Street sweeping & litter removal
We keep Kelowna’s roadways clean by promptly removing litter and regularly sweeping streets.
Our sweepers clean approximately 2,490 lane kilometres per year, including bike lanes, which are swept in conjunction with roads.
Help us sweep away all the debris by following these useful tips:
- Watch for signage to remove vehicles, basketball hoops or other items that may impede the street sweeper from cleaning debris from gutters.
- Sweep sand and debris from sidewalks and boulevards into the gutters.
- If street sweeping and waste pick up fall on the same day, residents can place waste bins at the end of driveways instead, as long as the waste bins are placed within reach of the collector trucks and there is sufficient space on either side of the bins; this helps street cleaning run more efficiently as sweepers will no longer need to maneuver around waste bins placed along curbs.
Weather permitting, spring sweeping is scheduled to begin in late March to clean up winter sand and dirt. Sweeping can only take place when the temperatures are consistently above zero. Some areas may require multiple passes by the sweeper to ensure all debris is cleared.
Signage will be placed at least 24 hours before an area is scheduled to be swept. Signs may be up longer depending on weather and available sweepers. If an area has obstacles that prevent sweepers from reaching the curb (such as waste bins), they may return at a later date.
The spring sweep consists of 40 employees, 7 sweepers, 6 municipal tractors, 2 water trucks, 2 dump trucks and 2 dedicated sidewalk sweepers working 20 hours/day, 7 days a week for the entirety of the 8 week sweep.
As it's weather dependent and subject to change, a weekly spring sweeping route schedule will be posted online during the sweep. Sweeping route areas can be found on this map for reference, in no priority order.
All roads in the City's maintenance area will be swept and flushed by late spring, weather permitting.
In addition to the spring sweep, streets are swept year-round when temperatures and road conditions are favourable. The street sweep program sweeps the following:
- Streets with a curb and gutter. These streets are swept two times per year.
- Streets or roads with gravel shoulders. These streets are swept once per year.
- Bike paths and lanes. These receive sweeping 10 times per year.
- Business areas, including South Pandosy, Rutland and the downtown core. These areas are swept twice per week.
- Monthly area sweep that consists of Highway 97 (from Reid's Corner to City Park) and Highway 33 (from Highway 97 to Black Mountain).
- Paved back-alleys are swept once per year.
If additional sweeping is required, please submit a 'Street Sweeping' service request.
We take pride in our road system and strive to remove litter promptly.
From Spring through Fall, litter is removed from the downtown area on a daily basis with a small vacuum machine. Litter is removed from all major roads on a weekly basis with the exception of major roads leading to the Glenmore Landfill (Glenmore Road and Sexsmith Road), which are checked daily.
Litter will not be picked up on private property.
Help pick up litter through Adopt-a-Road program
The Adopt-a-Road Program gives private organizations, clubs and community groups the opportunity to help keep Kelowna beautiful by volunteering their labour to pick up litter along the sides of undeveloped arterial frontages.
The road network is divided into 15 areas. A volunteer group must commit to looking after the entire length of road within one of these areas for two years. Once the first clean-up has been completed, we install and maintain “Adopt-A-Road” signs, which display the volunteer organization’s name.
Roadway Operations crews spend approximately $80,000 and many hours cleaning roadside litter and illegal dump sites each year - that's equivalent to 75,000 pounds of trash! To date, over 70 community groups have “adopted” 157 kilometres of roadways and are doing their part to keep our roads litter free.
To get involved, contact Civic Operations at 250-469-8600.
