A pair of Washington brothers on a cross-Canada tour stopped in Edmonton on Saturday to clean up the North Saskatchewan River.                                                                                                                  

Nick and Hans Schippers are part of Parley for the Oceans, a non-profit that aims to clean up more than 850,000 square metres of Canadian shorelines.

Edmonton will be one of 20 stops they make along the trip.

"The goal of these cleanups is to A, learn more about what kind of plastics are ending up out there, but also to engage people and teach them about why plastic pollution is a problem and how plastic pollution impacts marine environments," Nick Schipppers told CTV News Edmonton.

They hope their efforts bring awareness to the problem of ocean and river pollution.

The majority of garbage that enters the ocean each year is plastic.