Links to Other Resources

Links to Other Resources

For further information on the sources and impacts of shoreline litter, and how you can become an active citizen, please visit the following links.

Information and Articles on Litter & Marine Debris

Shoreline & Recreational Activities

• Damage caused by littering from land-based recreation (UK Marine Special Areas of Conservation Project)

Ocean/Waterway Activities

• “Ocean debris action plan debuts,” Maritime Safety News, January 13, 2010
• Derelict Fishing Gear (The SeaDoc Society)

Smoking Related Activities

• Butts Out
• Cigarette Butt Litter
• Cigarette Butt Pollution Project
• Tobacco’s Impact on the Environment Fact Sheet (Citizens for Clean Open Spaces)
• “Cigarette butts toxic to fish,” CBC News, November 20, 2009
• “Cigarette butts toxic to fish,” Discovery News,  November 19, 2009
• “Cigarette butts toxic to marine life,” SDSU News, May 1, 2009
• “Bird with cigarette caused fire,” BBC News, April 21, 2009
• “Kicking butts” Chicago Tribune, June 18, 2008
• “Cigarette Butts as Litter - Toxic as well as ugly?” Register, 2000
• “Variation in, and Causes of, Toxicity of Cigarette Butts to a Cladoceran and Microtox,” Micevska, Warne et al., 2005
• “Cigarettes Butts and the Case for an Environmental Policy on Hazardous Cigarette Waste,” Novotny, Lum et al., 2009

Other Shoreline Litter & Marine Debris

• Algalita Marine Research Foundation
• 5 Gyres: Understanding Plastic Marine Pollution…
• Global Garbage - A blog in Portugese and English that tries to gather relevant information and articles on marine debris, check out Plastic rubbish blights Atlantic Ocean
• Anti-Litter Resource Site (Canadian Plastics Industry Association)
• Electronic Waste in Canada (Electronic Products Stewardship of Canada)
• Ocean Conservancy

Government Resources on Litter & Marine Debris

• Canada’s National Programme Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (NPA)
• Global Marine Litter Information Gateway  (UNEP)
• Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans (UNEP)
• Marine Debris (US Environmental Protection Agency)
• Marine Debris Curriculum (US Environmental Protection Agency)
• Marine Debris Program (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA])
• The Problem with Marine Debris (California Coastal Commission)
• 2006 Litter Report (City of Toronto)

Other Shoreline Cleanup Programs

• International Coastal Cleanup
• California Coastal Cleanup
• Clean up Australia!
• Project Aware
• The Daily Ocean

Everyday Actions to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

• Green As a Thistle - A blog that began when a journalist decided to spend each day, for an entire calendar year, doing one thing that betters the environment. The idea was that everything she did, she would keep doing for the rest of the year.
• No Impact Man - A blog by a man living in New York about what each of us can do to end our environmental crisis, make a better place to live for ourselves and for everyone else, and hopefully come up with a happier way of life along the way.
• Fake Plastic Fish: Live life with less plastic - This blog is a record of one woman’s journey to live with as little unnecessary plastic as possible.
• Citizen Green - A blog with the purpose of sharing ways to reduce consumption of plastic (especially single-use plastics).
• everydaytrash.com -  A blog that examines the art and politics of the world through the lens of garbage.

Fun Things (videos, games, interesting information)

• Garbage Nap PSA - Nothing like a nap on the beach. Nevermind all the debris that’s washed up on the shore…
• Coastal Cleanup Day 2004 PSA
• Alphabet Soup - A short documentary film about the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch 
• Bottle Bank Arcade - The Fun Theory is a website dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better. Here is one idea for how to make recycling fun.
• DFO Pollution Beach - A kid’s game by the Canadian Department of Fisheries & Oceans that encourages children to recycle and put garbage into trash cans.
• Save Our Marine Life - An online game highlighting the dangers of marine debris and unsustainable fishing practices.
• Earth Day Games - A list of fun online games and activities for kids that include fun drag-and-drop games, such as Clean Up Your World and  Free the Beach, that introduces the concepts of recycling, the earth sciences and the environment.
• Pygmy sperm whale “Inky” - The story of a six-foot pygmy sperm whale that was stranded on the New Jersey coast in 1993. The cause, several large pieces of plastic were lodged in her stomach.
• Forever Plastic - A 44 minute documentary by CBC on plastic in our lives.
• Plastic Trash Zombies - A blog about one woman’s journey to save the world’s oceans from plastic trash.