Gail Krantzberg, is a professor in the Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. Krantzberg does research in Science, Technology and Environmental Politics, public policy and Great Lakes governance.
In an article published this month in the Journal of Waste Resources and Recycling, Professor Krantsberg argues that while plastic waste in the oceans has generated widespread global attention, few people realize the problem is also getting much worse closer to home.
“We are increasingly detecting microplastics in the waters and fish and wildlife in the Great Lakes,” she says. “A fish with a gut full of plastics cannot be a healthy fish and can, in fact, starve to death. We know this problem is increasing in severity.”
Microplastics can vary in size, from less than 1 millimeter (or 0.039 inches) on up to 5 millimeters. Microplastics come from a range of sources, including cosmetics, clothing, and industrial processes.
Some microplastics are manufactured to be very tiny in size, such as those used in facial scrubs and toothpaste, while others are the product of the breakdown of larger plastics.
As for microplastic’s distribution in nature – they have now been found in the ocean, streams, groundwater and even karst aquifers. We have found these insidious pieces of plastic in the Arctic, the Falkland Islands, and in the high reaches of the French Pyrenees, and the Rocky Mountains.
So it is not surprising that microplastics have found their way into the Great Lakes, Krantzberg, in a press release, believes this is probably coming from several sources, including denser urban populations that naturally produce more waste – much of it plastics, increasingly severe storms which overwhelm municipal water treatment facilities sending runoff into the ecosystem and the failure of recycling efforts.
And this is not the first time an alert – or warning – has been in the news about microplastics in the Great Lakes. In 2013, a study by 5 Gyres Institute (an NGO) and SUNY Fredonia found a staggering amount of microplastics in the Great Lakes. These micro-plastics were believed to be micro-beads originating from body scrubs.
“It is hard to conceive of recapturing all the plastics that are now in the lakes, but we can make a difference by eliminating many unnecessary plastics from use such as plastic straws, cutlery, bags, and other disposable waste,” Krantzberg says. “You don’t need plastic bags for a bunch of grapes,” she added, reports CTV News Canada.
