Neighborhood Clean-Ups

Organizing a neighborhood clean-up is a wonderful opportunity to get to know your neighbors and beautify your neighborhood at the same time. Below are Neighborhood Services suggestions for planning and implementing a neighborhood clean-up.

Resources Available to the Community

There are many public and private resources that may be helpful to making your neighborhood clean-up a success:

Timberline Recyling Center

Expanded in 2016, Timberline Recycling Center provides facilities to recycle items such as bottles, cans, paper and cardboard for no charge. Yard trimmings, unpaintend and untreated lumber, scrap metal, concrete and porcelain, electronics, paint, batteries, cooking oil, motor oil, and antifreeze are all accepted as well for a small fee. Please visit the click here for more information.

Curbside Yard-Trimming Collection

From April to November of each year, trash haulers will begin services to collect yard trimmings - including small branches, leaves, grass clippings, and garden trimmings - which will be taken to local facilities and turned into mulch or compost. Please contact your hauler and read the February 2017 edition of CityNews for more information.

Neighborhood Grants

The Fort Collins Neighborhood Services department offers neighborhood grants for events that help foster positive relationships and a sense of community pride through engagement and inclusion of neighbors. Grants are offered in amounts from $25-$500 to support neighborhood events, including neighborhood cleanups. These grants are often used to purchase food or rent supplies to support clean-up events or post-cleanup gatherings.

Comprehensive List of Items That May be Recycled and How

This resource from the city's Recycling Department is an invaluable tool for any neighborhood trying to cleanup and be earth-concious at the same time.

Dumpster and Trash Container Tips

• Contact multiple trash haulers to see who will give you the best price for your dumpster. Depending on the geographical area of your neighborhood cleanup, you may need more than one container.
• Locate a site (school, church, or other large paved area) large enough to accommodate containers and traffic flowing in and out of the location and make sure you get permission to hold your event there.
• Arrange to complete the event in one day. Unattended dumpsters are often misused and can be a liability.
• Have appropriate signage directing traffic in and out of the location.

General Tips

• Have a first aid kit on hand at the event.
• Arrange to have dedicated volunteer leaders to help on the day of the clean-up. Specific volunteers can be assigned different duties during the event, such as:
  1. Supervising the entrance and screening participants to prevent non-residents of your neighborhood from taking advantage of your clean-up, i.e., asking participants for their address and/or coupon (if one was provided in a neighborhood newsletter) giving out a coupon for participants who plan to return with an additional load.
  2. Supervising traffic control during the event, especially when dumpsters or containers are delivered and removed.
  3. Requesting and collecting any donations.
  4. Assisting participants to unload their vehicles when necessary.
  5. Coordinating a "swap and drop" (should you choose to offer one), including monitoring items to ensure they are of suitable quality for exchange or reuse, and coordinating a charity organization to pick up the unwanted items at the end of the event.
  6. Supervising clean-up of the location after the event. Remember to leave it cleaner than you found it.
• An additional idea is to organize a leaf pick-up in the fall. Some trash haulers offer services for a leaf clean-up. Check with them when you call to make your neighborhood clean-up arrangements.