The New Jersey Clean Communities Council recognized the city with the “Urban Cleanup Team Award” for the annual cleanup of the Great Falls.
The Silk City received the award for the August 25, 2015 cleanup effort at the Great Falls on the 99th birthday of the National Park Service.
“The comprehensive effort in Paterson to preserve the city’s falls and clean up the litter scattered throughout made the city very deserving of this award,” Sandy Huber, executive director of the New Jersey Clean Communities Council (NJCCC), said.
The cleanup of the 77-foot-high water fall after it was shut off involved an army of volunteers from local schools and various organizations among them the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission and the New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC).
Volunteers from the Great Falls Youth Corps and local schools collected litter from the Great Falls National Historical Park to spruce up the urban oasis on McBride Avenue. Volunteers recovered a matters and a small boat during their annual cleanup effort.
The New Jersey Clean Communities Council is a 25-year-old litter statewide litter abatement program created by the passage of the Clean Communities Act in 1986. It collects $20 million by taxing businesses that produce litter generating products and distributes the funds to municipalities to clean up their communities.