Originally Posted On: https://www.agreenerfuture.ca/blog/2021/10/31/litter-art-keeping-trash-out-of-landfills-and-building-community
By: HEATHER DOIG
Blog Coordinator
On average, people throw out 4.9 pounds of trash per day, which amounts to almost 1,800 pounds per year per person! This is often a combination of plastics, food wrappers, clothing, food, e-waste, and personal care products.
Unfortunately, many of these trashed items pose long term problems for everyone involved. Only 9% of plastics will ever be recycled and many of our plastics will be shipped to other countries, shifting the environmental burden to them. We’re also running out of landfill space and cannot keep up with our current levels of waste.
Litter from clean ups organized by A Greener Future.
What’s worse is that much of the waste we create ends up as litter. Every year, A Greener Future coordinates more than 100 litter cleanups along the shores of Lake Ontario through our Love Your Lakes project. To date, we’ve picked up ~500,000 pieces of litter through this program alone!
So what do we do with all of this litter we collect?
In comes our Litter Art program! This year, we have partnered with ten local artists to raise awareness about litter and build community in a new way.
Former litter in storage, awaiting artists.
After seeing the impact that waste is having on our local environments, we came up with this idea to help us repurpose the litter we were finding and to keep it out of landfills for as long as possible!
Green Storage, a company dedicated to creating environmentally friendly storage spaces across North America, has been instrumental in this project. For the past few months, we have been dropping off beach debris that is fit for creating art at the Green Storage location on Eastern Avenue in Toronto. This is the most central location for all of our artists to meet up and grab supplies.
All of the Green Storage locations include solar energy generation, electric vehicle charging stations, e-waste disposal, low flush toilets, and LED lighting. The lights inside are run on motion sensors so the lights aren’t continuously on. Overall there couldn’t be a more fitting storage facility for A Greener Future to partner with.
Outside of Green Storage.
Our artists will use a wide variety of media to create pieces relating to pollution in Lake Ontario. Keep an eye out for our upcoming art showcase to see these pieces!