On Saturday, June 18th, 2022, our team at One Piece a Day had the honour of joining The Wasteland Plan for their 3rd annual #Paddle4Plastics cleanup!
The Wasteland Plan (TWP) Foundation is a fellow non-profit organization, that shares our passion for cleaning up our planet. Its mission is to educate communities about being waste-conscious and encourage them to build a commitment to respecting and restoring our world. They have hosted clean-ups across 11 countries, and continue to grow their community worldwide.
One of these events is called #Paddle4Plastics, an event that focuses on cleaning up our waterways. For the second year in a row, the OPAD was able to attend, and we brought along our app!
This year’s event was held at Humber River, where a day full of activities was scheduled for all the folks who signed up.
The day started out with a nice healthy breakfast, followed by an introduction to TWP along with the other organizations that were in attendance. Then, we got settled into our clear, bottomless kayaks. Each team was provided with a litter-picking clean-up kit, so that while kayaking whenever we saw a piece of litter, we could collect it and bring it back with us.
We kayaked and paddled for a couple of hours, cleaning up as we went. Then, at around 2 pm, we reconvened at the mainland to drop off the collected litter. Before doing our final waste weigh-in, everyone took a bit of a break and was given a delicious zero-waste, vegan lunch!
After 4 hours of kayaking and picking up litter, the total amount of waste collected by the entire crew that day was 792 pounds! It was unbelievable!
We found the strangest things, stuff you would never imagine could end up in a river: car tires, shopping carts, office chairs, a car muffler, a desk and a table.
On top of that, we collected bags full of plastic wraps, juice and water bottles, soda cans, plastic cutlery and LOTS of styrofoam. And that’s what we found in the section of the covered river! Can you imagine what else we could have collected if we covered the whole thing?!
We love coming out to this event because every experience has been eye-opening. Niki and Savannah of The Wasteland Plan emphasize building a connection between humans and nature. It allows us to gain a better understanding of what we have to do to take care of ourselves and our home. Our day at #Paddle4Plastics did just that!
Stay up to date with what The Wasteland Plan is doing through their socials!
Website: https://www.twpfdn.ca/