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Learn about the cool initiatives the U of T Trash Team is leading at the Toronto waterfront this summer helping to make our neighbourhood more beautiful and sustainable!
Ditching Disposables
Mission: Focus on reducing single-use plastic foodware
This summer, the U of T Trash Team is conducting research with the Toronto Environmental Alliance to inform policies about single-use foodware. They will visit and invite food service businesses to complete a quick survey to understand businesses’ perceptions of single-use foodware. They also aim to understand how businesses will be affected by the federal ban on single-use plastic items and what local businesses need to be successful as we make a transition to more sustainable alternatives.
Website: uofttrashteam.ca/singleusefoodware/
Kicking Plastic’s Butt
Mission: Focus on preventing littered cigarette butts
Cigarette butts are plastic pollution. In fact, they are the #1 plastic pollution item we find littered in our local waterways. If you wouldn’t litter a plastic bottle, why litter a cigarette butt? This summer, the U of T Trash Team is running an educational campaign at increase literacy around cigarette butt pollution to reduce the amount of littered butts on our waterfront.
Website: uofttrashteam.ca/cigarettebutts/
Fighting Floatables – Trapping Trash
Mission: To trap and capture plastic litter, divert it from Lake Ontario, and inform upstream solutions with data from quantification and characterization.
As part of the Toronto Inner Harbour Floatables Strategy, we use technology to trap trash and divert it from Lake Ontario.
LittaTraps: What’s that beneath your feet?! This summer, with the City of Toronto and TRCA, we deployed 10 LittaTraps in storm drains along Queens Quay from Dan Leckie to York St. These traps collect litter in stormwater that would otherwise run off the streets and go straight into Lake Ontario.
Seabins: We quantify and characterize the litter diverted by the fleet of Seabins operated by PortsToronto. These floating garbage cans collect litter from our harbour, diverting it from Lake Ontario. The data we collect informs upstream solutions, helping prevent litter from entering the lake in the first place! The Seabins are funded in partnership with the WBIA & the City of Toronto BIA Office Innovation Grant! 💡
Website: uofttrashteam.ca/trappingtrash/
