Reducing Great Lakes plastic pollution won't be easy; here's what can be done

An estimated 22 million pounds of plastic pollute the Great Lakes annually, adding to the tons of plastic waste already in the water and sediment that threatens the health of fish, wildlife and humans alike.

So what's to be done?

When it comes to solutions, there are actually two major problems: reducing the influx of plastics into the lakes and handling the microplastics already there.

"Once it's in the lakes, it's extremely difficult to get it out," said Jennifer Caddick, vice president of communication and engagement at the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes, which organizes beach cleanups along the shorelines of all five Great Lakes.

Past efforts to address environmental messes in the Great Lakes highlight how effective solutions to both problems will be costly, time-consuming, scientifically challenging and sometimes politically contentious.

For example, the 1972 U.S.-Canadian Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement designated 43 heavily contaminated areas of concern as priorities for environmental cleanup. Almost 50 years and billions of dollars later, only eight of those sites have been dropped from the list, with a ninth, northeast Ohio's Ashtabula River that flows into Lake Erie, recently proposed for delisting.

Similarly, sea lampreys invaded lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior in the 1930s, outcompeting native species like lake trout. Nine decades later, scientists are still seeking the best way to control them, and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission concedes that "total elimination of sea lamprey populations from the Great Lakes is unlikely."

The first challenge is slashing the amount of plastics entering the lakes and tributaries.

Part of the answer is encouraging local governments to act on their own turf, as is happening in St. Catharines, Ontario, which has banned plastic water bottles and is phasing out other plastic beverage containers at city-owned facilities. The Lake Ontario city about 10 miles northwest of Niagara Falls also banned plastic straws and eating utensils at its facilities, including a hockey arena, and requires biodegradable plates and utensils at festivals in city park.

"We can be on the leading edge, the front end," said Walter Sendzik, the St. Catharines, Ontario, mayor who chairs the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a coalition of 131 U.S. and Canadian mayors and local officials.

"We're the closest to the shoreline, we're the closest to the water source," Sendzik said of Great Lakes communities.

State, provincial and federal governments have more regulatory authority, "but their proximity to the actual issues is one, two, three, four steps removed," he said.

State and provincial governments could take broader regulatory measures to discourage use and disposal of plastic products that may end up in the lakes.

Eight states—including New York in the Great Lakes region—have enacted some form of restrictions on single-use plastic bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

On Chicago City Council, there's a proposed ordinance to prohibit restaurants from using plastic clamshells, bowls, plates, trays, cups and cartons and only allowing them to give patrons plastic utensils or straws upon request.

In April, Michigan state Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, introduced a bill that would give localities the option of banning, taxing or imposing fees on single-use plastic bags. It would repeal a 2016 "ban the ban" law, championed by the restaurant industry and other retailers, that prohibits local governments from imposing such restrictions.

"Other communities have shown success in keeping trash off their roads, beautifying their communities and keeping this trash out of their rivers and streams by introducing limits, deposits or other creative ideas to improve plastic bag recycling," Irwin said in a statement.

Odds of Irwin's bill passing in the state's GOP-controlled Legislature are slim, however.

Past national actions on both sides of the border have helped.

In 2015, Congress banned the manufacture, packaging and distribution of personal care items and toiletries containing plastic microbeads such as facial scrubs and toothpastes. The Canadian government followed suit in 2018.

Both national governments acted after lobbying by mayors citing scientific findings and environmentalists' concerns, Sendzik said.

"It's a really good example of how the political will of mayors can change the course of something as important as taking out a product proven detrimental to our waterways," he said.

Recently reintroduced legislation in Congress would hold producers of packaging, single-use products, beverage containers and food service products financially responsible to collect, manage and recycle or compost the products after consumer use.

Dubbed the "Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act of 2021," it would phase out some single-use products such as plastic utensils, establish beverage container deposit programs and increase the percentage of recycled content required in beverage containers. Congress has failed to act on similar legislation in the past.

Environmental groups have urged policymakers to take a broader approach to curbing plastics in consumer products instead of letting a smattering of communities enact bans on certain types of plastic products.

"We need to move away from this whack-a-mole approach to dealing with one problem at a time—a plastic bag ban or a plastic straw ban, the item of the moment," said Caddick at the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Eric Freedman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism professor and director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.