Do we really need more findings to come out confirming what we already know?
Basically, a lot of plastic and garbage gets dumped in not just the oceans, but the Great Lakes too.
Living along Lake Michigan, I take great interest in the goings on and health of the Great Lakes.
On occasion, I voluntarily clean up Lake Michigan beaches from the garbage people leave behind, or the trash that washes ashore.
Oak Street Beach clean up on Lake Michigan
Now imagine 100 Olympic sized swimming pools, which equates to roughly 11 million pounds of plastic debris. That is how much is dumped into Lake Michigan every year according to a new study using computer simulation models at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Lake Michigan receives the most plastic pollution out of all of the Great Lakes due to urban areas such as Chicago and Milwaukee on its shores. These plastic pieces get easily moved around due to winds and the currents, causing most of Chicago and Milwaukee’s waste to end up along the eastern shore of the lake (Sorry Michigan).
Sadly, we are not doing much about this issue. We cannot just address the end point of pollution by continually cleaning it up. We need to start at the source of the problem, which is us, our overconsumption and lack of regard for where our waste ends up.
Lake Michigan, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
waste not want not 
What a sad situation indeed – 100 Olympic sized swimming pools is such a huge amount of rubbish, it’s almost unfathomable! Good on you for volunteering your time to help with the clean up effort, Marguerite! 🙂
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