Ontario Chapter Wins on Plastic Ban, Holds Land and Water Cleanup
We held our first ever joint water and land cleanup in Toronto this past August! Members of the community gathered together at Tommy Thompson Park as part of a joint event with various groups, both on land and on water (from their kayaks). Together with 67 volunteers and multiple group representatives, we managed to collect 180 cubic feet of trash, mainly along the shore, in only 2 hours. The event was followed by a meet and greet and free BBQ.
In addition, we celebrated our 3rd annual Plastics Free July! Thank you to everyone who joined us in the challenge: whether you had a plastic free picnic, joined us for the Twitterstorm, hosted a clean up in your community or made some changes to plastic use in your household — we appreciate your hard work!
To kick off the summer, after years of fighting, we saw the Federal Government finally pass the ban on six single-use plastic items. This included the ban on manufacturing these items for export, which wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our members who joined us in letter writing, signing petitions and social media campaigning.
This is a victory won by our members and an important step forward for Canada.
We know avoiding plastic is no easy task. In many instances it’s next to impossible. The challenge is about limiting waste when and where you can and pushing for action from the government & policy makers that supports the reduction of waste, a circular economy and the protection of our environment.
We now continue the fight to expand this ban to more items — and faster.