Aluminum cans, shards of glass and lost toys: Those were just some of the bits of trash volunteers cleared from the shores of Gonzales Beach.
Organized by Surfrider Foundation Canada – a non-profit dedicated to coastal conservation – in partnership with Telus, the May 28 cleanup brought together 10 of the company's employees to help keep the stretch of Oak Bay shoreline clean.
“I'm very close to the ocean and I just want to keep it clean,” said Telus senior learning specialist Adam Horvath. “I love coming here, and you can see so many people that love coming here, as well. If it was full of garbage, it just wouldn't be as appealing.”
Melanie Johnson-Jagiello, another Telus employee, expressed a similar sentiment.
“The ocean is everything,” said the senior program manager. “Now more than ever, I feel very conscious of things like microplastics in the oceans affecting marine life, and I would like to know that there’s a healthy ecosystem ... where we live.”
Surfrider Foundation Canada’s beach cleanup manager Katie Keats was also at the event – part of the organization's ongoing effort to engage communities in sustainability through hands-on action. She explained that single-use plastics, derelict aquaculture gear and Styrofoam used in dock manufacturing and flotation devices are some of the most common types of trash found on local beaches.
Hidden behind logs, beneath rocks and in mounds of sand, cigarette butts are familiar sight along local shorelines.
“It's a common misconception that they are biodegradable, that they're made out of paper, but they're actually made out of a substance called cellulose acetate, which is a plastic compound,” said Keats. “It actually contains over 150 different chemicals, so it leeches those chemicals into the environment, doesn't break down, and then it gets lodged in all various forms of wildlife."
The manager added that all types of litter can be ingested by marine animals and birds.
“Seabirds very often will mistake small pieces of plastic for eggs or other animals," she said. "They'll ingest it, and ... because it takes hundreds of years to degrade, it actually blocks up their stomachs, makes them feel full and they end up starving to death because they aren't getting any nutrients."
Surfrider South Vancouver Island, the local chapter of the Canada-wide group, removed nearly a metric ton of debris from over 16 kilometres of coastline in 2024 alone, including over 14,500 cigarette butts and 200 gallons of Styrofoam.
These forms of trash aren’t just prevalent on south Island beaches – 11 million tons of plastic enter oceans every year, according to the non-profit's website. That’s the equivalent of a garbage truck dumping a full load of plastics every minute of every day of the year.
Keats hopes the event will inspire people to keep their beaches clean while encouraging folks to avoid single-use plastics.
"There's a lot of evidence showing that only about nine per cent get recycled," she said. "If you can choose reusable over single-use, that's the best way to go."
