Great Framingham Cleanup Pioneers New Way To Clean City

FRAMINGHAM, MA — During Earth Day week, countless volunteers across Massachusetts participated in targeted litter pickup events. There was one in Framingham too — the Great Framingham Cleanup — that used a different approach that may prove to be the best way to attack the pernicious litter problem.

During the event held on April 17 and 18, an estimated 250 volunteers filled about 336 bags of trash at more than 100 individual cleanups, according to organizer Michael Croci. Framingham's cleanup was a "distributed" event that freed volunteers to clean anywhere. Volunteers were rewarded with the promise of superlatives handed out via social media for categories like weirdest litter find and biggest litter haul.

The method is really a continuation of the original mission of a group (initially called Clean Up Framingham, but now known as Keep Framingham Beautiful) founded last April when the annual Framingham Earth Day festival was canceled due to the pandemic. More than 1,000 people are now part of the group, and many members routinely pick up litter throughout the year.

RELATED: How Garbage Is Freeing People During Coronavirus Quarantine

The distributed model, Croci says, has a wider impact than targeted cleanups. During this year's event, volunteers tackled sitesall over Framingham, from the banks of the Sudbury River to Cedar Swamp.

And although the cleanups aren't a competition, volunteers really swung for the fences. One Boy Scout troop collected 40 full contractor bags (plus several mattresses), and one volunteer cataloged a list of parts of the city most in need of a cleanup.

Croci would like to see a Great Framingham Cleanup in some form several times per year, or perhaps monthly. Planning litter cleanups is very time-consuming, he said, but using a distributed model frees volunteers to do what they do best — clean up litter.

>>>See the full list of Great Framingham Cleanup award winners, from weirdest litter find to the spot with the most tires.