THUNDER BAY — Cigarette butts carelessly discarded on city streets and sidewalks are finding their way into Lake Superior.
They are the largest component of trash that's been collected to date in special litter traps set up in 16 storm drains in different parts of Thunder Bay.
EcoSuperior installed the innovative devices as part of a program aimed at identifying the types and amount of litter entering local waterways.
In just over two months, over 500 pieces of litter have been diverted from Lake Superior, 60 per cent of which was cigarette butts.
Other major components of the debris collected so far included food packaging such as candy wrappers and drink container lids, and large fragments of plastic.
Stormwater catch basins are a big source of the 20 million pounds of plastics, mostly public litter, estimated to be entering the Great Lakes each year.
Kennedy Bucci, who holds the position of Rethinking Waste Coordinator with EcoSuperior, said the local project not only prevents some litter from reaching Lake Superior but provides data that will inform long-term solutions to urban litter here at home and around the world.
EcoSuperior received a grant for the traps from the charitable arm of the US-based Council of the Great Lakes Region through funding from Michigan-based Dart Container Corporation, a leading manufacturer of sustainable beverage and food packaging.
Support for the project was also received from the Ontario Community Environment Fund.
"The results of our project will be used locally to improve waste literacy in our community and inform better waste management solutions," Bucci said.
Data from the Thunder Bay initiative will be uploaded to the International Trash Trap Network, a global database used by scientists and advocates for pollution mitigation.
EcoSuperior plans to continue monitoring the litter traps until sometime in October.
The organization is also continuing to promote the Adopt A Storm Drain project, which encourages Thunder Bay residents to remove and dispose of debris from catchbasins near their homes before the material gets washed into the storm sewer.
Of the city's 14,000 drains, about 325 are currently being kept clear by homeowners.
