Canadian Environment Week and Shoreline Cleanup Summary

This year, Canadian Environment Week occurred June 1-7th. Established in 1971, Canadian Environment Week celebrates Canada’s environmental accomplishments and encourages Canadians to contribute to conserving and protecting their environment. Some special days last week included June 4th, Clean Air day, as well as June 5th, World Environment day. Every year, Canadian Environment week coincides with World Environment day led by the United Nation Environment Programme.

This year, the focus of World Environment Day was on ending plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is something that continues to greatly impact our globe. It has been found that over 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced annually and an estimated 11 million tonnes end up in lakes and aquatic ecosystems.

To achieve a greener future and help with the plastic pollution crisis, PLWA took on the initiative of organizing a shoreline cleanup. Through our shoreline cleanup, we hoped to encourage community members to take part in keeping our lake healthy and contribute to #BeatPlasticPollution sustainable initiatives.

We are pleased to share that our cleanup was a success! We had a number of community members get involved helping us clean the shoreline of MaMeO beach, positively impacting the health of our watershed. Together, we collected an impressive ~450 pieces of garbage, with some highlights such as tent poles, reading glasses and other unusual items.

For further resources on Canadian Environment Week, World Environment Day and plastic pollution visit:

If you or others are interested in hosting a shoreline cleanup, we encourage you to reach out to us @info@plwa.ca or register through OceanWise!