Communities around the world are celebrating Earth Day on Saturday.

This year’s theme was “Invest in our Planet” and Twin Cities residents did just that.

St. Paul residents, purple trash bags in hand, braved the cold Saturday morning for the city’s 37th citywide cleanup.

“We want more people to come to the parks, if you have a clean safe park, you have a lot more visitors coming,” said St. Paul resident Mary Hilficker.

Meanwhile in Minneapolis, there were cleanups going on at over 40 sites. According to the city, residents have cleaned up over 165,000 pounds of garbage since 2008.

“It’s our front yard, it’s our neighborhood, it’s our job to take care of it,” said Minneapolis resident Steve Young-Burns.

“Earth Day is a time for all of us to get together and think about the impact that our society has on the environment in ways that we can do what we can to pick up trash and make the Earth a better place,” he continued.

You don’t have to wait for Earth Day to clean up trash – residents say it can be a daily responsibility. And once the spring flooding is over, there will be even more work to do.

“The river banks, when it goes down is just awful, it will take us a week or two to get it all cleaned up again,” Hilficker said.