Tagging Trash – Revealing the pathways of floating litter in the Toronto Harbour

A new study launched on April 26 by the University of Toronto Trash Team aims to reveal the pathways of floating litter in an effort to learn more about where floating litter goes. Throughout summer 2021, the Trash Team will follow the travels of several “blender bottle” plastic bottles equipped with GPS trackers in order to reveal movement patterns and potential accumulation zones for floating litter in the Toronto Harbour. This will help researchers to better understand local sources of litter and help inform future placement of trash capture devices (like those employed in the PortsToronto Seabin Program) to divert litter from Lake Ontario.

The best part? You can follow along too. Visit the Trash Team website to see a map indicating the travels of the bottles in real-time. If you find one of the bottles, you can take a photo and share it on social media using the hashtag #TaggingTrash, but be sure to leave it where it is – that way the Trash Team will be analyzing the most accurate data possible.

Part of the Fighting Floatables in the Toronto Harbour strategy, the Tagging Trash study is being completed in partnership with PortsToronto, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, the University of Toronto – Scarborough and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Learn more about the Tagging Trash study on the Trash Team website, in this CTV Toronto article, or BlogTO feature.