'It’s almost therapeutic': Essex mayor pledges to pick up trash each day for a year

Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy is leading the charge against litter by pledging to pick up at least one bag of trash daily over the course of a year.

Bondy has already been fanning out across Windsor-Essex for more than 5 weeks, grabbing garbage wherever she may be while hoping to inspire others to do the same.

“I've always been a fan of making our communities cleaner,” Bondy exclaimed. “It's kind of addictive. It's almost therapeutic. It doesn't take very long. I'm doing it on my own time. I'm getting active and I'm hopefully encouraging others first of all, not to litter. Second of all, to do the same thing so we can have a cleaner community.”

Bondy said she’s already received positive feedback from residents as they and other community groups begin to organize similar community cleanups.

“You don't need to be ashamed to pick up litter,” Bondy explained. “If we all start doing it then it becomes a natural and we're teaching our children not to litter. When you take your children out and have them pick up litter, they're going to think twice the next time that they think about littering.”

Grade 8 students at St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School in Harrow were also leading by example taking part in spring community cleanups around the school neighbourhood on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy, seen in March 2024, has pledged to pick up at least one bag of trash daily over the course of a year. (Source: Sherry Bondy)

“It never hurts to get out in your community and it’s a great leadership opportunity for everyone,” said teacher Spencer Riehl.

“We’ve had students in the past shovel snow in the winter. This year our principal wanted us to get out to different areas in our community, clean up trash and just make it a little bit better of a world,” Riehl said.

“Just pick up your garbage, it’s not hard,” stated student Miley Miller. “It makes the world better, like turtles won’t die anymore. It just helps the environment.”

Bondy told CTV News she’s noticed patterns in the way people dispose of trash illegally, saying she hopes the problem and solutions can be addressed at an upcoming Town of Essex council meeting.

“Do we need more garbage pails? Do we need more enforcement? Can we talk to local businesses? I want to have a means to an end so it's not just cleaning up garbage. I want to find a way to try to prevent the garbage,” said Bondy.

She continued, “I'm hoping that all of Essex County, we can get on board on this and we can also start those conversations with other elected officials making sure that our recycling, our garbage is put out neat. Construction sites are another number one polluter of garbage. So we really have to look at this and I hope we can have that discussion.”

Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy, seen in March 2024, has pledged to pick up at least one bag of trash daily over the course of a year. (Source: Sherry Bondy)

Bondy suggested beer cans and liquid bottles are commonplace alongside many county roads. She also recalled picking up a dozen empty energy drink cans near one intersection, only to find more in the same location shortly after.

“I call it the Red Bull bandit,” Bondy said. “People are doing the same thing. So how do we find those people? How do we say, ‘Hey, you know, we have one Earth, we have one community. Let's not do this to our neighbours. Let's not do this to our environment.’”

“That is something that we need to talk to the OPP about. There is seems to be a lot of drinking and driving and I did find a lot of American empties. A lot of fresh empties too. So it's not like they've been sitting there. People are literally drinking and driving,” said Bondy. “We need to come together as a community. If you see somebody drinking and driving, if you see somebody littering, try to get their license plate. We need you now, more than just myself on this file. We really need to come together and see how we can stop littering, how we can stop drinking and driving and look at a solution.”

Bondy added, “If everybody has a bag, think of what the difference would be in Essex County.”