The City of Estevan’s Operation Clean Sweep resulted in a lot of garbage being collected and dropped off at the city’s landfill.
Norm Mack, the roads and drainage manager for the city’s public works department, said the cleanup campaign, which was held from May 16 to 23, generated a very good response from the public, and they haven’t received any complaints about the process.
“It went very smoothly and it was well-organized,” Mack said in an interview with the Mercury. “The customers didn’t have to second guess the way it worked.”
City of Estevan crews cleaned up the city’s main entrances and the green spaces such as parks and boulevards. They also spent two days collecting contained organic waste materials, such as twigs, leaves and yard refuse, from the front of people’s yards.
“We picked up tonnes of garbage, more garbage than we ever have,” said Mack. “It’s probably because we haven’t done a cleanup campaign for a couple years now.”
Operation Clean Sweep concluded with a free weekend at the city’s landfill from May 20 to 23. A total of 771 loads of garbage were dropped off by city residents during the four days.
“We kept track of all the garbage that we collected during that week at the landfill scale, and what came in during the free weekend, and it was 220 metric tonnes of garbage, so that is quite a bit,” said Mack. “It was semi load after semi load of garbage.
“We were able to get a lot of garbage out of the city, that probably was an eyesore, and clean up the ditches.”
The amount of garbage dropped off during the free weekend surpassed their expectations, but Mack added the landfill’s employees were able to handle the traffic.
Mack was also impressed with the community engagement during the campaign. The Rotary Club of Estevan and local 4-H Club members picked up garbage alongside Highway 47 South on May 17. ARC Resources also had a crew of employees who helped out during the campaign.
A lot of individuals and groups were out during the week to assist with the cleanup efforts. Mack estimates that 75 to 100 people volunteered.
“I think that people are on board with turning our community around a bit, from an industrial town to something better than that, to something we can be proud of,” said Mack. “We can tidy it up and have a neat city and still be an industrial city.”
The cost for Operation Clean Sweep should be minimal, he said. The employees were working during their regular shifts, and so the biggest cost would be supplies, such as garbage bags.
Mack is already looking forward to next year’s Operation Clean Sweep. They have a schedule in place, and it worked out well, so he doubts they will need to make a lot of changes next year.
