According to Science America, community cleanups play a vital role in maintaining the health and beauty of our neighborhoods, parks and coastline.

Places like Turing Point Park in Rochester are important spaces in the community.

“These areas get a lot of foot traffic with hikers, runners, walkers and it's always nice when things look nice,” said volunteer Josh Frankel.

Which is why it's important to keep them clean.

“If you don’t regularly pick up trash it just starts to pile up and get out of control so by having these regular clean ups, they really keep a good focus on it and really cut it off before it gets bad,” he said.

Seneca Park Zoo hosts community clean ups to get people more involved of taking care of their community.

“It's always nice to show pride in your community like when you walk around and you see a clean environment , you don’t see garbage. It’s just a nice feeling,” Frankel said.

This year Seneca Park Zoo has collected roughly 3,000 pounds of trash throughout the community.

“Especially when you’re talking about little pieces of trash,” Frankel said. 

It’s bringing people and organizations together to do their part.

“It’s always nice seeing different organizations participating in different ways and different groups participating in a way that's meaningful to them,” Frankel said. “Also things like the trash aren’t spreading down into the river and stuff and you can pick them up on the ground here.”

And it’s making a meaningful difference to the environment.

“It's just a great way to come out and help out for a little bit,” said Frankel.