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This year’s slogan for World Migratory Bird Day on Oct. 12 is ‘Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution.’
Unfortunately, the amount of plastic in our air, water and soil is increasing daily by alarming amounts.
“There were around 3,000 plastic materials when I started researching microplastics over a decade ago,” states microplastics scientist Heather Leslie, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. “Now there are over 9,600. That’s a huge number, each with its own chemical makeup and potential toxicity.”
Today, microplastics have been located in human blood, brains, lungs, reproductive organs, and breast milk. Plastic can cause cell damage, cognitive issues, fertility issues, cancer, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease. The Guardian reported in early 2024 that people who died from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease had 10 times more plastic in their brains than people without those health issues. We are all impacted, including wildlife.
Scientists point out an estimated 11 billion pounds of microplastics sit on the ocean floors, and they are found in rivers, wetlands, lakes and agricultural soil. In the northern Pacific Ocean, there is a gigantic heap of floating plastic litter known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is made up mostly of microplastics. It is twice the size of Texas. Not only is our health impacted negatively in a myriad of ways, but significant amounts of greenhouse gases are generated when plastics are produced from fossil fuels.
Thousands of pounds of plastic are washed up on beaches every single day all around the world.
Since all the oceans have turned into plastic soup, most of the life in the oceans is impacted in a life-threatening way.
For example, every time a seabird ingests food from the ocean surfaces, it also ends up eating plastic that is floating on the water’s surface. Sadly, many juvenile birds die agonizing deaths after ingesting foods loaded with plastic given to them by their adult parents.
When birds ingest plastic, it reduces the volume in their stomachs, leading to death by starvation.
Usually, when scientists cut open the stomachs of dead seabirds, their stomachs are filled with plastic.
Seabirds mistake plastic debris for prey. Some birds, like albatrosses, eat fish eggs that are laid on floating debris. Approximately one-third of the albatross chicks die every year. Adults will feed brightly coloured plastic to chicks. Since it cannot be regurgitated, many of the chicks will die.
As well, all the chemicals found in the plastic add additional threats to their survival.
Scientists report that seabirds that have ingested plastic and survived are smaller, have shorter wingspans, have smaller bills, and have a smaller body mass. The seabirds that do survive are not healthy as the presence of plastic impacts the birds’ kidney function, resulting in higher concentrations of uric acid. The plastic also negatively impacts their cholesterol and enzymes.
Nests of seabirds have also been discovered to be lined with fishing lines and ropes rather than seaweeds and twigs. Time will only tell how this will impact the baby chicks.
Another problem facing birds are layers of plastic found in wetlands, including abandoned fishing gear, which can lead to many cases of entanglements, trapping, or infections of the birds where they end up dying slow, horrible deaths.
So, you may wonder about Lake Simcoe and plastic pollution. The good news is that the Journal of Great Lakes Research in February 2021 reported that Lake Simcoe is a dimictic lake, noting “microplastics and other anthropogenic microplastics are present in Lake Simcoe, but at lower abundances than at locations impacted by larger population centres in other large freshwater lakes such as Lake Ontario and Erie of the Great Lakes.”
Residents of Barrie concerned about plastic pollution in Kempenfelt Bay just got some good news. The Barrie Marina became the first in all of Canada to pilot the PixieDrone. This technology is an initiative of Pollution Probe and the Council of the Great Lakes. The PixieDrone is a remotely operated drone that removes floating plastic debris, metal and paper from bodies of water. It can actually remove 160 litres of debris at a time through its front receptacle.
Two environmental organizations also provided Barrie with Seabins that trap garbage along the marina’s docks. I would assume the Seabins are not operational when the edge of the lake is lined with millions of fish eggs.
Whenever I go on a walk, I always carry a pair of long tongs and a bag to pick up litter. Once kids are given a litter picker or tongs to pick up litter, they think of it as a game and become more motivated to pick up garbage. But, no one should have to pick up other people’s discarded litter. If you can manage to carry a paper cup full of coffee while walking, surely you can continue to carry it while it is empty to be properly discarded.
The air we breathe is sacred, the water we drink is sacred, and the soil that sustains us is sacred. We all have equal rights to benefit from Earth’s biodiversity. But, that right is trampled on when certain individuals and organizations treat Mother Earth like a gigantic garbage bin.
So, we all need to make a concerted effort to reduce litter. Write to your local representatives to urge them to explore and enact every legislation possible to drastically reduce plastics, including shifting away from fossil fuel-based plastics to plant-based plastics.
Gwen Petreman
Barrie Bird Friendly Team, co-founder
