What do you find when you clean up the river bank? Well, you find a lot of garbage – and most of it is plastic.
Over 25 people joined in a river bank clean-up organized by Plastic Smart Saskatoon* on May 26.
The volunteers collected over 700 pieces of trash and 85% of it was plastic. 22% of the plastic collected was Styrofoam chunks; 21% was food wrappers; 10% was cups and cutlery; and 12% was bags.
* Plastic Smart Saskatoon received an EcoFriendly Action Grant in April 2013.
Did you know?
Approximately 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every year. That’s more than 1,200 bags per US resident, per year.
Los Angeles is on the verge of becoming the biggest city in the United States to ban single-use plastic bags.
Over 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds die each year from ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic.
A 19-year-old student has developed plans for a tool that could remove over 7 million tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans.