Special traps are capturing litter before it enters Thunder Bay’s storm drains.
Cigarette butts carelessly discarded on city streets and sidewalks are making their way into Lake Superior.
They are the largest component of trash collected so far in special litter traps set up in 16 storm drains across Thunder Bay.
EcoSuperior installed these innovative devices as part of a program aimed at identifying the types and amounts of litter entering local waterways.
In just over two months, more than 500 pieces of litter have been diverted from Lake Superior, 60 percent of which were cigarette butts.
Other major components of the debris collected included food packaging such as candy wrappers and drink container lids, as well as large fragments of plastic.
Stormwater catch basins are a significant source of the estimated 20 million pounds of plastics, mostly public litter, entering the Great Lakes each year.
Kennedy Bucci, Rethinking Waste Coordinator with EcoSuperior, said the local project not only prevents some litter from reaching Lake Superior but also provides data to inform long-term solutions to urban litter locally and globally.
EcoSuperior received a grant for the traps from the charitable arm of the US-based Council of the Great Lakes Region, funded by Michigan-based Dart Container Corporation, a leading manufacturer of sustainable beverage and food packaging.
EcoSuperior plans to continue monitoring the litter traps until October.
The organization is also promoting the Adopt A Storm Drain project, encouraging Thunder Bay residents to remove and dispose of debris from catch basins near their homes before it gets washed into the storm sewer.
Out of the city’s 14,000 drains, approximately 325 are currently being kept clear by homeowners.
