PITCH-IN CANADA
 Resource Centre

Action Projects to Improve the Environment
PITCH-IN CANADA
Pollution Count
(pdf download available at bottom of page)

Education and awareness are two important ways to reduce the amount of waste being produced and improperly entering the environment.

The purpose of the PITCH-IN CANADA Pollution Count is to draw attention to the waste which is produced/improperly disposed of in a community, to determine the composition of the debris (glass/metal/paper/plastic, etc...), to help you explore where the waste might have originated, and to explore alternative ways to dealing with waste, both at its source and at "the end of the pipe", leading to permanent solutions.

By participating in the PITCH-IN CANADA Pollution Count you will be able to share your findings with local media, your town council, local businesses, homeowners, PITCH-IN CANADA and others.

Who can Participate?

The PITCH-IN CANADA Pollution Count is ideal for all ages and the Count can be incorporated in to a variety of subject areas including:

How does the Pollution Count differ from a Clean Up?

Clean ups are important to cleaning up the environment. Their success can be measured by the number of volunteers participating, volume of debris collected, size of area cleaned, etc...

The PITCH-IN CANADA Pollution Count is a research project to measure and explore what is being disposed of into the environment. The success of the Count does not relate to overall volumes of debris collected or the number of volunteers who participated.

In the Pollution Count, accuracy is more important than area covered. The PITCH-IN CANADA Pollution Count will provide you with an "in-depth" look at what is being disposed of into a "section" (or sample) of the environment.

Can a PITCH-IN Canada Pollution Count be combined
 with a PITCH-IN Clean Up?

Yes, we encourage you to participate in the Pollution Count in addition to your PITCH-IN CANADA WEEK Clean Up. Have a few of your volunteers clean up a specific area (or "sample") within the larger area you plan to clean up. Make sure they record only what they find within their sample area as they clean it up.

Should certain areas be surveyed differently than others?

Yes and No. Data is data, no matter where it is collected. However, for our purposes, we are separating marine debris (debris collected on shorelines of oceans, lakes, rivers and streams) from land debris.

Two different data cards are used: one for marine debris, the other for data collected in other areas. Both data cards can be obtained from this Web Site. Information obtained in your marine, or coastal, pollution count will be treated differently by PITCH-IN CANADA and compared with other data collected during PITCH-IN CANADA's annual Coastal Clean Up. That is why you will be referred to the information about the Coastal Clean Up for detailed instructions for your Marine Pollution Count.

To download a pdf version of the program, instructions and data cards, click here
If you are conducting a Marine Debris Pollution Count then please click here.
If you are conducting a Land Pollution Count then please click here.
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