In an effort to remove harmful waste from Toronto’s harbour, 92,891 small pieces of plastic pollution were removed over the course of four months.
PortsToronto and the University of Toronto Trash Team shared their 2022 Trash Trapping Program results in a release on Tuesday.
Tiny debris, including microplastics, which are items smaller than five millimetres, were by far the most common items by count.
“Our trash trapping season included the highest number of trash traps yet,” Head of Operations at the U of T Trash Team, Dr. Chelsea Rochman said in the release.
There were also hundreds to thousands of pieces of hard plastic fragments broken off from larger plastic items and plastic packaging waste, including food wrappers, cigarette butts, bottle caps, cigar tips and plastic straws.
For the first time, among the top ten large items found were “fatbergs.” These are rock-like masses formed by a combination of fat, grease and wastewater materials, which congeal to things like toilet paper, wet wipes and diapers.
The 2022 program collected more than 100 fatbergs, serving as a powerful reminder to residents to carefully consider what is washed down the drain.
Researchers estimate that 10,000 metric tonnes of waste enter the Great Lakes each year, and much of it plastic, according to the release.
Results from the Trash Trapping Program are published each year to raise awareness and help inform policy.
