Our Urban Litter Challenge brought together volunteers in a united effort for a cleaner watershed
September is one of our favourite times of the year! As students are returning to campus, we’re hard at work preparing for our annual Urban Litter Challenge, a cleanup event which takes place every year over a weekend in September to divert litter from our watershed, and ultimately Lake Ontario! Reflecting on our collective efforts to beautify our watershed through community action, this year’s event was marked by 11 locations across the city and 122 community volunteers. Together they created a vibrant atmosphere that truly celebrated everyone’s shared commitment to a cleaner city.
A Sunny Start to the Day
Participants at HTO park were welcomed by site lead Susan. © U of T Trash Team
The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day to embrace the outdoors and make a difference together. The warm smiles of our site leads greeted everyone who joined to roll up their sleeves and help clean up! We were joined by U of T students alongside community members keen to make a difference and help unwind from their daily routines (and let’s not forget some of the adorable dogs that joined in on the fun). After a quick explanation of the materials and instructions for the day, everyone set off to collect all the litter items that were lurking nearby and record data on what they found.
We love meeting members of the community each year (and their dogs). © U of T Trash Team
To our delight, many passersby also stopped by to express their gratitude for our efforts, and at HTO Park along the waterfront, a visitor from Mississauga even felt inspired to change their plans for the day and jumped in to lend a hand.
“I do cleanups every weekend for my mental health and to escape from my computer and main banking job” – Cleanup participant, Toronto Music Gardens
Meanwhile at the nearby Toronto Music Gardens, site leads got ready by setting down picnic blankets to beautifully display cleanup supplies for everyone. This gorgeous waterfront park is a popular setting for weddings, and there just so happened to be one taking place on the day of the cleanup! Unfortunately, remnants of the wedding were left behind in the form of artificial rose petals, a reminder of why raising awareness of litter and plastic pollution through cleanups is so important.
The Toronto Music Garden cleanup team were all ready to clean. Thumbs up for cleanups!
© U of T Trash Team
At Taylor Creek Park, a buzz of excitement filled the air as volunteers from a local high school joined us, eager to participate after hearing about the event from a parent. It was heartwarming to learn how the community was spreading the word and reaching all ages. We were also thrilled to welcome MP Julie Dabrusin to join us at Taylor Creek Park; it was truly an honour to have her support!
MP Julie Dabrusin came to lend a hand in her riding at Taylor Creek Park with site lead Chelsea!
© U of T Trash Team
A bit further east, over at Morningside Park in Scarborough, we had our largest turnout of more than 30 participants, including members of U of T Scarborough’s sustainability office.
The bright faces of the many participants who joined us at Morningside Park.
© U of T Trash Team
So What Did We Find?
Data summary from our amazing finds this year – many single-use plastics topped the list.
Throughout each cleanup, participants recorded everything they collected, all the way from small plastics you don’t always notice at first to the larger and very easy to spot items. Data collected from cleanups like ours is crucial and informs upstream solutions at both the local and global level, with national data tracked by the Ocean Wise Shoreline Cleanup and a global database maintained by Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup.
Site lead Madeline holds up part of the trash haul from McCaul-Orde Park.
© U of T Trash Team
“More Cigarette Butts? This feels never-ending.” Cleanup participant, McCaul-Orde Park.
Thanks to the tremendous support from the amazing community, we successfully cleaned up 17,195 litter items, including an astounding 6,401 cigarette butts! That’s a hefty haul—who knew cleaning up could lift so many trash bags and spirits? Notably, a few locations also reported a lot of plastic confetti, which is used in times of celebration but very tedious to clean up. This offers us a reflection on how we can practice more sustainable ways to celebrate special occasions.
A handful of the nearly 800 pieces of plastic confetti found at Rennie Park. © U of T Trash Team
Throughout the cleanups participants repeatedly voiced their concern about the mountainous amount of the cigarette butts they were finding, saying that they hope this is something that can be changed in the future. Many people are unaware that the filter cigarette butts contains plastic and when discarded on the ground, these filters can ultimately end up in our waterways. Everyone’s help in picking up these butts definitely helped keep our parks looking sharp and prevented this plastic pollution from reaching Lake Ontario.
There were many unusual finds this year, including a beautiful wooden ski at McCaul-Orde Park! Our unusual finds also included a surprising variety of unexpected treasures, such as crystals, a lost bicycle, Lady Gaga CD and even a mascara wand. One of the participants even discovered a football-shaped Crocs Jibbitz (those little decorations on the shoes, many of us didn’t know they had a name until now!).
Many peculiar finds had us all asking “What are those and how did they get here?”
A Global Effort
While we were hard at work in Toronto, the spirt of global collaboration was strong with our friends from SEGO Initiative, contributors to the International Coastal Cleanup in Japan, who were teaming up for the following weekend. This organization is based in a popular seaside resort called Fujisawa City, which is sister city to Windsor and not very far from Toronto’s sister city Sagamihara. An incredible 50 volunteers of all ages joined and found a lot of the same items, include a lot of cigarette butts, small foam pieces, and plastic bags. Similar to our efforts, they also hosted cleanups at multiple locations with a group Fujisawa City and another 1000 km south in Miyazaki City. It’s been incredible to see the joy of cleanups extend all across the globe, and the strong impact on our collective waters.
With the school year now in full swing, we’re looking forward to what’s coming up next for the U of T Trash Team! Our instructors are back in grade 5 classrooms and we’re now setting sights on our 2025 Home Waste Audit which will kick off at the start of the new year! There are truly endless opportunities to make a difference!
SEGO Initiative International Coastal Cleanup 2024 in Japan. © SEGO Initiative
Blog written by Ellie Arieana Binti Khairul Anwar, a 3rd Year Health and Disease Major, Environmental Studies Minor and Psychology Minor and currently a Communications and Outreach Work Study for the U of T Trash Team.
Feel free to come and chat with her at upcoming events!