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^{This is a guest post by Lynn Tremain, a retired elementary school teacher living in Ontario. Her love of nature is fueled by a 45-year (love) relationship with Pinery Provincial Park on the shores of beautiful Lake Huron. Lynn is committed to raising awareness with her local MP, Lianne Rood, on the issue of plastic pollution at the lake. You can find Lynn on Instagram @grancleansthebeach. Her photos are featured throughout this blog.}

As someone who has always cared about the environment, I have been fortunate enough to find a small, manageable action that has led to opportunities to raise awareness about the problem of plastic pollution on our beaches. Because plastic is definitely there and we all need to work together to stop it.

In April 2021, I became a regular trash collector along the shores of Lake Huron in southwestern Ontario. My original plan was to pick up a bag of trash every day for that month as an expression of love and gratitude for our planet and Lake Huron. The month-long adventure has turned into a passion and now I can’t go anywhere without picking up trash!

This simple activity provided a hands-on opportunity to think and learn a lot. The biggest revelation was the excessive amount of plastic pollution in the environment. We live in a ‘throwaway culture’. But there is a problem: waste, and plastic in particular, is never really go away. All of our trash has to go somewhere, regardless of whether we throw it in the right place or carelessly toss it on the ground.

Plastic waste on the beach

The beaches in this area generally seem relatively “clean”. However, there is a major problem with litter, which is thoughtlessly thrown on the ground. Although extremely annoying, this type of waste is relatively easy to see and pick up.

Much harder to find are the numerous broken pieces of plastic hidden in the sticks and natural litter along the coast. Because these plastics are not immediately visible, it is easy for people to miss the scale of our problem with plastics in the environment.

Most common plastic litter finds

After cleaning out 1,100 supermarket-sized garbage bags, these are the top picks – and most of them are made of some form of plastic:

• Packaging: water bottles, other beverage containers, caps, polystyrene plates, plastic cutlery, take-out containers – including cups and lids, food packaging – including chip bags, individually wrapped cheese strings, candy wrappers, single-use condiment containers, yogurt tubes
• Cigarette Butts, Cigarillo Tips

• Building materials, Big O drainage tiles, erosion control cloth, polystyrene insulation
• Beach gear, sunglasses, goggles, sandals, socks and cheap plastic beach toys

Helium balloons have become a focus of mine. I have found 1,700 balloons along a very small portion of Lake Huron’s 3,800-mile shoreline. Balloons and their attached or loose ribbons are problematic for many reasons. They pose a danger to wildlife through ingestion and entanglement. Not to mention the fact that Helium is a finite resource that is vital to space travel, medicine and MRI scanners. Why are we wasting it?

Unfortunately, the list of finds could go on and on. Since the ban on single-use plastics in 2022, I’ve seen fewer plastic bags, straws, and cutlery in the environment, although I still find a few a week. That’s why we need to keep up the pressure on elected officials to keep this ban in place, and even add more. Helium balloons and disposable coffee cups and lids should be at the top of the list.

Besides cleaning up litter, what else can we do to combat plastic pollution?

Let’s face it, there is still a lot of work to be done to tackle the problem of plastic pollution. As individuals, there are many ways we can reduce our plastic use. But individuals alone cannot solve the huge problem of plastic in our environment, including in our bodies. Systemic change needs to be invested in by all levels of government, plastic manufacturers and supermarkets. And we can use our voices to demand it.

Perhaps it is easier to start with our own actions. I believe that individual actions matter, although I have no illusion that cleaning up plastic and litter on the beach will have a long-term impact. But our actions do have the potential to influence the thinking of others.

If you’re looking for advice from an amateur beach picker, this is it:

Start small, start with something simple, and start with something that inspires your passion. Chances are you’ll be amazed at what comes out of your simple plan!