Between September 20 and 28, many Canadians will join the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Concerned folk will join together to help clean up the shores of our ponds, streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. The cleanup first started a while ago when Vancouver Aquarium employees volunteered to clean up a small beach. Now, 15 years later, the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is the second largest shoreline cleanup in the world.According to their website, last year's cleanup had 52,000 Canadians participants help clean up 1,240 shorelines, removing 87,489 kg of harmful shoreline litter. That's a lot of litter and a huge difference.
At each of these cleanups, data is collected in order to help determine major sources of litter in different Canadian areas. The biggest source? US (who should know better)! According to the site, in 2007's cleanup volunteers removed plastic cutlery and straws, coffee cup lids and stir sticks, barbecues, fishing line, Styrofoam, buoys, shopping carts, paint cans, ear plugs, cigarette butts by the bucket loads, loaded rifles, vehicles, and the odd engagement ring.
Visit www.vanaqua.org/cleanup to register as a shoreline cleanup volunteer.
Read more:
• How to plant a tree
• Make your grocery shopping greener
• How to improve indoor air quality
