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Litter

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Why should you care?

Prince Edward Island is a beautiful place to live and visit. Litter spoils that natural beauty. However, its negative impacts can go well beyond aesthetics.

  • Items such as syringes or hazardous materials pose a threat to public health.
  • Litter can cause injury to wildlife and birds that mistake it for food.
  • Litter in an urban setting can attract vermin.
  • Old fishing line, rope, nets or wire can trap land or marine life.
  • Wind and rain can carry cigarette butts into the waterways where the toxic chemicals that the cigarette filter was designed to trap leak out into aquatic ecosystems, threatening water quality and aquatic life.
  • Cigarette butts can also be the cause of fires.
  • Litter is wasteful. Many littered items could be recycled or reused.
Unless someone cleans up litter, its effects may be seen for years. It takes two to five months for paper to biodegrade; five years for a plastic-coated paper cartons; up to 12 years for cigarette butts ; 50 to 100 years for tin cans; 200-500 years for aluminum cans; and one million years for a styrofoam container or plastic jug. Furthermore, cleaning up litter has a cost. Every year, thousands of Islanders participate in the Women’s Institute Roadside Cleanup and other similar events. Their efforts are greatly appreciated. However, if they did not have to clean up after others, that energy could be redirected to other projects to benefit the Island environment.

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