Residents can pick up litter throughout the township or dispose of sensitive documents that will be shredded and recycled.
Earth Day may be celebrated on April 22, but this year in Mt. Laurel, the real day to go green will fall a week later on April 29.
That Saturday morning will mark Mt. Laurel’s annual Community Cleanup Day and Shred Day where residents will have the opportunity to help cleanup their township and their homes.
Throughout the morning, residents can beautify Mt. Laurel and do their part for the environment by volunteering to pick up litter at sites throughout the township or by disposing of unwanted, sensitive documents that will be shredded and recycled.
For the Community Cleanup Day, residents are asked to join the Mt. Laurel Green Team at the Mt. Laurel Community Center starting at 9 a.m. to receive gloves, trash bags and site assignments.
According to Mt. Laurel Green Team member Ed Cohen, the Community Cleanup Day allows residents to see the effect litter has on nature and wildlife.
“When you actually make the effort to get out to the parks and clean it up, you understand on a more personal level the damage that the trash is causing,” Cohen said. “You can see just how much of it is there.”
Cohen said volunteers are usually assigned to sites in the township’s parks, away from busy roadways, so he encourages as many residents as possible to come help.
“The biggest thing is making people aware of the issues that we’re facing. When you see it up close, it can affect how we act in our everyday life,” Cohen said.
Once volunteers wrap up their cleanup efforts around noon, Cohen said they’ll be invited back to the Community Center for snacks.
Those looking to volunteer for Community Cleanup Day are asked to register with Jerry Mascia, director of municipal services, at (856) 234–0001 ext. 1223 or jmascia@mountlaurel.org.
In addition to the cleanup event, the township will also be holding its “Shred Day” from 9 a.m. to noon in the parking lot of the Community Center.
Residents are invited to help the environment by bringing bags or boxes of their unwanted, sensitive paper documents to be placed in a mobile shredding unit, and a shredding company will destroy all confidential material on site.
All of the shredded material will later be recycled, helping residents keep their identities and the environment safe.
Only Mt. Laurel residents may participate in Shred Day, with four bags or boxes of documents to be accepted per resident.
Only paper documents will be accepted. Residents are asked to avoid plastic bags and metal such as three-ring binders or binder clips, however, paper clips and staples are allowed.
No commercial recycling will be accepted at the Shred Day event.
For more information, contact the Mt. Laurel Public Works Office at (856) 234–0001 ext. 1241.
