London's annual Spring clean-up is underway.
The Clean and Green campaign kicked off Tuesday. Its main initiative is the 12 Days of Cleaning, which aims to make the city more beautiful with projects like the Thames River Cleanup and the 20 Minute Makeover.
Residents are challenged to clean up in different ways for each of the 12 days.
"Londoners should clean up when it suits their needs. If it's in the evening during the week that's great," says Jay Stanford, Director of Environmental Programs and Solid Waste for the City of London . "[There's] nothing better than getting together with family and friends and sprucing up an area because after about an hour of hard work, you can look back and see how wonderful it looks."
Stanford says this is also a great opportunity to educate people about the environment.
"We really want to emphasize to Londoners and businesses that materials should not be thrown on the ground as litter or illegally dumped," says Stanford. "There is a home for just about everything in London so theres no excuse for any of the those materials to be thrown on the ground."
On Friday, April 24th businesses and schools can take part in the 20 Minute Makeover.
There will also be a community-wide clean-up on the final day of the cleaning challenge, Saturday, April 25th.
"Its not possible to get London looking great in a short a period of time unless we get help from thousands of Londoners," says Stanford.
For more information on project dates and garbage drop off locations, visit the London Clean and Green website.
**This story was written by Brooke Foster, a student in the Broadcast Journalism program at Fanshawe College. Brooke is currently performing an internship with BlackburnNews.com
