Last year, with my friends we took an initiative to organize for the first time in our community a small clean up campaign. We identified 15 dumpsites in our community and we targeted one. These are locations where people consider to be waste disposal sites. Less than a week after the exercise, people continued to dispose waste at this same location. I was very frustrated with what I saw. Since then, I have been wondering; do clean ups really offer any benefit towards making our communities clean and habitable for local flora and fauna species? Do they really benefit natural ecosystems? If this is negligible, what else can volunteers in their communities do to ensure that their communities should be clean and green? Are there specific research studies that have focused on these topics previously, which I can refer to broaden my knowledge on the subject?

Thanks. Looking forward to learn from others.

Patrick