Diversion 2.0

Project Manager - Sean Mullin

Our multi-faceted water conservation project is a response to the pollution crisis facing Georgian Bay, the Great Lakes, and indeed, natural water bodies throughout the globe.

With a focus on plastic waste, the Diversion 2.0 project uses several high-end tools to mitigate the dispersal of litter in our water, collect data for scientific research, educate the public about waste management, and form partnerships with local businesses to form a network of pollution-fighters in the Georgian Bay area.

Read Our 2021-2023 Report

Watch Our Plastic Pollution Video

Watch Here

Our Tools for Diverting Pollution

Trash Trapping Devices

Pollution of all sizes, from microscopic plastic particles, to large chunks of dock foam and other industrial materials are being funnelled into Georgian Bay, degrading the state of the ecosystem, compromising recreational safety, and tarnishing the beauty of these shores.

We work continuously to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the water, through use of three diversion tools throughout the Georgian Bay coastline.

Trash Traps

Large-scale sturdy nets stop any litter that has entered the drainage system and keeps that pollution from entering into our waters.

Gutter Bins

These large filtering systems capture litter from the streets before it has a chance to enter the drainage pipes that flow into lakes.

Sea Bins

The Seabin catches an estimated 1.4 tons of floating debris and pollution per year, including microplastics as small as 2 mm.

Volunteer

Sign up your high-school class, or volunteer as an individual to help us characterize the catch from our trapping devices. You'll get hands-on experience in research, data collection, and ecological field-work.

We need volunteers to help sort the contents of our traps in several locations five times a year in both wet and dry seasons.

You will be carefully sorting and recording litter using a specially developed protocol. That data will be amalgamated to show us what the big litter culprits are, so that policies and education can be developed to stop the polluting at source. This data will be fed into a larger Great Lakes program to stop plastic pollution.

Schedule a Presentation

GBF is offering virtual and in-person presentations and workshops to help people reduce and reuse their plastic waste in their own households and outdoor spaces in Georgian Bay. These presentations can also include information on un-encapsulated dock foam, which is littering our shores, and what dock owners and citizens can do about it.

Find Out More

Yellowfish Road

GBF is working with interested camp or children's groups to execute Trout Unlimited Canada's Yellow Fish Road awareness campaigns, which engage children in outings to paint fish near drains, a symbol to remind Canadians that what goes down these drains ends up in our freshwater. The message is conveyed by distributing door-hanger pamphlets to educate nearby residents about the symbols and what they represent.

If you are interested in coordinating such an effort, or hearing if there is one scheduled that you can join, please email sean.mullin@gbf.org.

Plastic-Free Georgian Bay

PFGB is an initiative to form a network of local businesses dedicated to reducing or eliminating the use of single-use plastic.

Learn More

Visit Plastic-Free Georgian Bay Facebook Page

Thank you to these funders who have made this program possible

The views expressed herein are solely those of Georgian Bay Forever.

The Weston Family Foundation
The Great Lakes Local Action Fund
The Township of The Archipelago
The Town of Collingwood
The Township of Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay Forever donors

We also want to thank these valuable partners:

The Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority
Blue Mountain Watershed Trust
The University of Toronto Trash Team