At this time of the year, as the snow melts, London's trash troubles are obvious. Just ask Heather Chapman of the Old East Village Business Improvement Association"

She says there's a lot of garbage lying around, too much, and what makes it worse is that a lot of it is coming from outside the neighbourhood.

City officials say it's impossible to keep tabs on how much trash litters London's streets, except to recognize that it's always there.

Londoner Ron Scarfone, who picks a lot of it up, says " It doesn't matter which part of the city you're in. You go in the east end of the city and you see trash, but if you go into the north end you see just as much trash!"

Scarfone and Mike Smith, the owner of Joe Kool's, were tired of all the trash and graffiti around the Richmond Row watering hole and decided to do something about. So, 11 years ago, they organized " London Clean And Green Day", during which a crew of about 30 people picked up garbage on a Saturday morning in May.

Since then, the initiative has gained support. Today thousands of volunteers pick up garbage around the city and along the Thames River around International Earth Day.

This year's " London Clean And Green Day " is being held on Saturday, April 22nd from 9am to noon. Volunteers should register online at http://www.london.ca/CleanGreen/clean_green_London.html

This year also there will be a corporate challenge called " The 20 Minute Makeover " which will involve employees of as many corporations as possible cleaning up their properties on Friday, April 21st from 2pm to 2:20 pm.