By Heba Aly
The solution is simple: “Don’t litter.”
Jason Boire, a policy analyst for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, gives this advice for a not-so-simple problem: marine debris found all over Canada’s shorelines.
Centretown Girl Guides is doing its part to solve the problem.
Eleven Girl Guides and their friends spent the morning of Sept. 18 picking up garbage from the shorelines of the Ottawa River as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.
“Municipalities across Canada have gone on board and really helped us find sites that need cleaning,” says Jason Boyce, national operations manager of the cleanup project.
Heather Farr, Girl Guides leader and co-ordinator for one of Ottawa’s eight cleanup sites, explains it is not just about picking up trash.
The Vancouver Aquarium, which founded the project, collects information about what type of garbage is found. The aquarium then sends its data to the International Coastal Cleanup, says Farr, which uses it to set policy and educate the public.
“(Volunteers) are working in groups of four,” she says. “Each group has a data card…everything that the group picks up is recorded.”
Boyce stresses that informing the public is one of the major goals of the cleanup.
“The program does more than just get people to clean up. We want to educate people,” he says.
“We want people to think about where the litter they throw goes. Hopefully by cleaning up the shorelines, it will make them think about their everyday actions.”
According to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup website, last year’s volunteers removed 49,859 kg of garbage from Canada’s shorelines.
More than 40 per cent of that garbage consisted of debris from smoking.
Along with 160,000 cigarette butts, cleaners picked up food wrappers, bags, bottles and containers.
They also found some more unusual items such as a hair curler, raw chicken, and Celine Dion albums.
“It’s really interesting,” says Valerie Sagle, a Girl Guides leader and University of Ottawa student who participated in this year’s cleanup.
“It definitely helps you realize that every little thing that anyone throws out ends up somewhere.”
Farr’s group filled three garbage bags of litter and recycling along a one-kilometre stretch of the Ottawa River east of Champlain Bridge. The group found a pylon, a metal pole and a tire, among other things.
Canada’s National Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, of which Boire is a member, warns that debris is harmful to people and wildlife once it is released into the environment.
“A lot of the debris actually gets confused with food for a lot of the animals,” says Boire. “Whether it’s cigarette butts in turtles, or sometimes you’ll find things like boots and shoes in sharks.”
He says it is also dangerous for humans, who get a lot of their food from rivers and oceans. “Their health will definitely start to play out in our health too.”
Founded 11 years ago, the cleanup became a national venture in 2001, says Boyce. It runs during the third week of September and is Canada’s largest contributor to the International Coastal Cleanup, which takes place at the same time, he explains.
Although Boire says the problem doesn’t seem to be getting any better, involvement in the cleanup has grown significantly from last year.
Ontario’s volunteers more than doubled from 3,300 to 7,000, says Lisa Richards, eastern regional co-ordinator for the cleanup.
“The interest has been really, really good. We just expect that momentum to continue,” she says. “Nationally, we went from 20,000 (volunteers) in 2003 to 32,000 in 2004. It’s quite amazing.”
Farr agrees. “Among my Girl Guides associations, they think it’s a great initiative and it’s our second year. Hopefully it’s something we can continue on with and build over the years.”