Adopt-a-Beach

https://greatlakes.org/2024/04/thank-you-for-helping-our-great-lakes-shine/

Download the full report – Adopt-a-Beach: 20 Years of Great Lakes Litter Data, A Story of Plastic Pollution Told Through Citizen Science

New Report: Vast Majority of Great Lakes Litter is Plastic

On: April 11, 2024

In: Adopt-a-Beach, Plastic pollution in the Great Lakes

Litter Material: 2003-2023. Plastic: 86%. Other: 14%.

CHICAGO, IL (April 11, 2024) – Eighty six percent of litter collected on Great Lakes beaches is composed either partially or fully of plastic, according to a new report released by the Alliance for the Great Lakes. The report is based on 20 years of data collected from more than 14,000 Adopt-a-Beach cleanups on all five Great Lakes. The new analysis details the most common types of plastic items found on Great Lakes shorelines and outlines potential solutions to reduce plastic pollution. In the environment, plastics never go away. Instead, they break down into toxic microplastic particles that make their way into the Great Lakes, a source of drinking water for 40 million people.

Plastic pollution threatens human health & the environment

“Plastic pollution in the Great Lakes is a threat to both human health and the environment,” said Olivia Reda, the author of the report and the Volunteer Engagement Manager at the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “The volume of plastic found on our shorelines demonstrates the urgent need to pass federal, state, and local laws that reduce plastic pollution getting into the lakes. While our dedicated volunteers are cleaning up literally tons of litter each year, more of this plastic litter enters our waters, where it breaks down into tiny particles that are found in our drinking water.”

Litter type: 2014-2023. Tiny trash: 40%. Food related: 27%. Smoking related: 22%. Other: 11%.

The data in the report, Adopt-a-Beach: 20 Years of Great Lakes Litter Data, reveals alarming and consistent patterns. Most of the litter is plastic, and many are single-use items – used once and left behind – which contain plastic. Volunteers categorize each piece of litter into a type, such as cigarette butts, plastic beverage bottles, or “tiny trash” including plastic pieces, foam pieces, and glass pieces measuring 2.5 cm or less. For the last 10 years, the top litter items collected are tiny plastic pieces, followed by cigarette butts, tiny foam pieces, plastic bottle caps, and food wrappers. Forty percent of all litter is in the “tiny trash” category.

Solutions require action beyond individual behavior change

While it’s important for individuals to reduce their plastic use, the report notes that substantially reducing plastic pollution will require action from businesses, governments, and manufacturers. The Alliance for the Great Lakes is calling for implementing Extended Producer Responsibility policies — holding producers responsible across the life cycle of their products and packaging from design and materials to end-of-life management. Such policies have been in place for years in Europe and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. More recently California, Colorado, Maine, and Oregon have passed versions of these common-sense solutions, which are now being considered across the Great Lakes basin.

Shorter-term solutions include reducing or eliminating the most problematic plastics like single-use bags and foam, deploying new technologies such as microfilters in washing machines to remove plastic microfibers before they enter our water systems, stopping the spills of industrial plastic pellets in the Great Lakes, and increasing access to water refilling stations as well as reuse and refill packaging. These types of policy solutions are moving forward in several Great Lakes states.

The power of citizen science

Since launching in 1991, the Alliance’s Adopt-a-Beach cleanups have evolved into the most extensive volunteer program ever to collect data on Great Lakes beach litter. Volunteers receive training and resources to host year-round cleanups in communities in all eight Great Lakes states. Since the start of the program, over 200,000 volunteers have participated in cleanups, removing over 9,700,000 individual pieces and over 535,000 pounds of litter from the shoreline. In 2003, Adopt-a-Beach launched an online database, which is now the largest litter dataset exclusively for the Great Lakes. The data is available publicly and has been used by educators, community advocates, policy makers, and academic researchers.

“This dataset demonstrates the power of citizen science, when members of the public come together to collect datasets far larger than any single researcher could build,” said Reda. “We are so thankful to the hundreds of thousands of volunteers and supporters who participated in Adopt-a-Beach cleanups over the years. They are environmental heroes committed to reducing litter in their communities and are collecting one-of-a-kind data that will continue shining a light on plastic pollution.”

Report cover, Adopt-a-Beach: 20 Years of Great Lakes Litter Data.

Read the Report

Download the Executive Summary

If you would like to join the efforts, sign up for an Adopt-a-Beach cleanup. Learn more about plastic pollution here.

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Contact: Don Carr, Media Director, dcarr@greatlakes.org

Join the Fight Against Plastic Pollution

Over 200,000 volunteers have participated in Great Lakes beach cleanups through our Adopt-a-Beach program. 86% of the litter they found is made either partially or fully of plastic.

Read About Plastic Pollution & Solutions Host or Join a Shoreline Cleanup

The post New Report: Vast Majority of Great Lakes Litter is Plastic appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

https://greatlakes.org/2024/04/new-report-vast-majority-of-great-lakes-litter-is-plastic/

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Adopt-a-Beach Launches 20th Year of Data Collection

On: June 26, 2023

In: Adopt-a-Beach

Adopt-a-Beach volunteers launched the 2023 Adopt-a-Beach season with hundreds of cleanups on Great Lakes beaches, harbors, bluffs, and trails. By June 26, volunteers had removed more than 191,000 pieces of litter from shorelines around the region.

“It’s so much fun to see the sense of community our volunteers create,” said Olivia Reda, the Alliance’s Volunteer Engagement Manager. “Everyone is working together to clean up their shoreline. Scouting groups, businesses, families, yacht clubs – it’s exciting to see so many different types of people get involved.”

And Adopt-a-Beach volunteers are working with a community that’s larger than their local cleanup, said Reda. “They’re working with volunteers all over the Great Lakes to collect important data about plastic pollution.”

20 years of Great Lakes litter data

This year marks 20 years of data collection by Adopt-a- Beach volunteers. While scientists have been studying plastic pollution in the ocean for decades, there is much less research about plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. Adopt-a-Beach data collection is one way our Great Lakes community is beginning to fill that gap.

Volunteers use a datasheet at every cleanup to tally each item they pick up. The event’s team leader tallies up all the data collected at the event and enters it into our online system.

“It might feel a little silly to count up every cigarette butt, bottle cap, or piece of tiny trash when you’re on the beach,” Reda said. “But the data from each cleanup tells a story. And when you put everyone’s data together in one place, the power of all that information is amazing!”

A hand recording litter counts on a form.

Spring data stories: Green Bay, Cleveland, Chicago

One of this spring’s data stories comes from Green Bay, Wisconsin. A group of Adopt-a-Beach volunteers led by Green Bay Sail & Paddle removed 677 pounds of trash from the South Bay Marina in just a few hours.

“It’s a bit unusual to collect so many pounds of trash at one cleanup,” said Reda, “but spring is a time when the heavy stuff shows up in the data, the stuff that washed ashore over the winter.” The litter this team collected included plastic, broken glass, rusted metal, and wooden planks. “This group really made their shoreline safer!”

Another spring data story comes from Cleveland, Ohio, where Adopt-a-Beach volunteers led by Drink Local, Drink Tap set an ambitious goal: remove 1 million pieces of trash from Lake Erie shorelines. The organization has already collected more than 500,000 pieces of litter from cleanups dating back to 2010. The vast majority of those items are plastic.

“Drink Local, Drink Tap is an amazing organization,” said Reda. “Their dedication to their community and Edgewater Beach is so inspiring! And the fact that they see so much plastic reflects the trend we see around the region. Roughly 85% of the litter found at Adopt-a-Beach cleanups is entirely or partially made of plastic.”

Because so much of the litter they collect is made from plastic, some Adopt-a-Beach volunteers are taking their cleanup efforts back to the source. In Chicago, Illinois, Organizing for Plastic Alternatives is working to reduce plastic use as the best way to keep plastic out the Great Lakes.

“Researchers say that more than 22 million pounds of plastic pollution end up in the Great Lakes each year. And the best way to keep plastic out of the lakes is to reduce how much plastic we use in the first place,” Reda said. “It’s so great that Adopt-a-Beach Team Leader and Alliance Ambassador Eileen Ryan – and the Organizing for Plastic Alternatives team – are raising awareness about problems associated with single-use plastic in their community!”

Join a Beach Cleanup

Adopt-a-Beach is a fun, free, easy way to give back to your community and keep plastic pollution out of our Great Lakes.

The post Adopt-a-Beach Launches 20th Year of Data Collection appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

https://greatlakes.org/2023/06/adopt-a-beach-launches-20th-year-of-data-collection/

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Adopt-a-Beach Launches 20th Year of Data Collection

On: June 26, 2023

In: Adopt-a-Beach

20 years of Great Lakes litter data

Volunteers use a datasheet at every cleanup to tally each item they pick up. The event’s team leader tallies up all the data collected at the event and enters it into our online system.

Spring data stories: Green Bay, Cleveland, Chicago

Join a Beach Cleanup

Adopt-a-Beach is a fun, free, easy way to give back to your community and keep plastic pollution out of our Great Lakes.

The post Adopt-a-Beach Launches 20th Year of Data Collection appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

https://greatlakes.org/2023/06/adopt-a-beach-launches-20th-year-of-data-collection/

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20 Years of Adopt-a-Beach Data Collection: What Have We Learned?

On: April 21, 2023

In: Adopt-a-Beach, Plastic pollution in the Great Lakes

Adopt-a-Beach volunteers are on the front lines of keeping litter off our beaches and out of the Great Lakes. But did you know that these volunteers are also citizen scientists?

This year marks twenty years of data collection by Adopt-a- Beach volunteers. The Alliance for the Great Lakes created its online Great Lakes litter database in 2003 and added data collection to the Adopt-a-Beach program.

Filling a Data Gap, Identifying Troubling Trends

While scientists have been studying plastic pollution in the ocean for decades, there is much less research about plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. Adopt-a-Beach data collection is one way our Great Lakes community is beginning to fill that gap. The litter data collected by Adopt-a-Beach volunteers spans beaches and shorelines across all five Great Lakes. No lab or individual researcher could collect this extensive data set on their own. Volunteers have steadily created this dataset with each cleanup over the past twenty years.

Volunteers use a datasheet at every beach cleanup to tally each item they pick up. The event’s team leader tallies up all the data collected at the event and enters it into our online system. Counting each cigarette butt, bottle cap, or piece of tiny trash can sometimes feel a bit silly on the beach. But the power of all that information in one place is impressive, and it is showing us some troubling trends.

So, what do the data tell us? It’s not a pretty picture. Roughly 85% of the litter picked up at cleanups is made entirely or partially of plastic. Most of the litter picked up by volunteers falls into the category of “tiny trash,” which are pieces 5 millimeters or less. These are pieces of larger items that have broken down over time. Food-related trash, such as plastic bottles, plastic cutlery, and takeout containers, is about 25% of the litter picked up by volunteers.

A Clear and Present Danger

A researcher examines a test tube containing microplastics.

While beach litter is a serious concern, it is just the most visible part of a bigger problem. Sun, waves, and other environmental factors break down plastic left on the beach or other places into smaller and smaller pieces. And microfibers from our clothes or plastic packaging from detergent packs wash down the drain into our waterways. These microplastics are often invisible but are dangerous to wildlife, which mistake them for food.

Plastic has been found in Great Lakes fish dating back to the 1950s. That means, for nearly seven decades, there have been microplastics in the lakes, which are a drinking water source for about 40 million people. Today, researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology estimate that over 22 million pounds of plastic enter the Great Lakes annually. And University of Toronto researchers calculated that the amount of microplastics in the surface water of the Great Lakes is estimated at 1.2 million particles/km2. This is higher than plastic concentrations in the widely publicized Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Microplastics have been found in drinking water, bottled water, and beer. And it’s estimated that we each ingest about a credit card-sized amount of plastic each week. Much remains to be learned about the impacts of plastic on human health, but the early picture is concerning.

Plastic Producers Must Take Responsibility

Adopt-a-Beach volunteers do a great job keeping plastic out of our lakes and educating their communities about the plastic pollution problem. But beach cleanups alone can’t solve the magnitude of the Great Lakes’ plastic problem. A more systemic solution is required.

Currently, most efforts to stop plastic pollution put the responsibility on the last person who uses the plastic, such as recycling. But expecting end users to bear the burden of managing plastic pollution isn’t effective. For instance, only a fraction of plastic produced each year can be recycled, leaving the remainder to end up in landfills or as litter that lands in our waterways. This leaves the disposal burden – and significant costs – on individuals, small business owners, and local governments.

The alternative is to require plastic producers to be responsible for their products through their lifecycle, called extended producer responsibility. The concept is not new. Many European countries have such laws. And California recently passed legislation bringing the concept to the United States. These laws reduce or eliminate the most problematic plastics like styrofoam, require plastic manufacturers to pay for disposal, or eventually change their practices to produce less plastic in the first place.

For the first time, we have included plastic pollution as a top issue in our federal Great Lakes policy agenda. We are urging Congress to be a leader in curbing plastic pollution and pass legislation that:

Makes plastic producers responsible for reduction of waste
Reduces the federal government’s use of single-use plastics
Funds additional research on the public health impact of plastics

How You Can Help

Adopt-a-Beach volunteers record litter data on the beach.

Solving our Great Lakes plastic pollution problem will take all of us. Here are several ways you can help:

Refuse single-use plastics.

The best way to prevent plastic pollution from getting into the lakes is to stop using it in the first place.

Your voice makes a difference.

Visit our action center to send a letter to your members of Congress, urging them to adopt extended producer responsibility legislation.

Join a beach cleanup.

Adopt-a-Beach volunteers are on the frontlines of keeping plastic pollution out of the Great Lakes. It’s fun, easy, and an excellent way for your family, community group, or business to give back to the lakes. Learn how you can join a cleanup or host one of your own.

Join Us for Adopt-a-Beach

It’s a fun, free, easy way to give back to your community and keep plastic pollution out of our Great Lakes.

The post 20 Years of Adopt-a-Beach Data Collection: What Have We Learned? appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

https://greatlakes.org/2023/04/20-years-of-adopt-a-beach-data-collection-what-have-we-learned/

Check out past years’ data summaries here.

Adopt-a-Beach 2022: Year-End Results

On: November 14, 2022

In: Adopt-a-Beach

Every November, the weather turns cooler, the rush of beach cleanups begins to slow, and we take the time to compile our annual Adopt-a-Beach results.

The Alliance for the Great Lakes manages the largest coastal Great Lakes litter database of its kind. But we are simply the stewards. The database exists because of the decades of contributions by thousands of community scientists across the region who volunteer each year with the Adopt-a-Beach program.

2022 saw a surge of new and returning volunteers. It was exciting to welcome back many experienced Team Leaders and volunteers, as well as connect with so many new ones. Each individual volunteer who showed up, each individual piece of litter dutifully tallied on a data sheet, each individual gathering of Great Lakes stewards is captured in these numbers.

2022 Adopt-a-Beach results

Beach cleanups in all 8 Great Lakes states.

These numbers are also part of an important milestone that volunteers helped Adopt-a-Beach reach this year. Volunteers have collected more than half a million pounds of litter since the Alliance began tracking data in 2003! That’s half a million pounds of litter removed from our beach, our parks, and the source of our drinking water.

Data tells a story about plastic pollution

The data tells a story about volunteer participation and outreach efforts, and also about long-term trends in Great Lakes plastic pollution. Year after year, more than 80% of litter collected is plastic. 2022 was no exception.

Litter material. Plastic: 81%. Other materials: 19%.

Litter type. Tiny trash: 44%. Food-related: 25%. Smoking-related: 20%. Other: 11%.

The high plastic percentage is a signal that more systemic changes are needed – in addition to and beyond individual behavior change. We look forward to continuing to use the Adopt-a-Beach data to advocate for systemic solutions to plastic pollution.

Love, concern, & initiative

As Adopt-a-Beach staff visited volunteers across the region this season, a unifying theme that revealed itself was the deep pride and care Great Lakes residents have for our lakes. We saw and heard love, concern, and initiative everywhere we went.

Whether you participated in the Adopt-a-Beach program, are reading and learning more about Great Lakes issues, or have contacted elected officials about an issue that is important to you, thank you for taking action!

Host an Adopt-a-Beach Cleanup

It’s never too soon to schedule your next beach cleanup. Schedule your 2023 cleanups today.

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The post Adopt-a-Beach 2022: Year-End Results appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

https://greatlakes.org/2022/11/adopt-a-beach-2022-year-end-results/

Surfrider Foundation of Northern Michigan

Great Lakes Surfing & the Mission of the Surfrider Foundation

On: November 1, 2022

In: Adopt-a-Beach

Drew Youngedyke; a native Michigander with a deep love for the lakes and a volunteer with the Northern Michigan Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. In his day job, Drew is Director of Conservation Partnerships for the National Wildlife Federation Great Lakes Regional Center.

Resources

Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project

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The post Great Lakes Surfing & the Mission of the Surfrider Foundation appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.