Around 40 people took to downtown 琉璃神社 Friday morning to help clean up the area on Earth Day.

Ryan Watters, Downtown 琉璃神社 Association communications manager, explained it was their third annual 琉璃神社 Butt Grab.

"We're out around different parts of downtown picking up cigarette butts," Watters said. "Sadly we see thousands of cigarette butts downtown every month. We have a great clean up team that tries to stay on top of it, but it's a team of two. So to have the assistance of folks from city hall, the parks department, and the Pursuit of Excellence hockey program, it's a collaborative effort to try to clean up the streets on Earth Day."

The cleanup began at the Queensway bus loop, and proceeded to clean out Lawrence Ave, Leon Ave and the areas around pubs and bars in the downtown region. While the clean up was for all kinds of litter, the focus was on cigarette butts due to the sheer numbers of them. The volunteers were out for roughly three hours, and also had assistance from the businesses in the area who swept out their store fronts, amongst other things, to help clean up the area.