There are ten sea bins that have been deployed in Lake Ontario by the self-named University of Toronto Trash Team. If you manage to come across one of their baskets, there’s a high chance it’s barely staying buoyant. This is because it is being weighed down by all the contents inside.
University of Toronto Environmental science student Ishani Sharma pulled out an onslaught of plastic. Items ranged from syringes to food wrappers, to beverage containers, to bottle caps and cups. Bigger pieces are easy to track but researchers say the number of microplastics in the water is shocking.
Sharma explained in the pile pulled out from the bin “it’s probably close to 1,600 microplastics that we can count,” That tally is only from one single bucket and after only 24 hours in the water. Since there are 10 buckets in the water, they are collecting 10,000 pieces of microplastics each day.
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