Nearly 100,000 pieces of plastic removed from the Toronto Harbour. Here's what else was found
The team behind Toronto’s Trash Trapping Program Network says it removed close to 100,000 small pieces of plastic from the city’s harbour last year.
PortsToronto, in partnership with the University of Toronto’s so called “Trash Team,” said they caught 92,891 pieces of pollution between May and September through the use of 10 Seabins -- which are positioned near the water’s surface and suck trash into a catch bag with a pump.
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
“Seven U of T Trash Team research assistants worked daily throughout the summer to empty PortsToronto’s Seabins and quantify and characterize what we diverted from Lake Ontario,” Dr. Chelsea Rochman, Head of Operations at the U of T Trash Team, said in a news release issued Wednesday.
In addition to the Seabins, the program also removed thousands of pieces of trash using a device called a LittaTrap, which are placed in storm drains throughout the Queens Quay area, as well as skimming the surface water in the harbor to divert a total of 96,208 pieces of waste between all three methods.
By weight, the program removed 118.15 kilograms of anthropogenic (originating from human activity) debris and microplastics, which PortsToronto said can harm wildlife and contaminate drinking water.
A Seabin is seen in this undated image.
The top 10 large items of debris caught in 2022 include:
- Plastic film
- Plastic fragments
- Cigarette butts
- Foam
- Food wrappers
- Plastic bottle caps
- Paper
- Plastic cigar tips
- Plastic bags
- Plastic bottles
Also found, and for the first time in the four years of the program, were dozens of “fatbergs,” which PortsToronto describes as “rock-like masses” formed by the combination of fat, grease, and wastewater materials including wet wipes and diapers.
“In 2022, PortsToronto Seabins collected more than 100 fatbergs, a powerful reminder to residents of the city to consider carefully what is washed down the drain,” the group said.
PortsToronto President and CEO RJ Steenstra said he was “encouraged” by the progress made by the program so far amid a rise in plastic pollution that he believes “seriously threatens the sustainability and biodiversity” of the city’s lakes and waterways.
“[We] look forward to continuing to learn from waste collected by trash-capturing devices like Seabins here at home and worldwide as part of the International Trash Trap Network in an effort to educate, change behaviour and ultimately preserve our waterways for future generations,” Steenstra said.
To read the full 2022 report, click here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976926.1721883767!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
DEVELOPING Alberta's request for federal assistance approved after fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
Jasper mayor says alert system to be reviewed after message 'glitch'
More than 25,000 people have been displaced from Jasper National Park since wildfires started to threaten the picturesque corner of Alberta Rockies on Monday, but the mayor of its namesake municipality says not everyone received an evacuation alert when it was sent out.
Canada's premiers forced to confront escalating climate change-related disasters
Many of Canada's provincial and territorial leaders remained consumed by climate change-related natural disasters that have only escalated since they met for meetings in Halifax last week.
Biden explains why he ended re-election bid in Oval Office address
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Unclaimed bodies are piling up in Newfoundland. A funeral director blames the government
A funeral director in St. John's says the bodies piling up in freezers at Newfoundland and Labrador's largest hospital likely belong to people whose loved ones couldn't get enough government help to pay for a funeral.
U.K. police officer suspended after video appears to show a man being kicked in head
A British police officer was suspended from all duties Thursday after a video was posted on social media that appeared to show an officer kicking and stamping on the head of a man lying on the floor of a terminal at Manchester Airport.
Norad intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers operating together near Alaska in apparent first
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Monday breaks the record for the hottest day ever on Earth
Driven by oceans that won't cool down, an unseasonably warm Antarctica and worsening climate change, Earth's record hot streak dialed up this week, making Monday the hottest day humans have measured.