes to our landfill and wastewater plant.
“I’m very happy to see Earth Week being celebrated in Cornwall. Education is key in addressing the environmental issues we face.”
Earth Week all starts with the launch of the annual Gives A Shirt campaign, which aims to reroute textile waste away from the City’s landfill and into non-profit organizations. From April 18-21, residents will be invited to collect gently used clothing, shoes or linen and put them in a bag with a “give a shirt” sign on it.
The bag should then be put out during their regular collection day, a few feet away from their garbage or recycling. Residents can also get rid of torn, stained or not reusable clothes — simply bag them and attach a “clothes for recycling” sign on it.
“We’re thrilled to offer our second ever Cornwall Gives a Shirt – Spring Edition,” said Waste Management Supervisor Dave Kuhn. “Adding a Spring collection on top of out already popular Fall collection not only allows residents to divert even more textile waste from the Landfill site, but it also makes it easier to donate seasonal items that could be used during the appropriate months.”
For the Spring collection, the City recommends donating summer and spring items which will prevent our partners like New for You (Agape), Salvation Army and Serendipity Boutique from holding onto fall or winter clothing.
“Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to donate those items in the Fall during our 7th Annual Cornwall Gives a Shirt Fall collection,” said Kuhn. “Last year our residents diverted a whopping total of 19.35 tonnes (19,350Kgs) from our landfill site, which only has about 10 years of capacity remaining.”
“We think we can collect even more in 2022!”
Wednesday, April 20 will see the screening of David Attenborough’s documentary film A life on our Planet at the Cornwall Public Library at 6:00 pm. Presented by the City of Cornwall in partnership with the Cornwall Public Library, the documentary will be followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A with panelists. To register, please visit: https://www.library.cornwall.on.ca/event/city-cornwalls-earth-week-celebrations
The next day, on April 21, the library will once more be home to another event — Climate 101: how we got here, where we stand now, and what to do about it (yes, there is still time), a live presentation for youth and adults at 4:00 pm by Dr. Heather Short, a climate science educator. To register for the event, please visit https://www.library.cornwall.on.ca/event/dr-heather-short-presentation.
On Earth Day, April 22, City of Cornwall staff will be participating in clean-ups to remove litter across the City from noon until 1pm., Local residents are also invited to participate. Plan on doing your own clean-up on Earth Day? Make sure to send us your photos at [email protected]
Earth Week will culminate with the 2nd Annual Eco Day. From 10 am to 2 pm, residents are invited to Lamoureux Park, where several all-ages activities and information booths will be taking place. These include a landfill diversion challenge as well as other educational activities.
The St. Lawrence River Institute, Cornwall’s Youth for Climate Action Working Group, Transition Cornwall+, SDG Butterflyway Project, and Cornwall Transit are some of the organizations participating in Eco Day at Lamoureux Park. Raisin Region Conservation Authority will be hosting their annual tree giveaway and the City will be accepting drop-offs for Give A Shirt as well as the following recyclables: batteries, eye glasses, light bulbs, printer ink,small electronics (nothing bigger than a bread box please).
For more information, and for a schedule of activities go to https://www.cornwall.ca/en/live-here/earth-week.aspx
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