450 help clean up township
West Milford. Volunteers fill a 40-yard Dumpster with trash on Beautification Day.
| 01 May 2024 | 07:21
Jayden Cibenko, 11, drops a whip cream can in a bag held by Bob Manning. With them are Daniel Cibenko, left, and Joseph Bosland, 12. They were one of the teams from the Almond Branch Church taking part in West Milford’s Beautification Day on Saturday, April 27. They were collecting trash along Lincoln Avenue. (Photo by Kathy Shwiff)
From left are Joseph Bosland, 12; Bob Manning; Daniel Cibenko; and Jayden Cibenko, 11. (Photo by Kathy Shwiff)
Jayden Cibenko, 11, drops trash in a bag held by Bob Manning. At center is Joseph Bosland, 12.
Jayden Cibenko, 11, drops trash in a bag held by Bob Manning. At center is Joseph Bosland, 12.
Volunteers filled a 40-yard Dumpster with garbage and construction material after fanning out across West Milford on the township’s annual Beautification Day on Saturday, April 27.
About 450 people took part in the cleanup, said recycling coordinator David Stires.
“It was amazing,” he said. “Everybody came together for a great cause.”
Also collected:
• 180 garbage bags of bottles and cans.
• 50 tires.
• 1 ton of metal.
All of those items will be recycled, he said.
About 20 employees of the Passaic County Department of Public Works assisted in the work.
Stires said he has noticed an increase in litter this year, and township DPW workers spent two days collecting it before Beautification Day.
Much of the litter is fast-food containers as well as beer and liquor bottles and cigarette packs. He pointed out that most of the litter is found in areas where there are no houses, implying that people throw it from vehicles where they think no one will see them.
A crew of four volunteers from the Almond Branch Church - Bob Manning; Daniel Cibenko and his son Jayden, 11; and Joseph Bosland, 12 - were cleaning up a stretch of Lincoln Avenue on Saturday morning.
Among the items they found were a TV remote, a hospital nametag and a can of whipped cream.
At the picnic for volunteers after the three-hour cleanup, prizes were given for the oldest, most unusual and most valuable litter found.
Stires said first-, second- and third-place prizes were given in those categories, and volunteers also won prizes in a raffle. The prizes, including gift certificates, donated by local businesses probably totaled about $2,000, he estimated.
That generosity may have been the result of all the Beautification Committee members going as a group to visit all township businesses on the same day, he said.
Another township cleanup is planned in September.