Help keep our city beautiful! Keeping your neighborhood clean, and encouraging those around you to do the same, is one of the best ways citizens of Colorado Springs can help to #KeepItCleanCOS.
Keep It Clean COS is a dedicated, citywide effort to remove trash from medians, streets and other public rights of way. Want to learn more? Check out the new StoryMap that features some of the work done by our city departments and community members.
Join the Cleanup!
The City of Colorado Springs has partnered with the Fountain Creek Watershed District and COSILoveYou in a citywide effort to keep our public spaces clean. See below for information on how you can get involved, and keep an eye on this space as we'll add more opportunities to volunteer in the future!
Join the Great American Cleanup with the Fountain Creek Watershed District!
May 3, 2025
The Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup is the nation’s largest community improvement program, which takes place annually during the spring in over 15,000 communities nationwide. The Fountain Creek Watershed District will conduct this 1-day cleanup with local governments, nonprofits, friends of groups, and neighborhoods. Join the Fountain Creek Watershed District in cleaning up our City with sites all over the area!
Participate in CityServe Day with COSILoveYou
May 2-3, 2025
CityServe Day is a city-wide day of service and volunteering. Many CityServe Day projects are related to cleanup, outdoor beautification, and landscaping—each project supporting nonprofits and schools throughout the Pikes Peak Region
Register for a CityServe project
How to register:
- Click Friday Projects or Saturday Projects on the left of the above linked page
- Use the category or type filters
- Find a specific project and sign up!
Other ways to get involved
Got 1 minute? 1 hour? Even longer? Read more below to learn how you can help, with any time constraint.
Report trash to Neighborhood Services
Only have one minute to help? You can report trash to let city officials know areas in Colorado Springs that could use some attention.
Join a Trash Mob
Only have an hour? Gather some of your friends and attend a Trash Mob! Trash Mobs last only an hour, and rely on members of the community to rally together to clean-up a specific area of the city that needs extra help.
You can follow this link to learn more about Trash Mobs, and to see the schedule for upcoming events.
Coordinate a neighborhood clean-up
Have an afternoon to set aside? Coordinate a neighborhood clean-up! The city will provide dumpsters, bags, gloves, and even safety vests if it’s required for the area.
You can follow this link to learn more about Neighborhood Clean-ups, and how you can get involved in the planning process.
Adopt part of your city
Ready to go all in? Those ready to fully dive into #KeepItCleanCOS can participate by Adopting a waterway, trail, highway or even a park! By “adopting” a part of Colorado Springs, you will be responsible for cleaning the area 2-4 times a year. Don’t worry! The City will be happy to provide bags and gloves, as well as haul away service when you complete the cleaning.
Groups are encouraged to “adopt” together as well!
You can follow this link to learn more about adopting a waterway, a highway, or a park/ trail.
Be an involved neighbor
Creating good relationships with neighbors and sharing pride in your neighborhood can help make events like neighborhood clean-ups and trash mobs even more fun!
On windy-days it’s important to bring trash cans inside as soon as possible to prevent them blowing over and making a mess. It’s always nice to have neighbors who can help you with this!
You can go to the CONO website and learn more about being an involved neighbor.
Be a responsible business owner
Business owners can play a key role in helping keep the city clean. Here are a few ways you can look out for the community, and your business:
- Keep trash bins, cans, and dumpsters closed and locked.
- Keep trash enclosures clean and doors closed/locked if present.
- Promptly pick up trash that falls onto ground when loading bins, cans, and dumpsters.
- Report unkempt trash cans, bins, or dumpsters to code enforcement by calling 444-7891.
- If you witness people or animals getting into trash dumpsters call code enforcement at 444-7891.
Even more ways to help
There are lots of partners and volunteer groups that also work hard to keep our city clean.
Toolkit
For those who wish to host their own neighborhood clean-up, the city offers a wide variety of help where applicable. Be sure to download the #KeepItCleanCOS neighborhood clean-up flyer to use, and register your event on the next tab for help with the following:
- Gloves
- Trashbags
- Haul-away when applicable
A #KeepItCleanCOS neighborhood clean-up flyer is available for download here.
The Fabulous Four street sweepers
The results are in! Thanks to everyone who took time to vote in our Sweep 16 street sweeper naming contest! Here are the names of our Fabulous Four street sweepers!
