A record-breaking cleanup weekend
September greeted us with beautiful sunshine and a sense of purpose – a perfect setting for a cleanup weekend with volunteers, friends, and nature lovers coming together as part of our annual Urban Litter Challenge cleanup. This year, we had our largest event yet with 15 locations and more than 200 community volunteers. Beyond a simple clean up, this event tracks litter at a local scale while contributing data to national and global databases, and is our way of expressing our devotion to preserving green spaces while preventing litter from entering our watersheds. It showcases how much we can accomplish when passion for environmental stewardship meets collective action.
What is the Urban Litter Challenge?
Beginning in 2019, the Urban Litter Challenge has grown from a single event to multiple cleanups held over a weekend in September. U of T Trash Team volunteers not only plan and lead their own cleanup within their local community but also record data as they work to remove litter from our watersheds. This important data contributes nationally to the Ocean Wise Shoreline Cleanup and globally to the Ocean Conservancy International Coastal Cleanup® (which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year!). This data is critical for helping us understand the sources of pollution to help inform future solutions.
Interested in how this event has grown over the years? Take a look at our 2024 and 2023 Urban Litter Challenge recaps.
Rise and Shine: A Weekend of Action
After weeks of preparation, the Urban Litter Challenge weekend had finally arrived. From the busy waterfront of downtown Toronto to neighbourhood parks across the GTA from as far north as Brampton and east to Scarborough, U of T Trash Team site leads welcomed community volunteers from all walks of life. After explaining the purpose of the cleanup, the plan of action and how to collect litter data, each team of volunteers were sent off with gloves, bags, and data cards, ready to start cleaning up.
For one of our teams, the day began bright and early in the heart of the city at Queen’s Park. Site leads Nicole and Max surveyed the landscape and saw there was more than enough litter to keep their group of 36 volunteers very busy for the day!
As they uncovered litter from every nook and cranny of the park, passerbys by couldn’t help but notice their exceptional effort, often coming up to ask what they were doing and how they could help!
“People who passed by were interested in what we were doing and wanted to help out. Our volunteer sheet was so full we had to start a new column on the back of the page to include people!” – Queen’s Park Site Leads Nicole and Max
Just a short distance away, at Sir Winston Churchill Park, site leads Mahanoor and Isabella were in the midst of their cleanup. As the sun climbed higher into the sky, the meeting location display attracted the eyes of all that passed by, letting those who were interested know how to join in.
The site lead duo were especially blown away by the efforts of a family who had come to participate. In particular, their youngest son had a mission to collect more than 1,000 cigarette butts!
Left: A family of volunteers after the cleanup Right: Info cards with commonly found litter items, like cigarette butts, were shared with volunteers
His enthusiasm to achieve this goal was so heartwarming and of course, his vision was accomplished with 1,018 cigarette butts collected! Throughout the cleanup he’d ask, “Where can I find more cigarette butts?!” and then dart away to collect more. We could all learn a thing or two from him!
Learn more about our Pollution Prevention Project targeting cigarette butt litter: Kicking Plastic’s Butt!
Across the GTA: From Brampton to Scarborough
Meanwhile, northwest of the city at Treeline Park in Brampton, site leads and childhood friends Simran and Jazz returned to clean a favourite neighbourhood park. With dedicated community volunteers, and Simran’s dog Pepper by her side, the group successfully removed more than 1,000 pieces of litter.
Over to the east in Scarborough, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky as volunteers at Morningside Park traversed the open green space searching for litter. Surrounded by trees and the nearby creek, it was obvious this was a popular spot for birthday parties and get-togethers. Unfortunately, sometimes litter is left behind and confetti, bottle caps, and food wrappers were found hiding in the grass.
What did we find?
As each cleanup came to an end, volunteers returned to hand in their full trash bags and completed data cards. Across 15 cleanup locations, 204 community volunteers collected an incredible 23,846 pieces of litter weighing 96 kg! The top item collected was cigarette butts, we found 13,472 of them in total, which is more than double the amount found last year.
Our top 3 items was rounded out by small plastic pieces and food wrappers. Bottle caps were also high on the list as the fourth most commonly found item. Morningside Park site lead Lead Alec, was surprised by how many they found.
“Last year this park had so many pieces of plastic confetti, but this year it’s bottle caps. It’s so strange that we’re finding so many bottle caps around the park, but not the plastic bottles they normally come with!”
In addition to the usual litter finds, there are always some peculiar items that give us all a little chuckle when we find them, and this year was no different. Volunteers spotted many strange finds, including a single googly eye, a small monkey statue, a birdhouse, a tiny toy duck and a coffee maker!
What the Urban Litter Challenge means for the community
While the important work of environmental stewardship and collective action goes a long way in keeping our watersheds clean, it’s also inspiring for those who pass by to see that people truly care about keeping our watersheds free of litter and are taking action to make that dream a reality.
Reminding individuals and communities to take notice of environmental causes and empowering them to take action for the health of our Earth creates real change. This could be as easy as bringing a bag with you next time you go for a walk or a hike, or leading your own cleanup. If you want to lead your own clean up any time of the year, you can register with the Ocean Wise Shoreline Cleanup to track your own data.
Take a look at our video recap showcasing an incredible weekend with our amazing volunteers!
Blog written by Ruaidhri Neville, a BBA Management student at U of T Scarborough, specialised in Marketing, who is passionate about environmental sustainability and rugby. Ruaidhri is currently a Communications and Outreach Work Study, as well as a Waste Literacy Instructor with the U of T Trash Team.