More than a cleanup: a change in perspective

Written by Neria Aylward
I was introduced to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup by Jessie Sitnick, a fellow traveller on the Students on Ice 2013 Arctic Expedition, which took us to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. Upon my return home, excited and inspired, I grasped for somewhere to focus my energy. That’s when Jessie suggested I take on a Shoreline Cleanup in my community. I have always considered myself an environmentalist, but I have never been a very proactive one; I don’t buy bottled water, but I don’t hesitate to buy whipped cream that comes in a non-recyclable metal canister. This was an opportunity to kick-start my mission to save the melting Greenland icecap!

I enlisted two fellow expedition alumni and we coordinated a cleanup at Quidi Vidi Lake, a hub of activity in St. John’s, Newfoundland, that houses a boathouse, dog park, soccer field, and walking trail. We rallied the support of our respective school eco-clubs, and when the day came we had 25 high school students from three different, local high schools. Within three hours, we collected 20 bags of garbage, pieces of fence, one motor, and one plastic slide.

Not only did we manage to collect a remarkable amount of litter from a place that was, at first glance, pretty clean, but our cleanup had a large impact on our perception. It gave all of us a measure of the effect that one plastic bottle can have on an ecosystem, because litter doesn’t just go away. It seems pretty obvious, but it’s something that few of us had really thought about. All the waste that we produce has to go somewhere, even if we don’t see it, and that often happens at the expense of the environment.

The cleanup inspired a new direction for our respective eco-clubs. Our focus this year is personal impact – how we can live sustainably on an individual level. We are starting with waste diversion, by filling reusable containers with our own biodegradable shampoos. For our bake sales, we are going to source local produce, produce that we hope to grow on our own when we start a joint vegetable plot in the spring. Not only did our eco-clubs come together during the cleanup, we gained a new perspective – one where we are accountable individually, but where together, we can do more!
WWF’s Schools for a Living Planet connects educators and students of all ages to WWF’s conservation work. Join the S4LP community and learn how you can inspire your classrooms and classmates to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.