An Effort in Green

I nearly didn't have a post this week that wasn't a plastic tally! Luckily, today I heard about the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. And, before my neighbours to the south (and elsewhere in the world) stop reading this post, this is actually the Canadian part of a worldwide effort organised by the Ocean Conservancy.

Basically, every September (this year it's September 18-26), people all across Canada, and whatever other countries participate in this, get together in groups at locations organised by a cleanup supervisor. Anyone can sign up as a supervisor, or as a participant (but a cleanup has to have a supervisor before people can sign up for it as participants). The location can be anywhere that land meets water, including the shorelines of oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes, and so forth.

Interesting fact: I've been looking at the report from the 2009 cleanup, and the number one type of litter that was picked up overall across Canada was cigarette butts and filters. So that's just one more reason on the huge list of reasons you should stop smoking!

I am very excited about this event. I can't believe I'd never heard of it before. So far, the locations I've looked at don't have supervisors yet, so I may consider signing up as one. I'm not generally the leadership role kind of person, but I'm sure it would be a good experience. Wherever you are, I'm sure you live near some kind of water, so get out there this September and make it look pretty, the way shorelines should! You'll be doing the wildlife a huge favour.

Just make sure you remember that the best thing you can do to fight litter and pollution is to stop the use of disposables in the first place, starting with your own daily habits.