Love Your Lakes
Protecting Canada's freshwater treasures, one piece of litter at a time.
What is the Love Your Lakes Program?
Love Your Lakes is A Greener Future’s flagship summer program dedicated to protecting the health and beauty of the Great Lakes through shoreline litter cleanups, community education, and environmental data collection.
Running from May to August, this annual initiative mobilizes volunteers across Ontario to clean up litter along lakefronts, parks, rivers, and wetlands that feed into the Great Lakes. Every item collected is tracked and analyzed, helping us understand pollution trends, advocate for stronger policies, and push for systemic change.
Whether you’re passionate about the environment, looking to give back, or just want to spend a day outdoors making a difference, Love Your Lakes is for you.
Why Join?
Take meaningful action to protect local ecosystems
Earn volunteer hours for high school or community service
Meet like-minded people who care about our shared future
Feel empowered knowing every piece you collect helps
From seasoned environmentalists to first-time volunteers, everyone is welcome. We provide all the cleanup supplies—you just show up ready to make an impact.
Our Impact
Since 2016, Love Your Lakes has removed more than 1.4 million pieces of litter from the Great Lakes region, and we’re just getting started.
With every cleanup, we track what we find to better understand pollution patterns, educate the public, and drive positive change. Together, our volunteers are making a measurable difference for people, wildlife, and water.
By the Numbers
Total Litter Collected:
1,463,578+ pieces
Volunteer Participation:
5,390+ individuals engaged
Cleanups Hosted:
1,360+ shoreline and park events
Most Common Items:
Cigarette butts, plastic fragments, foam pieces
Heat map showing the density of litter collected during May 2025 litter cleanups along the shores of Lake Ontario.
Check out our 2024 Results
See what we’re finding in real time!
Our team tracks every piece of litter we collect so we can better understand pollution patterns and advocate for change.
Upcoming Events
Why It Matters
Every shoreline cleanup is more than just picking up litter, it's a powerful act of environmental stewardship.
The Great Lakes hold 20% of the world’s surface freshwater and supply drinking water to over 40 million people. But they’re under threat. Trash left behind on shorelines—especially single-use plastics and cigarette butts—doesn’t just stay put. It breaks down into microplastics, leaches toxins, and travels downstream, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
Cigarette butts, plastic fragments, and foam pieces have consistently remained the top items collected!
370,000 CIGARETTE BUTTS
This sneaky form of plastic litter accounts for ~1 in 4 pieces of litter we collect.
293,000 PLASTIC PIECES
Small, unidentifiable plastic fragments make up 20% of LYLs litter removed from the shore.
172,000 FOAM PIECES
Whether it’s shipping packaging or takeout containers, foam makes up 15% of LYLs litter.
The Ripple Effect of Litter
Litter impacts everyone:
Wildlife mistake it for food, leading to injury, starvation, or death.
Microplastics enter the food chain and have been found in fish, birds, and humans.
Communities lose access to clean, safe, and beautiful public spaces.
Ecosystems are destabilized, harming biodiversity and water quality.
From Lake to Ocean
What starts in the Great Lakes doesn’t stay here. These connected waterways flow from Lake Ontario into the St. Lawrence River and eventually reach the Atlantic Ocean. That’s why your efforts on the shoreline ripple far beyond our local communities, they’re part of a global solution.
Get to Know Love Your Lakes Better!
Ongoing Partnerships
Thank You to Our Sponsors
