Leveraging Data for Action
Our work with municipalities
In 2024, we launched a new program for municipalities to amplify the efforts of data collection by working directly with municipal governments to offer data-informed plastic reduction recommendations. The data collected through Ocean Wise Shoreline Cleanups provides critical information that supports good decision making from source to shore. Our Shoreline Cleanup program works closely with municipalities and organizations to provide location-specific litter data and recommend critical interventions to reduce plastic in their jurisdictions.
How can other municipalities and individuals get involved?
Submitting the data from Shoreline Cleanups helps to increase the scope of data analysis we can do. Reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions about how to get started leading cleanups in your community!
Municipalities We've Worked With
Shoreline Cleanup data is supporting the City of Vancouver in their efforts to curb cigarette butt litter. With our data, we were able to pinpoint hotspots where cigarette butts accumulate year after year and examined the seasonality of cigarette butt litter to identify when mitigation efforts would be most effective.
The City of Nanaimo is working on a waste free event guide to reduce the amount of litter generated at large events in the area. We found a regional rise in the average number of recyclable items collected per person during cleanups. Most commonly found were plastic bottles, beverage cans, and glass bottles. To reduce the prevalence of these items on the shorelines, the City of Nanaimo is piloting recycling infrastructure to three destination parks this summer and updating their waste free event guide to encourage more diversion by vendors and attendees.
Single-use items have been a key focus of outreach campaigns by province-wide organizations like Divert NS. Shoreline Cleanup data shows that more single-use items like cans, plastic bottles, coffee cups and lids, and utensils have been collected in recent years compared to 2019 (a year chosen as a baseline by the region). To prevent this trend from continuing, recommendations include ongoing awareness campaigns throughout Nova Scotia to promote refusal of single-use items and return recyclables to local depots.
This program is supported by
