Great Lakes filling with microplastics, researcher says

[KamaAina]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/microplastics-great-lakes-1.3553167

The Great Lakes are filled with the world's largest supply of freshwater, but an upcoming workshop in Windsor, Ont. is trying to highlight the fact the lakes are also filled with plastic.

By one estimate, there are at least half-a-million pieces of plastic per square kilometre in areas of the Great Lakes. That translates to 2,500 pieces of plastic per football field, according to Hans Durr, a professor with the Ecohydrology Research Group at the University of Waterloo....

Microplastics are small pieces of broken down plastic less than five millimetres in diameter. Included in that category are the small microbeads found in products like facial scrubs, Durr explained.

"The problem is these are so small we cannot even see them and that organisms such as mussels, fish or birds eat these particles," he said.

Plastic. It's what's for dinner.

[yourpaljoey]

1. Delicious with the secret sauce!