Researchers push for industry cleanup of plastic pellets from Mimico Creek

By Mark McAllister

Every time Nicholas Tsui makes his way to the mouth of Mimico Creek, he finds a treasure.

After a closer look into the water along the edge of the rocks, the student from the University of Toronto’s sustainability management program comes across exactly what he’s looking for. It’s not necessarily something others would want to find.

Mixed in with other washed-up waste at Humber Bay Park is a large number of tiny plastic pellets, or “nurdles,” polluting one of Toronto’s waterways. The pellets are used as the raw material for producing most plastic goods. They are two to five millimetres in size and cylindrical in shape, before being melted down and molded into larger products.

Tsui said they often make their way into the environment when being spilled during shipping to businesses that use them for manufacturing. The plastics industry says there are at least more than two dozen manufacturers in the Mimico Creek area.

“It’s not necessarily a very big watershed or a very big creek, but it has quite a high amount of plastic companies,” Tsui said.

A map of Humber Bay Park East.

 

Ontario is the third-largest plastic manufacturing sector in North America, according to the industry. The high concentration of companies in Etobicoke means an increase in the chance the pellets will make their way into that area’s environment.

If some of them fall on a facility floor or in a loading dock and make their way into storm drain, chances are they will flow toward Mimico Creek.

Tsui is helping lead a project focused on measuring the number of pellets found in the area and on reducing the amount in collaboration with Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) as well as the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA).

The goal of Operation Sweep the Creek is to bring local stakeholders together and get companies to reduce emissions.

“Since the industry is the one that is releasing the microplastics into the environment, that’s also a really good way for them to mitigate it and integrate it into a part of their value chain as well,” Tsui said.

An estimated 230,000 tonnes of plastic pellets are leaking into the world’s lakes and oceans annually.

In Toronto, the problem has been tracked beyond Mimico Creek. In 2016, volunteers for The Great Nurdle Hunt reported finding between 100 and 1,000 pellets with less than 10 minutes of searching the shores near Scarborough’s Guildwood Beach.

For its part, the plastics industry has launched its own efforts internationally, with new standards and best practices for companies to adopt and keep the small beads from being spilled.

Some of the suggestions include adding filtering and containment systems, as well as sweeping and vacuuming regularly to prevent pollution.

“Accidents do happen and part of their responsibility is to report that to the authorities,” Joe Hruska, the vice president of sustainability for the CPIA, said. “If you’re losing pellets you’re losing money off your bottom line, but the greater impact is on the environment.”

The program, Operation Clean Sweep, has existed for more than 25 years and is supported by the CPIA but remains voluntary for producers and manufacturers at this point. The Ontario government is supporting research and offering data to help provide information to the industry, but there’s no indication of new provincial policy or fines for noncompliance.

“Ontario is committed to reducing plastic pollution, including microplastics that enter our waters,” reads a Ministry of the Environment statement to CityNews. “In addition to leading initiatives to improve recycling and re-use of plastics in Ontario, we are working with other provinces and Canada through the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment on a Zero Plastic Waste strategy.”

Citizen-scientist initiatives like the UK’s Great Nurdle Hunt and the Nurdle Patrol at Padre Island in Texas are dedicated to helping clean coastlines and beaches. Each document their findings and highlight the impact the pellets have on the environment.

“Seabirds ingest pellets as a representation of food,” Tsui said. “When ingesting pellets, it ends up blocking or filling up their digestive tracts and causes them to actually feel full and starve to death.”

Tsui would rather not point fingers and believes it’s possible to collaborate with both the plastics industry and government to come up with solutions.

The research continues, which means continuing to walk the edge of Mimico Creek, collecting more pellets. The hope is that he’ll find fewer with each trip.

 

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