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If you visit downtown, you may have noticed there’s less litter on the streets and sidewalks this week.

That’s because last Thursday about nine volunteers spent part of the day picking up everything from cigarette butts to styrofoam cups.

The effort was part of the community’s seventh annual Main Street Clean Sweep, a joint effort between the city’s stormwater program and Bluegrass Greensource, a Lexington-based environmental group.

Ordinarily, the Main Street Clean Sweep would be around Earth Day in April, but this year, because of the coronavirus lockdown in the spring, the environmental awareness week was rescheduled for September.

Giulia Parli with Bluegrass Greensource, said last week there were similar cleanups in Lexington and 15 other communities around the Bluegrass.

“Last year, we had 50 people participate, and this year, we had a few, but it always amazes me how much we collect,” said Shanda Cecil, the city’s code enforcement officer and head of the Strodes Creek Conservancy, who coordinated the local effort.

There were nine volunteers signed up at noon, and they had piled up several bags full of litter in the front parking lot of City Hall.

Most of the cleanup was along Main Street, the courthouse square and adjoining side streets and alleys.

“We’re here as models to the youth, because if they see us doing good, they will learn,” Patricia Stewart Hopkins, a participant, said.

Cecil said Monday they had collected 12 bags of trash and 10 large fluorescent light bulbs.