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from the leave-it-to-the-fish-to-complain-about-free-imports dept.
Plastic debris makes up about 80% of the litter on Great Lakes shorelines. Nearly 22 million pounds enter the Great Lakes each year—more than half of which pours into Lake Michigan, according to estimates calculated by the Rochester Institute of Technology. Regardless of size, as plastics linger in the water, they continue to break down from exposure to sunlight and abrasive waves.
Microplastics have been observed in the guts of many Lake Michigan fish, in drinking water and even in beer. Perhaps the most worrisome aspect is that the impact of microplastics on human health remains unclear. Plastics are known to attract industrial contaminants already in the water, like PCBs, while expelling their own chemical additives intended to make them durable, including flame retardants.
[...] Matthew Hoffman, the lead author of the Rochester Institute of Technology estimate, said population centers like Chicago and Milwaukee are large contributors to plastics pollution in Lake Michigan. In addition to trash that can drift into the water from beaches, wastewater treatment facilities are significant sources of microplastics.
Before a federal ban in 2017, some soaps and facial scrubs contained microbeads that were rinsed down the drain into waterways. The majority of microplastics are tiny fibers that break off from synthetic fabrics when people do laundry.
Once plastics enter the lake, they follow lake currents, potentially migrating to other states but largely remaining trapped at the southern end.
"Things from Chicago might end up on the shores in the state of Michigan," Hoffman said. "In the Great Lakes, plastic could move to different states, different lakes, different countries. So that can be an interesting challenge if you want to clean up. Now you have to look at interstate regulations."
What goes into Lake Michigan typically stays there. While water from the other Great Lakes moves downstream, Lake Michigan's only major outflow is the Chicago River (and the water it intermittently exchanges with Lake Huron at the Straits of Mackinac). As a result, a drop of water that enters Lake Michigan stays for about 62 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Because some municipal sewage sludge is applied to farm fields, agricultural runoff can also be a significant contributor. Farmers who may use plastic materials to cover their seed beds (to regulate the soil temperature and moisture) may also be partly responsible for microplastics.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 10 2019, @11:37AM (4 children)
If we're at peak stuff, then I'd have to say the amount of plastic in the Great Lakes is quite survivable.
In July I was in Saugatuck, Michigan, across Lake Michigan from Chicago to the east, then at Indiana State Dunes, across Lake Michigan from Chicago to the southeast and next to US Steel to the west in Gary, Indiana. Later that month I was in Thunder Bay, at the western edge of Lake Superior, then Sault St. Marie at the confluence of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron and followed the northern shores of Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Eerie, and Lake Ontario to upstate New York. In other words, I was all over all those lakes two months ago, and there was nary a piece of plastic to be seen, at the big state park beaches or at the remote, wild beaches of Lake Superior in western Ontario or any of the rest.
So the alarmism of the article about plastics is not discernible anywhere in the environment they're talking about. It's still wild and beautiful across 99% of it (the remaining 1% of it consists of the blight of Gary, Indiana, and the asshole of the universe known as the City of Chicago).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 10 2019, @02:53PM (2 children)
Sorry, but completely opposite experience. You have to be really careful not to look closely not to see that shit. Plastic bottles half buried, bottle caps, toys, small broken pieces of plastic etc.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 10 2019, @04:58PM (1 child)
At a certain point the stuff becomes like sea glass and blends right in. I'm always out on the beaches of Long Island keeping an eye on the stones because I'm a flintknapper and because I use the ocre that you find there to paint. once in a while you happen across a chunk of asphaltor concrete that is already worn smooth and fits right in with the glacial till that formed Long Island. you see plastic bits, too, but it's the same story. plastic is basically inert, so what's the harm?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday September 10 2019, @06:17PM
Glass doesn't get into the foodchain like plastic does. [www.ngi.no]
Not to mention the less esoteric risks like loose bags and litter destroying stormwater systems: [nrdc.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday September 10 2019, @06:19PM
We're not.
The End