Spring has sprung! The entire month of April saw UHN staff celebrating Earth month with 5 themed weeks of being Green. However, what better way to wrap up Earth month than by taking advantage of the warm Spring weather and taking care of our local ecosystems!
That is exactly what 37 keen individuals sought to do as UHN staff, Green team members, friends and family came together for our first Green team in-person event of… well a long time. On April 30th, we set on a mission to join the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean up and add to the 6,672kg of trash collected along Canadian shorelines.
It is important to understand the impacts of shoreline litter. Year after year garbage is found on our shorelines becoming a threat to local wildlife as they can be entangled or ingesting trash left behind. Micro-plastics are the worst offenders as they break up into smaller fragments and never disappear. The micro-plastics can attract toxins and enter the food chain from phytoplankton all the way to humans! That is why I am pleased to say that a distance of 4.5km of shoreline was cleaned, with a total of 42kg of garbage collected!
The oddest items (not listed below) were a full-sized shopping cart (on the rocks, near the water) and a wig. The teams that netted the oddest items won Two virtual WWF adoption prizes. Congrats Logan and Sasha!
UHN North Cleans Up
A big shoutout also goes to our Northern cluster friends at Lyndhurst/Rumsey – who held a North Campus Park Cleanup on April 27th. This small, determined and cold-hardy group managed to fill 9 garbage bags from the nearby trails. Thank you Bronwen and Caterina for organizing the clean-up (talk about UHN doing the most!). Interested in how you can take part of our Green events? Email Green@uhn.ca to join the team!
What we found at the Shoreline Clean up
These are some of the most commonly littered items that are so ubiquitous, WWF tracks them specially. Note the huge amount of plastics, food wrappers and cigarette butts. This is a great reminder to take care of even the smallest things, and move away from single use anything to go reusable …
| Item | Quantity |
| Balloons | 4 |
| Beverage cans | 32 |
| Bottle caps | 118 |
| Cigarette butts | 761 |
| Clothing or shoes | 13 |
| Coffee cups and lids | 29 |
| Construction materials | 12 |
| Diapers, wipes, tampons, condoms | 7 |
| Fishing buoys, pots, or traps | 2 |
| Fishing net and line | 0 |
| Food containers (i.e. yogurt cups, juice boxes) | 44 |
| Food wrappers | 437 |
| Glass bottles | 11 |
| Large styrofoam | 2 |
| Paper | 117 |
| Personal protective equipment (i.e. gloves, masks) | 8 |
| Plastic bags | 1 |
| Plastic bottles | 5 |
| Plastic cups | 8 |
| Plastic pieces | 404 |
| Rigid plastic bottles and jugs | 1 |
| Rope (1m = 1 piece) | 7 |
| Soft plastic packaging | 158 |
| Straws | 29 |
| Styrofoam pieces | 93 |
| Takeout containers | 6 |
| Toys | 12 |
| Utensils | 7 |
Big thanks to amazing Green Teamers, Jennifer Ryan and Veronica Deally for helping organize this event with me. Many hands make light work (and cleaner shorelines).
Talkin' Trash With UHN 