Lake Ontario shoreline cleanup this weekend

The shoreline of Lake Ontario will be cleaner after this weekend.

Volunteers armed with garden gloves and canvas totes, will clean up litter swept ashore in two Niagara waterfront parks through an initiative called Love Your Lake.

The two public cleanups — at Lakeside Park in St. Catharines and Grimsby Beach in Grimsby — are part of 100 waterfront cleanups that will happen over three months in lakeside communities across Ontario, from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Kingston, said Rochelle Archibald, founder of A Greener Future, the not-for-profit organization co-ordinating the events.

Most of the cleanups are private, either done by Archibald and her team, or by groups such as the Girl Guides or environmentally-conscious businesses.

There are about 20 public cleanups that people sign up to attend, she said.

People bring garden gloves, and are given canvas totes to collect litter. The trash is dumped into a central pile where more volunteers sort through it. Items such as cigarette butts, plastics (think water bottles and unidentifiable pieces), cans and beer bottles will be recycled. The rest, is garbage, she said.

It ends up on the beaches not so much by people who litter, but it’s blown into ditches and sewers. “Eventually, it all ends up in the water system,” she said.

Volunteers typically remain on shore. In some communities, paddle boarders help collect litter in the water, she said.

Last year, the program resulted in more than 75,000 pieces of litter being collected, including cigarette butts, food wrappers and water bottles, to the more unusual items such as clothing, sports equipment, pill bottles and syringes.

She hopes the impact it makes in the community goes beyond the actual garbage collected.

“We create too much garbage to begin with,” she said. “We need to be more conscious of our waste.

“If participants use their voices to make change, people will start to understand what we’re doing is not working.

“They will see the bags and bags of garage we’re pulling out of the lake.”

The cleanup at Lakeside Park in St. Catharines runs on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. The cleanup at Grimsby Beach, happens on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

People can register for a cleanup in their area by visiting www. agreenerfuture.ca/love-yourlake/2017-registration.