Time to clean up Lake Ontario's shoreline, environmentalists say

Now is the time to collect debris along the shoreline, environmentalists say, as record-high water levels have stirred up more garbage than usual.

About 70 volunteers were out at Canoe Landing in City Place on Thursday, combing through the bushes and grass, picking up discarded bottles and bags.

"We're seeing quite a bit of litter along shorelines," said Susan Debreceni, the outreach specialist for the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup,a conservation initiative that hosts cleanupevents and also helps groups or businesses organize their own.

"In actuality, we're just seeing what's always been out there but the higher water levels have just brought all the garbage in."

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Debreceni says now is a good time to pick it up, before wind, rain or receding water levels wash it back into Lake Ontario.

"Especially the plastics. As they break down they become microplastics and become smaller and smaller, so they become harder to pick up."

Another huge problem is cigarette butts.

"Most people don't think that they're garbage," saidDebreceni. "Across Canada there were over 400,000 [cigarette butts] picked up last year."

Thursday's group worked through four hectares of land and finished off the day by putting wood chips under 75 trees in the park.

"We managed to collect 200 poundsof garbage," said Carolyn Henry, who organized the event for her office at Telus. "We found a printer, umbrellas and even a muffler."

Toronto has also been cleaning its shorelines since April 27, but due to this year's heavy rainfall, the cityhas pushed back the opening of its beaches to July 1.

"It's going to take us an awful lot of work to get our beaches officially open and ready to go for swimming," said James Dann, the manager of Waterfront Parks for the City of Toronto.

Even though the amount of garbage surfacing is largerthan usual, Dann says a lot of it is large pieces of wood and Styrofoam.

"In the areas that are swimming beaches, much of the water quality is still fine. It will be formally tested starting this week with Toronto Public Health and Toronto Water."

Another public shoreline cleanup is scheduled for Saturday at Ashbridges Bay.