Enter at START
Turn into the Westside King's Church lot from 69 St SW. Volunteers in safety vests will wave you into the main staging area — three lanes, 9–12 cars each. If it's busy, you'll roll into overflow staging (six shorter lanes).
A note from the organizers
The Community Cleanup was a great success. We started out of the gates slow, but after we caught up, people were entering and exiting fast.
We tried to organize a metals recycler for our event in advance, but due to schedule conflicts and restrictions we were not able to secure one — hence our advertising to reject metals this year. However, a "community volunteer" connected us to a vendor the day of, and we arranged a metals recycler last-minute.
We had happy residents, volunteers, and vendors to make our cleanup one of the best so far. It was a pleasure to organize this valuable event.
On behalf of the Community Associations of Discovery Ridge, Signal Hill, and Springbank Hill — a hearty thank you to all the people who made this a success.
Cheers,
— Your organizers: Behrokh (Springbank Hill) · Rob (Signal Hill) · Kiel (Discovery Ridge)
3
Communities
46
Volunteers
8
Garbage trucks
✓
Metals saved last-minute recycler
From the day
Cleanup Day returns in June 2027 — date and venue TBD between the three communities. Visit the 2027 page → to get on the early-notice list.
Once a year, Signal Hill, Discovery Ridge, and Springbank Hill share a parking lot, a line of trucks, and a plan. Old couch, broken bike, the lamp you meant to donate, drive it over, drop it, drive home. Free.
Organized by
I've co-organized the Community Cleanup with Springbank Hill, Discovery Ridge, and Signal Hill since 2022. Working as three CAs guarantees the event runs every year — and it's how we've gotten to know each other. In 2025 we landed in the city's top three cleanups for volume. The goal in 2026 is to stay there.
2025 was too slow. Long lineups, frustrated neighbours, some turned away. We heard you. The City has doubled the trucks for 2026 — wait times should drop substantially.
One heads-up: we worked hard to confirm recyclers, but three categories will not be picked up this year — metals & large appliances, tires, and sport equipment (hockey, soccer, bikes). All other items are good to go, and we've added Cerebral Palsy Alberta as a second donation partner alongside the Calgary Drop-in Centre.
Residents only — a City Peace Officer will be on-site to help volunteers enforce the bylaw against commercial vehicles. Questions, suggestions, comments — drop me a line.
— Rob Leong
The City and the volunteer crew have laid out the lot for eight garbage stations, three donation drop-offs (electronics, furniture, small household), and a queue that holds up to 60 cars on a busy stretch. Here's the plan, so you know what to expect from the moment you turn off 69 Street.
Turn into the Westside King's Church lot from 69 St SW. Volunteers in safety vests will wave you into the main staging area — three lanes, 9–12 cars each. If it's busy, you'll roll into overflow staging (six shorter lanes).
From the front of the queue, traffic control directs you to one of eight garbage truck stations. Stay in your vehicle until a volunteer waves you forward.
Volunteers help you unload into the garbage truck. City crew will say if an item can't go in (no metals / appliances / tires / sport equipment this year — they go to Throw 'n' Go instead).
If you brought electronics, furniture, or smaller donations, pull to the matching tent on the way out. Then drive forward to exit and tell your neighbours.
Garbage trucks · 8 stations
Plus 2 standby trucks if volume is high. City crew directs.
Donation tents · 2
Drop-in Centre (furniture, larger) + Cerebral Palsy Alberta (small household, clothing).
Electronics tent
SCRI / Shanked — TVs, computers, monitors, cables, audio.
Volunteer tent
Check-in for volunteers · safety vests, gloves, lunch.
Best time to come: 9 – 10:30 AM. Last car accepted: 1:45 PM sharp — the trucks have to be sealed and on the road to the landfill by 2 PM.
Rain or shine. One day only.
Last car accepted at 1:45 PM sharp, trucks have to be sealed and driven to the landfill by 2 PM. Come early; waits are shortest between 9 and 10:30.
Parking lot · SE corner of Springbank Blvd & 69 Street SW
SHCA, DRCA, SBHCA households. No commercial waste.
Volunteer · 2-hour shifts · under 18 welcome with an adult guardian
Direct traffic, help residents unload, support City crews and vendors. Bring a friend, your teenager, a scout pack, pick a shift below and you'll be slotted in instantly.
You get: training over Teams the week before · safety vest, gloves, snacks, lunch · a great half-day with neighbours.
By community
Residents roll up, volunteers help unload, City trucks sort in real time. Six frames from the 2025 event.
The Community Cleanup is an annual program the City of Calgary runs in partnership with community associations across the city. The City provides trucks to collect garbage going to the landfill; additional recycling vendors may include metal, electronics, and household donations. Stay tuned to our social media channels and this page for details on confirmed recycling vendors as the event approaches.
For you, it looks like this: drive to the church, follow the lane a volunteer waves you into, pop your trunk, a volunteer helps you offload it into the right truck. You're out in 15 minutes. Residents only, commercial waste, construction debris, and hazardous waste aren't accepted (bring those to a City landfill or treatment site).
Thank you to the City of Calgary Community Strategies and Waste & Recycling for making this event possible, and to the many volunteers across the three communities who show up every year. More info: calgary.ca/communities/community-cleanups. Content approved by the City of Calgary.
Most of the headaches on cleanup day come from people showing up with things the City trucks can't legally take. Here's the short list.
The donation truck has stricter rules than the garbage truck. Items must be clean, working, and complete. Below is the full list our charity partners go by — useful before you load the car so things don't come back home.
List sourced from Cerebral Palsy Alberta (updated April 2025), a typical reference for what donation-receiving charities can accept. Items must be clean and in working condition.
Four steps from turning into the lot to driving home with an empty trunk.
The City posts a bright yellow Bold Sign near the venue a few days before. Turn into the Westside King's Church lot from 69 Street.
Main staging holds ~30 cars in three lanes. If we're busy, you'll roll into overflow across the lot. Typically 10–20 minutes on a busy morning.
At the drop zone, volunteers sort your items into the right truck or bin, garbage, metal, electronics, donation. Stay in your vehicle.
Wave. Drive off. Tell your neighbours. Event closes at 2 PM; last car accepted at 1:45 PM so everyone in line can unload before the trucks roll out.
Drop-off doesn't end at the parking lot. Here's who picks it up and where it ends up, plus the local sponsors who keep our volunteer crew fed.
Furniture, kitchenware, clothing, working equipment, larger items — anything with life left in it gets put back to use.
calgarydropin.ca →Small, clean, usable household items — clothing, books, toys, kitchenware, small working appliances. New donation partner for 2026.
cpalberta.com →TVs, computers, monitors, cables, audio/video — diverted from landfill. SCRI grant covers the cost for our event.
scri.ca →Caffeine for the City crew and the volunteer line all morning. Thank you.
Sandwiches for the volunteers working the lot. Thank you.
Not available in 2026: metals & large appliances, tires, and sport equipment. We worked hard to confirm recyclers in these categories but they're unavailable this June. Take those items to a City Throw 'n' Go landfill, Alberta Recycling (tires), or a Buy Nothing group (sports gear) instead.
Volunteer · Tri-CA Cleanup · Saturday June 13
Pick a shift, tell us who you are. Confirmation + calendar invite land in your inbox.
Confirmation email sent. See you at Westside King's Church on June 13.
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The last year we have full audited numbers. 2025 grew to 69 volunteers (+57%) and finished with a small net surplus from recycling revenue.
Up to 69 in 2025 · planning for 45 (15 per community) this year
~53,500 lbs · roughly 4 large garbage trucks full
Signal Hill · Discovery Ridge · Springbank Hill
Funded by the City + recycling revenue + our CAs
Three coordinators across three CAs, plus the City contact for program-level questions.
The seven questions we get most years.
The event is intended for residents of the three partner communities. We don't check IDs at the gate, but bear in mind, every truckful that gets taken by an out-of-community resident is a truckful our neighbours can't drop off. Please use your own community's cleanup instead (the City schedules all of them).
1:45 PM is the hard cutoff, last car accepted. We close the line then and turn cars away; the trucks have to be sealed and driven to the landfill by 2:00. Come in the morning, waits are shortest between 9 and 10:30.
The City reimburses us for a set amount of volume. Commercial operators who show up "off the books" fill trucks that should be clearing out three communities of homes. It's also a bylaw violation, the City has started enforcing illegal-dumping rules when trucks are clearly commercial.
Calgary's Throw 'n' Go landfills accept household hazardous waste for free year-round. For paint and chemicals, the City runs a Household Hazardous Waste program.
Total expenses run around $1,360 per year (signs, porta-potty, volunteer lunch, safety supplies, venue fee). Revenue from scrap-metal and electronics recycling, plus the City's $300 reimbursement, covers it, we net a small surplus each year (~$865 in 2026 budget), split three ways across the partner CAs.
Yes, under-18s are welcome as long as a parent or adult guardian is on shift with them. Traffic-direction roles are restricted to 18+. Scouts, Girl Guides, and Sir Winston Churchill HS students have all sent crews in past years.
For SHCA volunteer questions: rob@shca.ca (Rob Leong). For general questions: info@shca.ca. For City-level program questions: CommunityCleanups@calgary.ca.