What we learned by counting our household waste

Winter is in full swing and school is officially back in session! To kick off the new year, members of the U of T Trash Team joined the Home Waste Audit, a 4-week journey to count and categorize household waste with the goal to reduce how much you are throwing away.

From January 19th to February 15th, participants sorted, counted and took actions to reduce waste at home. Here’s what some of us had to share about our experience.

Zoe: Conducting the Home Waste Audit during the re-opening of Ontario meant an increase in social interactions and I found reducing waste in social gatherings was tough. However, at the start of my Home Waste Audit I was fortunate enough to meet fellow U of T Trash Team volunteer, Lisa Erdle, while skating on Lake Ontario near the Toronto Islands.

Lisa and her partner Brendan were very kind and shared homemade treats and hot cocoa, a delicious no waste option. This act of kindness inspired me to also plan ahead when hanging out with friends, by making shareable baked goods instead of buying pre-packaged snacks like granola bars or hot drinks in takeout cups. 

Having grown up in sunny Malaysia, waste management had some differences. Recycling services were not widely offered like they are here, and there were no blue bins or composting green bins that got conveniently picked up outside houses. Instead, I remember making regular trips with my parents to recycling centers to dispose of our recyclables. The Toronto Waste Wizard has been my best friend over the duration of the Home Waste Audit. Currently in my 4^th year as an undergraduate studying materials science, the process of learning about material recyclability has been fascinating to me. I’m hoping to continue to learn more about the materials we use in our daily lives and the natural alternatives on the rise to replace plastics.

My grocery basket is not perfect, but I tried to reduce packaged food items. 
(Photo credit: Zoë Ungku Fa’iz)

Ludovic: The Home Waste Audit was an opportunity for me to take back old habits I had before COVID-19, like using my own travel mug when going for coffee, buying in bulk, and bringing my own bags for veggies at the grocery store.

Unfortunately, my partner and I got sick (with COVID-19) during the Home Waste Audit and this had some consequences to our waste! Rapid antigen tests accounted for some surprise but unavoidable waste. For every test completed, at least 5 items entered the trash bin and every time we used a tissue these went into the garbage bin instead of the green bin. In addition, being stuck home left us little choice but to buy groceries online, which resulted in more packaging than usual. For example, we received some veggies in plastic wrapping, something we would normally avoid.

A week of recycling items, classified by material type (Photo credit: Ludovic Hermabessiere)

It is important to highlight the ways COVID-19 modifies our lives, including the challenge it presents for those aware of the environmental issue of plastic and who are trying to reduce waste at home. In spite of these challenges, we were able to change a few of our habits in the final week and the knowledge learned will help us continue to decrease our waste.

Jane: I live with my sister and we adapted some basic waste reduction habits years ago, such as bringing our own travel mugs to the coffee shop, using tote bags for groceries and using reusable produce mesh bags. Even though we reduce waste where we can, we still accumulate trash from areas including food packaging, personal-use products, and deliveries. The Home Waste Audit helped me clearly see how much waste I produce weekly and identify the areas in which I can improve. For example, when gathering with friends, I now plan to bring homemade snacks instead of buying chips and fruits in excess packaging.

Items from the landfill bin are ready to count and categorize. (Photo credit: Jane Kartasheva)

It’s very easy to end up throwing out more than necessary if you don’t know how to sort waste properly, and the TOwaste app was an amazing resource! Did you know that paper towels go into green bin but if they are soiled with chemicals – the garbage bin? This is one of the many things I learned by paying closer attention to waste sorting. I will continue to educate myself about waste management in Toronto and discover new ways to reduce my footprint.

Emily: My dog Ara and I found the Home Waste Audit to be both fun and challenging! Before moving to Toronto, we lived in Northern Yukon where we didn’t have many options when it came to refillables or bulk stores.* This process reminded me of the different options and small businesses to support in the city, like one of my favourites, Nuthouse, where you can refill food products like oatmeal and nuts in bulk. Breaking habits of online ordering, especially in the pandemic can feel very hard, so the Home Waste Audit was a great reminder to support local businesses, especially ones so near to my home!

Ara sorting our recycling. (Photo credit: Emily Chudnovsky)

I also enjoyed reading Rachel Salt’s books on the impacts of plastic and how to reduce your own plastic footprint, The Plastic Problem and Your Plastic Footprint: The Facts about Plastic Pollution and What you can Do to Reduce Your Footprint. I’m very glad to have done the Home Waste Audit, as having to consider every piece of waste I produced gave me a chance to think about different ways to make less of it! 

Great books by Rachel Salt, borrowed from the Toronto Public Library! (Photo credit: Emily Chudnovsky)

Within a short 4-week period, members of our team gained a better understanding of how our environments can have an impact on our habits. By sorting through our waste, we have learnt about the resources available – online and in our own neighbourhoods – to reduce and rethink the items we use daily. If you feel inspired to try your own Home Waste Audit, head over to this page to get started!

Compiled by Zoë Ungku Fa’iz, Materials Science undergraduate student, with submissions by U of T Trash Team members Ludovic Hermabessiere, Jane Kartasheva and Emily Chudnovsky.

*Though in Dawson we did have access to an incredible “Free Store,” an initiative from the communities’ not-for-profit recycling depot where everyone brought pre-loved items for others to enjoy. After doing a bit of research I found the instagram page, Stooping Toronto (@stooping_toronto), it’s got tons of great items to be treasured by a new home! 

Reconnecting with our urban shorelines

On a sunny September weekend, groups of community volunteers led by the U of T Trash Team gathered at ten different locations in and around Toronto for the Urban Litter Challenge. This annual cleanup is timed to coincide with the International Coastal Cleanup, and while you might not think of ocean coastlines when you think of Toronto, all drains here lead to a river and/or the Laurentian Great Lakes which eventually lead to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence River. Every location around the world is on a watershed, leading to a river, lake and/or ocean – and our Urban Litter Challenge is aimed at connecting the dots from where you live (even if it’s inland) to an aquatic ecosystem. Inland cleanups like these are not only really fun, but can help protect aquatic resources and biodiversity.

Take a look back at our cleanup with our vlog created by U of T Trash Team volunteer and Site Lead, Devajyoti Chakraborty.

By spreading out across different urban locations, our team was able to explore new neighbourhoods and help connect diverse communities to their local watershed. This led to unique conversations about shared experiences at each location. Here are just a few!

• To remove, or not to remove? At Cedarvale Ravine, volunteers had a lively discussion about whether or not to remove litter embedded in the ground. While it didn’t belong there in the first place, there was now potential to disrupt the natural environment or any newly created habitat for organisms by attempting to remove it.
• Nurdles all over! At Ward’s Island, a popular cleanup spot, plastic nurdles took the spotlight. These tiny plastic pre-production pellets are a form of microplastic and can be found in this form before they are melted down and moulded into plastic products. Unfortunately, at times, these accidentally spill into the environment from nearby plastic factories and wind up on our shorelines.
• Ever heard of cellulose acetate? A common cleanup item created new awareness for volunteers at Riverdale Park East. Cigarette butts dominate litter tallies at cleanups, however it’s not common knowledge that paper like filters contain a type of plastic known as cellulose acetate. A volunteer at this cleanup who smoked was surprised to see just how many butts there were, and that they were made from plastic. She vowed to help keep these out of the environment and tell her friends to do the same.
• What goes in which bin? Site leads at Ashbridge’s Bay Park East helped explore the difference between what goes into the trash and recycling by providing a mini tutorial for their volunteers before the cleanup, an important step to ensuring litter we find can be effectively managed!

Volunteers at Ward’s Island sift through the tiny trash for items like plastic nurdles.

Teams were also able to make some great new community connections. Our Ashbridge’s Bay cleanup welcomed a team of local Girl Guides passionate about reducing waste, and over in the west end at Sunnyside Beach, the team met up to celebrate with Roncy Reduces who had hosted a neighbouring cleanup! Over at the Toronto Music Gardens, rugby players from the U of T varsity team gathered to show their team spirit. Our volunteers also ventured out of the city to add a new cleanup in Vaughan at Maple Lion’s Park, and it was a delight meet up with community members in this new location.

It’s incredible what you can do when you work together. Across ten locations, 154 volunteers removed 16,132 different items of litter. The top items removed include cigarette butts, small plastic pieces, and food wrappers! In response to COVID-19, we also kept a tally of personal protective equipment (PPE), and our Rennie Park location found the most with 78 different items of PPE. This is particularly notable as Rennie Park volunteers also found quite a bit in 2020!

Summary of cleanup results across all ten locations of the 2021 Urban Litter Challenge

Top 10 litter items found across all ten locations of the 2021 Urban Litter Challenge

These results also included some pretty unique finds, like a euro at Trinity Bellwoods, a lost (and returned) wallet at Coronation Park, and a flatscreen TV at Riverdale Park (note: we also found a tv last year at Barbara Hall Park!).

A look at some of the unusual finds during the 20201 Urban Litter Challenge.

Community cleanups are one of the best and most accessible ways to make a positive difference in just a few hours. They are also one of our teams’ favourite experiences and ways to increase waste literacy. You can head out on your own or grab a team of friends and family to help. As we highlight through Urban Litter Challenge, removing litter from any public area will help protect our watersheds and prevent plastic and other litter from reaching our aquatic ecosystems, which for us means our beloved Great Lakes. 

Blog written by Susan Debreceni, Program Lead of Volunteer Engagement and Community Programs for the U of T Trash Team.

A Tale of Tagging Trash

Over this past summer, while you were walking along the waterfront, taking a ferry to Centre Island, or swimming at Cherry Beach you may have encountered bright orange water bottles drifting aimlessly through Toronto Harbour, but these water bottles weren’t litter – they were research! We, the U of T Trash Team, launched the Tagging Trash project in collaboration with PortsToronto, Toronto Region Conservation Authority, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, and University of Toronto Scarborough, to learn how plastic litter travels in our harbour. Throughout April to August, we released orange GPS-tracked bottles from various points across the Toronto Waterfront, Harbour, and Islands. You may be asking, “Why? Isn’t this making plastic pollution worse?” The answer is, we are actually working towards solving our plastic problem. Plastic pollution in our waters causes harm to wildlife and tarnishes the beauty of our lake. To address this problem we first need to understand where litter comes from, where it travels, and how long it takes for litter to reach its final destination. Through our research, we were able to collect valuable data that reveals the way floating plastic litter travels in our harbour and where we need to place cleanup technologies like Seabins!

So, HOW did we do this?

Step 1: Designing the tracker bottles

Why water bottles? Plastic bottles are a common litter item found along shorelines. They are also large and buoyant, which makes them the perfect housing for our Globalstar IoT Satellite Trackers. We also needed to ensure that our GPS trackers were always facing the sky to provide us with the most accurate GPS coordinates – and these bottles were an ideal shape for adding the necessary weight to act as ballast and keep the trackers facing skyward.

To try to prevent people from mistaking our bottles as trash (more on this below), we posted signs about our project and labelled each bottle with clear messaging that they were for research with a QR code linked to our website. We also publicized our Tagging Trash project through social media and the local news.

Step 2: Selecting deployment locations

To get realistic information regarding how litter moves in the harbour, we released bottles from areas that are likely sources of plastic litter based on Visual Audits conducted in the summer of 2020, visitor hotspots, and scientific studies of water movement within the harbour. Overall, we picked 13 locations, ranging from Bathurst Quay, Keating Channel, the tip of Tommy Thompson Park, and the Toronto Islands.

The Tagging Trash initial (yellow) and final (magenta) positions in Toronto Harbour (Google Earth 7.3.4.8248 (2021) Toronto Harbour, 43°38’20”N, 79°22’20”W).

Step 3: Tracking where the bottles went

After observing how the bottles traveled over a period of 4 months, we learned that litter gets into the nooks and crannies of our waterfront. Anywhere we found our GPS-tracked bottles, there were hundreds of pieces of litter. Our bottles also revealed some really interesting movement patterns.

Having a nice view depends on where you look, eh? Bottle floating in and out of the Pirates life dock at Bathurst Quay.

Trendy Trackers

Most of our bottles quickly travelled through Toronto Harbour for about one kilometer before becoming trapped or stranded on shore within a day of being deployed. These bottles, which have similar trends in travel, were typically recovered from sheltered areas like slips, bays, and under piers, docks, and boardwalks. This information lets us and policy makers know that most of the trash in the harbour likely comes from Toronto. Litter which makes its way into the middle of the harbour tends to move with the prevailing winds toward the Keating Channel and the shipping channel. This is concerning because we suspect that plastics can be hit by boats and broken into smaller pieces of plastics, expediting the formation of microplastics. More trash capture devices and local trash cans with lids will reduce the litter in Toronto Harbour and prevent the formation of microplastics.

Above is a wind rose which shows the directions from which wind travels in Toronto Harbour. The longer bars indicate that winds blow more often while the colour corresponds to wind speeds. For the summer of 2021, the prevailing winds blew from the west/west-southwest nearly 25% of the time and there were several storms that brought in strong winds from the east.The observed westerly prevailing winds help keep litter in Toronto Harbour.

Bottles became trapped under city infrastructure or stranded onshore once they reached areas sheltered from the wind. Occasionally, large waves from storms would strand bottles on land and prevent them from travelling within the harbour. Some bottles, however, were a little more adventurous.

Escape artists

While most of our bottles stayed in the harbour, the ones that escaped the harbour left through the Western Gap more often than the Eastern Gap, and would soon beach. To test if trash from Toronto’s popular beaches could travel farther into Lake Ontario, bottle “John Tory”, from deployment 3, was deployed from the southern end of Center Island. During its 300 km journey, it spiraled its way to Ajax. The spiraling path demonstrates the Coriolis effect from Earth’s rotation. A more adventurous bottle, Onitariio, was released from the tip of Tommy Thompson Park to test if litter east of the harbour is likely to travel into the harbour. Remarkably, this bottle  travelled across Lake Ontario for 300 km until its batteries ran out of charge near Rochester, NY.

Bottle “Onitariio” (yellow) from our April test-deployment was released from Tommy Thompson Park and had travelled past Rochester, New York. Bottle “John Tory” (pink) from our third deployment had travelled from Center Island and beached in Ajax.

Couch potatoes

Some bottles weren’t big on travelling and were retrieved only a few dozen meters from their deployment locations. They became stuck under the boardwalks near Harbour Square Park West and were, unfortunately, not reachable by powerboat; we had to retrieve these trackers by kayak! While retrieving them, we found hundreds of pieces of litter from clothing, boating gear, food containers, and many microplastics. These hard to reach areas could use passive trash capture devices (like Seabins) to make litter collection more feasible.

Surprises

We observed several of our bottles travelling up into the Keating channel, and past the floating boom at the mouth of the Don River, which had been installed to prevent trash from flowing down the Don River and into Toronto Harbour. This movement surprised us because we didn’t expect our bottles to travel against the water current, but we later discovered that the winds were strong enough to push our bottles upstream. This information suggests the need to improve the effectiveness of “leaky” booms.

Other bottles that surprised us were those that ended up in garbage cans, despite our outreach attempts. This made for some interesting fieldwork; we found ourselves digging through garbage cans like raccoons when searching for our bottles. Although losing trackers to the garbage was frustrating at times, it showed that Torontonians care about the environment and feel a responsibility to keep their waters clean and plastic-free. We also saw, in real-time, the pathway our litter takes once thrown away – it heads to our city landfill located in London, Ontario!

We rescued some of our tracker bottles from the trash, can you spot one in this trash bin?

Step 4: Analyzing our findings

Overall, we had a ton of fun and learned a lot about how litter moves within our waterfront. We found that most of our litter likely stays in our own backyard. With the exception of a few sneaky bottles, most quickly accumulated in nearby sheltered slips, piers and embayments. Patricia Semcesen continues to work on this project and analyze our data which she will use to develop a hydrodynamic model that will help understand and predict the transport of plastic litter in Toronto Harbour.

Once the hydrodynamic model is developed, its results will inform where future trash captures devices should be placed to prevent litter from escaping into Lake Ontario. This information will also help in improving waste-management infrastructure, and encourage  environmentally-friendly initiatives to reduce plastic litter locally, like bring-your-own reusable container and cutlery discounts. It can also tell us where regular cleanups should be organized to pick up trash from hard to reach places (like beneath boardwalks and docks) where trash capture devices can’t be placed. Along with collecting valuable data, we also found the Tagging Trash project a great tool for outreach and communication surrounding waste literacy both locally and globally. We hope to inspire groups across the world to initiate their own projects to better understand the fate of plastics in their waterways.

Written by Cassandra Sherlock (top), Former Community Outreach and Research Specialist at the U of T Trash Team, and Patricia Semcesen (bottom), Environmental Science PhD student at the University of Toronto, Scarborough.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank everyone who assisted in making this project a success which includes our U of T Trash Team volunteers: Lisa Erdle, Brendan Carberry, Emily Darling, Madeline Milne, Ludovic Hermabessiere, Rachel Giles, Hayley McIlwraith, Su’aad Juman-Yassin, and Ariba Afaq, from GlobalStar Martin Jefferson, from TRCA, Laura Salazar, Matthew Fraschetti, Kirstin Pautler, Samuel Burr, Mark Wilush, Connor Hill, Brynn Coey, Brian Graham and Angela Wallace, from PortsToronto, Micheal David, Chris Sawicki and Jessica Pellerin, from MECP Bogdan Hlevca, from U of T, Matthew Wells, Chelsea Rochman, Rafaela F. Gutierrez and Susan Debreceni. We’d also like to thank our funders: Environment and Climate Change Canada and National Geographic.

Ring in the New Year with LESS WASTE

With the new year approaching, there is an opportunity for setting new personal goals and of course – New Year’s Resolutions!

This year rather than vowing to exercise more, save money, or maintain a healthier diet, why not try reducing your household waste and increasing your waste literacy?

At the U of T Trash Team these goals are our mission, and this New Year’s we want to help you make positive changes your waste habits. How? Through our Home Waste Audit!

During the Summer of 2020, we ran a Home Waste Audit as part of Plastic Free July.  This audit was so successful that we decided to bring it back for New Years. So, if you’re looking to reduce your household waste in 2020  – join us!

What can you expect? The Home Waste Audit will run over the course of four weeks, from Wednesday January 13 – Tuesday February 9, with an introductory webinar on Tuesday January 12 (and results Tuesday February 23). Throughout, we will be there providing all the tools you need to learn more about your local recycling guidelines, ways to reduce your landfill waste, and of course, ways to reduce your plastic waste.

Register here to join us in january

See below for a summary of results from July and examples of weekly waste. Participants spanned 2 countries, 4 provinces/states, and 8 cities.

Increasing our waste literacy is empowering. It enables us to make smart choices about the materials we buy, how we use these materials, and what we do with them once we when they reach end-of-life. Combined, these smart choices reduce waste and protect our environment.

Together let’s make 2021 a better year, with a common goal to reduce excess waste one item at a time, one household at a time. Start the year off right, with us, building habits that can last for many years to come.

If you have any questions about the Home Waste Audit or how to take part, please contact us at UofTTrashTeam@gmail.com. We hope to see you soon!

Written by Chelsea Rochman; Assistant Professor at University of Toronto, co-founder of the U of T Trash Team, and Hannah De Frond, Research Assistant in the Rochman Lab and member of the U of T Trash Team.

Coming Together While Staying Apart: The 2020 Urban Litter Challenge

Cleanups are one of the U of T Trash Team’s favourite ways of connecting with the community AND fighting plastic pollution. Months of planning, research, and outreach culminate into an energizing day of meeting Toronto’s enthusiastic volunteers while protecting our beautiful watersheds.  We live for snagging that 10,000^th cigarette butt, removing a nefarious water bottle from the brink of floating in a river, or finally putting a coffee cup in its rightful place (hint: not the recycling bin!).

Last year we hosted our inaugural Urban Litter Challenge (ULC). Why an “Urban” litter challenge? Well, everything upstream connects to Lake Ontario via storm drains, rivers, streams, and creeks in what’s called a watershed. Keeping our lake clean means keeping our inland neighbourhoods and urban centres clean! Our first event was an incredible celebration and a day we’ll always remember, so you can imagine our initial disappointment when we realized that for this year’s International Coastal Cleanup, we wouldn’t be able to clean with our full volunteer team together in one location.

But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have volunteers at all – or a big impact.

Struck by COVID-19 restrictions, we rebounded fast. Coupled with new safety measures, our team revamped the event as a socially distanced cleanup extravaganza. One large cleanup near campus became eleven smaller cleanups across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as our site leaders took the trash battle straight to their own neighbourhoods.

What did we find?

By spreading out, we were able to cover over 19 km and reach multiple watersheds with double the number of volunteers (from 80 volunteers to 173)! That also meant more than double the trash was collected (51 kg, 25,595 litter items). We found litter of all types too – 13,000 cigarette butts across all parks, a lone rubber duck at Trinity Bellwoods, a TV at Barbara Hall Park, and even a barbecue at Summerlea! At Christie Pits, Jessica Pellerin (Media Relations and Public Affairs Specialist with PortsToronto) and her partner were shocked to find high numbers of cigarette butts within two hours of cleaning litter.

Small-scale litter was abundant too and at the end of the day our 11 locations cleaned up a total of 4,375 small plastic pieces (plastic less than 2.5cm). Jessica shared that it was an eye-opening experience to see how easily the microplastics, and items like cigarette butts, could be carried into storm drains throughout the watershed.

But if you ask any Trash Team volunteer what their best find of the day was, they’ll tell you the same thing: Community.

Trash Team volunteers were able to lead cleanups in their local parks and share their passion for healthy watersheds with their neighbours. After a challenging year of cancelled travelled plans, working from home, and extensive virtual interactions, local parks have become something of a haven for communities. In a June 2020 survey from Park People, almost three-quarters (70%) of Canadians said their appreciation for parks and green spaces increased during COVID-19.

Volunteers at Rennie Park certainly felt that way, sharing that they felt a newfound sense of importance and responsibility to take care of their park because it’s where their kids play and their families come together. Our leads certainly noticed more multi-generational families and groups of friends this year, helping to clean the parks they’d relied on all summer! Indeed, our Christie Pits’ leaders noted a multitude of small events in the park, ranging from picnics, to dog-walking groups, ballroom dance classes and religious gatherings. It was clear that being stewards of our green spaces is important for both preventing litter from entering our waterbodies and also maintaining precious community space.

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This ULC was an important way to recognize the increased impact we’ve been having on our green spaces, too. A couple at Coronation Park mentioned they usually bike through the park, and don’t give too much thought to the masks, gloves, cigarette butts, and microplastics lining the sidewalks and picnic areas. Joining our cleanup helped them slow down and recognize how abundant pollution is. Chris Sawicki (Vice President of Infrastructure, Planning, and Environment with PortsToronto) echoed those sentiments.

“My wife Annemarie and I, and our dog Odie, helped to clean up Rennie park in Toronto’s west end. At first glance, the park seemed quite clean; however, after a couple of hours of work we accumulated a large amount of litter from cigarette butts to discarded face masks largely in and around the parking lot. What a great way to enjoy a beautiful day and do our small part for the environment”.

Chris Sawicki, Vice President of Infrastructure, Planning, and Environment with PortsToronto

This year’s ULC was also a great way to see familiar faces again. Local MP Julie Dabrusin swung by to clean Monarch Park with her Trash Team t-shirt, and TV’s eco-adventurers The Water Brothers (Alex and Tyler Mifflin) came out to support two of our sites! Mike David (Project Manager with PortsToronto) joined us too as a co-lead, and said he enjoyed the opportunity to help clean his local park while raising awareness about litter.

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The pivot from one large cleanup to many small cleanups definitely had perks. We were able to better connect with our participants. At Trinity Bellwoods, we met one volunteer interested in learning more about policies around plastic, while another had come to connect with like-minded individuals for a start-up she was creating around sustainable products. Christie Pits’ youngest cleaner Anya was thrilled to be collecting data that would contribute to a national database of litter, and even declared she is inspired to become a scientist when she grows up!

Overall, it was a wonderful day. Cleaning along the likes of Greta Thunberg, the Royal Family, and many others across the world during International Coastal Cleanup Month was inspiring and fulfilling. We’re excited to see everyone at our next cleanup, as we continue to shift perceptions on the abundance of trash in the environment and help develop a responsibility to protect the watersheds of our only home – Earth.

Interested in hosting your own socially distanced neighbourhood cleanup? List your event with the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, anywhere in Canada, all types of shorelines (even watersheds).

Blog written by Natasha Djuric, a proud 4th year Ecology & Evolutionary Biology undergraduate and U of T Trash Team volunteer.

This cleanup was undertaken with the financial support of Environment and Climate Change Canada, PortsToronto, National Geographic Society and Ocean Conservancy.

Putting Seabins on Toronto’s Waterfront – Capturing Litter and People’s Imagination

Have you ever noticed litter in or near the water and wondered if there was something more you could to do raise awareness of the problem while at the same time implementing a solution to tackle the challenge? This curiosity was what brought Chelsea Rochman and Susan Debreceni together in a partnership to tackle a global problem. It was just more than two years ago when Chelsea and Susan were inspired by the famous Mr. Trash Wheel in Baltimore and met up with a shared goal to bring a similar wheel to Toronto. Without a clue about how to do this, they began their journey.

Chelsea, Susan and Rafaela in Baltimore, Maryland during a visit with Mr. Trash Wheel and his inventors (December 2018).

At the time, Susan was working for Ocean Wise helping lead the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and Chelsea was starting her career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Together, they knew that having a Trash Wheel in Toronto would capture the public’s attention and become an incredible centrepiece for an education and outreach program helping increase waste literacy in the local community and beyond.

To get started, they reached out to the inventors of Mr. Trash Wheel in Baltimore as well as PortsToronto, who own and manage several areas of Toronto’s waterfront. Immediately upon reaching out, both groups responded to learn more. Shortly afterwards, Chelsea and Susan were joined by Dr. Rafaela Gutierrez, an expert in social science and waste management. These conversations quickly turned into a feasibility study to see if Toronto was a good location for a Trash Wheel. Quickly, Susan, Chelsea and Rafaela gathered a team of 25 undergraduate and graduate students who all shared the same passion for increasing waste literacy.  At the time, it was looking like the Don River would be the ideal location for such a device, but ultimately through the results of this study and many, many, many meetings and phone calls with a growing list of stakeholders, the team was struck with the realization that a Trash Wheel was not the best waste solution for Toronto at that moment in time.

Instead of calling it quits and throwing in the towel, they continued to brainstorm with PortsToronto about other waste capture options, including a Roomba like swimming vacuum, capture devices at the end of storm drains, litter skimming vessels and Seabins. Soon after, PortsToronto’s Sustainability Committee began an active discussion about Seabins and connected with the Seabin Project to learn more. Then, in the summer of 2019, two bins were installed in the Outer Harbour Marina.

An assortment of plastics were captured from Seabins in the Outer Harbour Marina.

It was only a matter of days into the initial Seabin trial when the bins were visited by dozens of curious visitors, generated several media interviews and removed 2000+ pieces of plastic from the marina. Everyone was thrilled and as a result we were off to the races and our Trash Wheel at the mouth of the Don River was turning into a plan for more Seabins along the Toronto waterfront.

In the early weeks of October, two additional Seabins were installed in Toronto’s Inner Harbour at Pier 6. On a cold and windy morning a group of local NGOs, the Ontario Minister of the Environment, the local Member of Provincial Parliament, and a Councillor of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation were brought together to celebrate the new bins. In front of the local group, the bins were introduced and demonstrated, and preliminary litter data from phase 1 was shared, all while enjoying hot coffee (in reusable mugs) and Beaver Tails (a famous and delicious Canadian pastry!).

One of the new Seabins at Pier 6 in the Toronto Harbour.

This day was incredibly special and meaningful. It was not only a celebration of the new Seabins, it was also a celebration of how far our team had come and where we were headed. Over the last two years, our hard work and perseverance created a local community group –  the U of T Trash Team – a dedicated and passionate team that includes undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs and dedicated staff. The U of T Trash Team’s mission is to increase waste literacy in our community and reduce plastic in our ecosystems.

As a group, the team has developed new waste-literacy school programming, scheduled to begin this year at Grade 5 classrooms across the Greater Toronto Area. The team also runs community outreach programming – including two annual cleanups per year in collaboration with Toronto Region Conservation Authority and Ocean Conservancy. Additionally, the team focuses on solutions-based research – including a pilot project installing lint traps in 100 homes in a small community to divert microfibers from Lake Huron, and working with industry to achieve zero pellet loss to Lake Ontario. And finally, the U of T Trash Team is a proud partner with PortsToronto on the Seabin pilot to “litter”-ally trap trash on its way out to Lake Ontario, preventing it from contaminating our waterways, our fish and our local drinking water.

Written by Chelsea Rochman; Assistant Professor at University of Toronto, co-founder of the U of T Trash Team, and Scientific Advisor to the Ocean Conservancy & Susan Debreceni; Outreach Manager and co-founder of the U of T Trash Team

Cleaning up our Hidden Shorelines

As you wander around the neighbourhoods of downtown Toronto it’s likely that the shores of Lake Ontario are the furthest thing from your mind, but the shoreline is closer than you think. That’s because we all live in a watershed, where creeks, streams and rivers lead to oceans and lakes. Here at the University of Toronto, a downtown and inland location, we are connected to Lake Ontario via storm drains, so it was the perfect location to host an International Coastal Cleanup and connect our local community to our local watershed. We dubbed it the “Urban Litter Challenge”.

More than just a typical cleanup
The morning started on campus at Hart House Circle, where a team of eager Trash Team volunteers gathered to set up for the day and greet student and community volunteers before grouping them into small teams. These teams were then encouraged to keep a record of what they found by recording their findings on data cards as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. These findings are important citizen science contributions that can be used to inform best practices for future waste management.

Data cards kept track of what litter items volunteer teams collected.

We were also joined by friends and collaborators to set the tone for the big day. Bear Standing Tall opened the cleanup with an opening prayer, local City Councillor Mike Layton sent words of support for our team to share, and Geoff Wilson (CEO of PortsToronto) spoke about the importance of protecting Lake Ontario, including some exciting updates on their plans to install Seabins in the waterfront.  And with these welcoming words, our teams were sent off to clean!

What did we find?
Based on past cleanup experiences, we predicted some classic repeat offenders would top the list once again, and as it turns out our predictions were correct. Cigarette butts were easily the number one item found (>7,000!!), followed by miscellaneous scraps of paper, small plastic pieces, food wrappers and plastic bags. Honourable mentions included bottle caps, miscellaneous packaging materials, various personal hygiene items and coffee cups. One of the most unpredictable things about the cleanup was guessing how many people would show up, and we were thrilled with a turnout of 80 volunteers! Together, they removed more than 50 kg of trash from our local watershed, filling nearly 50 bags of garbage and recycling!

What made the day most memorable?
It’s always tricky to pinpoint the most memorable part of a day where nearly every moment was incredible, but there were definitely a few standout moments to share. Volunteer teams were encouraged to come up with creative names for their group and they sure did not disappoint, including such creations as the Trash Pandaz, Cigarette Butties, Alvin and the (crumpled) Chip Bags and Dumpster Defenders. Another great moment that happened throughout the day was when passersby expressed their thanks to our volunteers for keeping the neighbourhood clean. All in all, it’s safe to say that the most memorable part of the day for everyone was seeing just how big of a difference they could make in such a short timeframe. 

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We’re already counting the days until next year’s International Coastal Cleanup event, but there is no reason to wait 365 days to make a difference. Every day we wander our watersheds so this year we challenge you to clean a piece of your watershed everyday by removing one item of litter from a roadside, park or local creek. If someone asks you what you are up to, tell them you are cleaning the oceans and lakes, because no matter where we are, we are always in a watershed.

If you want to stay up to date on all things Trash Team, follow us here. See you at the next cleanup!

Blog written by Susan Debreceni, Outreach Manager and co-founder of the U of T Trash Team and Chelsea Rochman, Assistant Professor at University of Toronto, co-founder of the U of T Trash Team, and Scientific Advisor to the Ocean Conservancy.

This project was undertaken with the financial support of Environment and Climate Change Canada and Ocean Conservancy.

 

What Litter is Entering Toronto’s Outer Harbour Marina?

This past August, PortsToronto installed two Seabins at Toronto’s Outer Harbour Marina and we visited them to count the litter they captured. This was done to help measure their effectiveness and better understand what litter is reaching our Great Lakes. Resembling underwater garbage cans, Seabins help clean the harbour by pumping water through a catch bag. This action removes, along with other contaminants, plastic litter greater than 2mm in length.

Removing Seabin from harbour.

Although it was our first-time quantifying litter from Seabins, it wasn’t our first time counting and classifying trash. We’ve spent many hours over the past few years searching for plastic in an array of environmental samples. These experiences have taught us a lot, but one of the biggest takeaways is that plastic pollution is ubiquitous. With this in mind, we were prepared to spend the entire day counting; however, when we arrived at the marina, we were pleasantly surprised. Since we’ve both participated in community cleanups before, we expected to find large amounts of litter (as this was the trend for many cleanups in urban areas); however, upon arrival our presumption quickly changed. The water was clear and the docks were tidy… surely the Seabins wouldn’t have much to catch then, right?

Size definitions for ‘big’ and ‘little’ plastics: big plastics were’ bigger than or equal to the size of a nickel’ and little plastics were ‘’between the size of a nickel- and nurdle’ (represented by orange arrow).

Turns out appearances can be deceiving. Half a day later, we’d only finished the easy part: removing plastics larger than a nickel (what we classified as “big plastics”). It would take days to count all the “little plastics” too (those smaller than a nickel but equal to or bigger than a nurdle, small pre-production pellets used in the production of plastic products). Because of this, we decided to subsample and extrapolate the results. After another half day and some quick calculations, the results were in: nearly 2000 pieces of plastic between the two bins. Amazingly, it had all accumulated in less than 24 hours.

Breakdown of how litter was sorted and main results.

Much of this experience was surprising, from finding almost 2000 plastics in a seemingly clean environment to having a passersby ask us whether or not we’d found gold. (The answer, unfortunately, is still no). Overall, it was a rewarding learning experience, and a great chance to share our work with those at the marina. It was also a wonderful opportunity to learn more about how to mitigate plastic pollution – including microplastics. Together with other waste management systems, we feel Seabins are an effective form of technology to assist in protecting our bodies of water and are excited to see more innovative technology in the future.

Preliminary results indicated a high amount of plastic fragments.

Written by Annissa Ho and Lara Werbowski, two HBSc students at U of T who are members of the Rochman Lab and U of T Trash Team.

 

How I spent my summer Vacation

Summer is over and school is officially back in session, which means students are returning to the classroom and swapping stories about all the fun they got up to over the summer season. Tales of trips to the beach, vacations to exotic locations and new adventures in fine dining– so many stories to share! For the U of T Trash Team, we spent our summer vacation a bit differently. From exotic trips to study litter in Vietnam, many hours in the lab analyzing microplastic samples, to a variety of field work and outreach activities, we sure had quite the memorable summer. This is just a sample of what some of our team got up to.

Nick Tsui: Nick had the opportunity to wade (quite literally) into field work and meet with many groups (including industry, government, and academic stakeholders). His most memorable experience? Getting caught in 60mm+ rainfall doing fieldwork (without a raincoat!).

Many new friends were made during Rachel’s time in Vietnam

Rachel Giles: Rachel joined Chelsea on a unique opportunity to visit Northern Vietnam and study litter and its impacts on mangroves in Vietnam’s Xuan Thuy National Park. There were many highlights on the trip, which included meeting lots of new friends, trying new and interesting local foods, and seeing mudskippers for the first time!

Jan Bikker: Jan spent her summer in the ABEL lab at McMaster as part of a collaborative study investigating the effects of microplastic exposure on fish behaviour. When not in the lab, she also got to help with fieldwork for two projects- one monitoring the population of the invasive round goby in Hamilton Harbour and the other looking at changes in the fish and zooplankton communities on a gradient away from wastewater treatment plants.

Lisa Erdle: Lisa spent time on Georgian Bay to investigate the effectiveness of washing machines filters at capturing microfibers. Nearly 100 volunteers in Parry Sound installed washing machine filters in their homes as part of a pilot program with U of T and Georgian Bay Forever.

Washing machine with filter attached

Lisa carefully examines her data in Parry Sound

Arielle Earn and Ludovic Hermabessiere: Arielle and Ludovic spent a day in the Rouge Valley during the 2019 Eco Exploration Event talking to many new people about microplastics. They were able to explore some of the beautiful conservation land and even spent time doing a small cleanup of the area, finding a straw, a coffee cup and many fragments of plastic surrounding the nearby stream. They also got to hear many stories from the people they talked to – including one about the folklore surrounding Bigfoot’s existence in Rouge Valley!

Alice (Xia) Zhu: Alice spent her summer analyzing data on microplastics from San Francisco Bay. Many different shapes and polymer types of microplastics were found in sediment, fish, surface water, stormwater, and wastewater from San Francisco Bay and Alice analyzed patterns in their characteristics to help determine the sources of microplastics to The Bay. She had a great time learning new ecological statistics and R functions. Fun fact: over 300 samples were analyzed in total, including 152 fish!

Ludovic Hermabessiere: Ludovic recently moved here from France and spent his first few months in Canada working at the Rochman lab with Raman spectroscopy. His work will help to analyze and identify potential plastic particles faster. Ludovic is also preparing the arrival of a new equipment to identify smaller plastic particles.

Kennedy and Hayley enjoyed the field station life while spending time in the Experimental Lakes Area in Northwestern Ontario.

Kennedy Bucci and Hayley McIlwraith: This summer, Kennedy and Hayley left the traditional lab for a natural laboratory at the Experimental Lakes Area in Northwestern Ontario. They collected surface water, sediment, and air samples to look for microplastics in remote boreal lakes. They enjoyed life at the field station, canoeing and portaging to their sampling sites, and returning to camp in the evening for swimming, bonfires, and delicious meals prepared by the camp chefs.

Bonnie Hamilton: Bonnie spent a portion of her summer in the Canadian High Arctic to evaluate contaminant concentrations in Arctic char—a cold adapted Salmonid. This year, her trip was spent off-grid on the tundra at the mouth of the Lachlan River 150km west of Cambridge Bay. Some of the trip highlights included working with collaborators at DFO, UBC and the Arctic Research Foundation, Arctic wolf and grizzly sightings and sampling these beautiful fish!

Bonnie (and arctic char), during her time in the Canadian High Arctic.

Annissa Ho and Lara Werbowksi: Lara and Annissa got out of the lab and spent a day at the Outer Harbour Marina counting and categorizing trash collected by Seabins. Despite the smell, the activity attracted some passers-by and allowed Lara and Annissa to share their new knowledge of the trash in the marina! Overall, it was a great experience and the results were fascinating. Their favourite finding? One bin captured more than 1000 pieces of plastic in less than 24 hours!

Seabin in action

Annissa sorts through the collected debris

Many small fragments were found and counted

We can’t wait to see what our Trash Team gets up to this fall and winter season, likely it will be filled with more tales of field work, outreach events, and travels to see plastic pollution abroad.

Written by Susan Debreceni, Outreach Assistant for the U of T Trash Team.