A group of Carleton students met Sept. 28 to collect litter along the campus stretch of the Rideau River. Seventeen volunteers came out to the third annual clean-up organized by the Science Student Success Centre (SSSC).
“We thought this event would be a good opportunity for students to interact with one another as well as to help the environment,” said Lily Visanuvimol, SSSC Program Coordinator.
Beginning as a small movement in Vancouver in 1994, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is now a national program involving tens of thousands of Canadians every year. It is now one of the largest environmental events in Canada and the third largest cleanup in the world, according to a press release.
Although the event is celebrated globally on Sept. 20, wet weather caused the Carleton event to be rescheduled.
Visanuvimol said the change in date did not discourage involvement.
“These students actually do care about the campus and they want to make sure it stays nice and beautiful every day of the year,” she said.
Residence fellow for the “eco community” in residence, Juliana Dapula, encouraged her floor to take part in the event.
“I thought it was super important to bring my students to give back to the environment,” she says. “I want them to see how litter is so easy to do but not so easy to pick up.”
Carleton volunteers collected 14 bags of litter in total. A large percentage of the debris originated from single-use food and beverage items along with smoking-related litter.
The most unusual items the group stumbled upon included a screwdriver, broken glasses, prescription drugs, and Tommy Hilfiger boxers.
A few students also worked on removing black swallow wort, an invasive plant species growing along the shoreline that chokes out native species.
“It is hard this time of year because the seed pods are already exploding,” said Jenny Andrews, a first-year environmental science student.
Shoreline litter is not only unattractive to look at, but it also has the potential of contaminating waterways with damaging chemicals, and harming wildlife by accidental consumption or entanglement, according to the clean up organization’s website.
“We have to get people to clean up after themselves,” says Visanuvimol. “That is probably the biggest challenge that we face.”
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