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The following article is from an archived newsletter. See our Shared Waters newsletter.

The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup Takes Trash, Leaves Footprints

Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup

You’ve seen the signs: Put litter in its place. That means a trash can or recycle bin, not the water.

But beaches in Canada, like those in the U.S., still suffer from unwanted debris that washes up on the shores of our Great Lakes and its connecting waters. That’s why thousands of volunteers were out on Sept. 20 for the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. They collected hundreds of bags of garbage from the sands of six sites in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and St. John’s.

It was all part of the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, the largest of its kind, and involved people who took to beaches, lakes, rivers, streams and oceans for the event in Canada.

What did they find? In Toronto, at Woodbine Beach Park, on Lake Ontario 160 people took away 38 bags of garbage and 44 bags of recyclable materials, along with 2.75 kilograms (6 pounds) of cigarette butts, and a beach umbrella.

In Vancouver, at Iona Beach Regional Park, 262 people (including British Columbia’s Prime Minister of the Environment, Mary Polak) picked up 623 kilograms (1,373 pounds) of litter, including a plastic dinosaur, plastic piggy bank, and construction material.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, 195 people showed up to help, and found items including a big old tractor tire.

A tractor tire found by volunteers at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax. Credit: Canadian Press Images/Vancouver Aquarium.
A tractor tire found by volunteers at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax. Credit: Canadian Press Images/Vancouver Aquarium.

Other cleanups organized by local site coordinators also took place around Canada during the Sept. 20 weekend. More work is planned through the end of October, and in the spring of 2015.

The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, sponsored by food and pharmacy retailer Loblaw Companies Limited, is a joint conservation initiative led by the Vancouver Aquarium and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Cleanups are held each spring and fall. Since 2003, more than 400,000 participants have removed nearly 1 million kilograms (2.2 million pounds) of garbage from Canadian shorelines.

In case you’re wondering, cigarette butts top the list for items collected during past cleanups. In 2013, almost 43,000 discarded butts were collected. Food wrappers and containers came in second, at 14,523. Thankfully, tractor tires aren’t found as often.

For more information, see www.ShorelineCleanup.ca

 

 

Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup

Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup

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