Lake Huron Coastal Centre tackles plastics in long and short term

The Lake Huron Coastal Centre (LHCC) use $44,000 in provincial funding to expand its plastic pollution reduction projects in 2023.

The Great Lakes Local Action Fund money is part of a larger $1.9 million investment in 38 projects across the province.

The money will be used for microplastics research, beach cleanup stations and stormwater catchment basin filters, as well as 13 beach clean-up events from Sarnia to Georgian Bay this year.

“It's really important when creating plastic reduction strategies that we consider both short and long-term solutions to this complicated issue,” said Alyssa Bourassa, a coastal stewardship technician with the LHCC. “We think of taking action. I'm going to go and clean up this beach today, and that's wonderful, but we have to think about some passive ways to collect garbage and plastics from getting into Lake Huron. That's what we're considering as well, with the self-beach-cleanup stations and stormwater basin filters.”

The LHCC is a non-government charitable organization, established in 1998, with the goals of protecting and restoring Lake Huron's coastal environment, and supporting a healthy coastal ecosystem through education, restoration, and research projects. It has organized shoreline clean-up events with volunteers for the past 10 years.

In 2018, the LHCC produced a Lake Huron Microplastic Awareness Report aimed at reducing plastic pollution in the Lake Huron

watershed. Microplastics are pieces smaller than five millimetres long that can persist in the environment for centuries. Common microplastics include fragments of larger plastics that break down over time; foam pieces from food containers coffee cups, cigarette butts, plastic pellets used in manufacturing, microbeads used in soaps and cosmetics, and the most common type of microplastic, plastic fibres from clothing.

“These fibres are a hundred times smaller than a human hair. It's something that is out there, we know about it, but through our research, we want to ensure other people are aware,” Bourassa said.

The LHCC said it picked up 8,930 cigarette butts from the Lake Huron shoreline in 2018 alone.

“Without a doubt, it's the most common pollutant we pick up, every time,” Bourassa said. “It's really important to have people who are willing to do the work because picking up those small plastic filters takes effort and passion.”

In one-litre water samples taken from the Lake Huron shoreline and studied for the report, only six of the 68 samples were considered to have no evidence of microplastics.

Bourassa said part of the government's funding will help continue the organization's microplastic research.

“We'll be taking samples all the way from Sarnia to Georgian Bay to see how it is this year. In general, microplastics are getting worse. These are things that go into the environment and they just don't go away, and that's why it's so important to catch it at the source,” Bourassa said.

Some organizations are now helping to distribute and install special filters in washing machines to help reduce the number of plastic fibres that make it to the watershed.

Microplastics affect water quality, wildlife and the future of the lake's ecosystem, the LHCC report said.

“Lake Huron provides fresh water for thousands of people, so we really have to think about what is going into that water,” Bourassa said. “We're even seeing microplastics in our bodies, in our drinking water, in our foods.”

The problem can seem overwhelming, and the solutions out of reach, but Bourassa said people who work on environmental issues are optimistic.

“Truly, I feel like a change is happening. I think people are caring more than they ever have before, I really believe that. We see that in the amount of people who show up to these events and who support the work,” Bourassa said. “It can be frustrating sometimes . . . but it's really about one small step at a time.”

More information about how to volunteer for a shoreline cleanup event will be posted to www. lakehuron.ca/volunteer and the LHCC'S social media accounts, the release said.