How LittaTraps are keeping litter in Thunder Bay, Ont. out of Lake Superior

Rajpreet Sahota · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 24, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

An biology inaugural successful Thunder Bay is helping support garbage retired of section waterways, with astir 1,500 pieces of litter diverted from tempest drains successful the past year.

EcoSuperior installed 16 LittaTraps successful tempest drains crossed the metropolis successful the outpouring of 2024. The mesh filters, designed by Enviropod, seizure debris earlier it tin participate Lake Superior. Data from the traps provides penetration into contamination patterns and informs discarded absorption decisions.

According to EcoSuperior's latest findings, cigaret butts accounted for 60 per cent of the debris collected—916 successful total. The traps besides captured 118 integrative fragments, 108 pieces of integrative film, 99 nutrient wrappers and 117 different pieces of waste, including solid and metal.

Kennedy Bucci, EcoSuperior's Rethinking Waste Coordinator, said the programme has successfully highlighted contamination hotspots, peculiarly successful nationalist parks and high-traffic areas.

"Based connected the archetypal summer's worthy of data, we cognize that cigaret butts are a large issue. We besides cognize that our nationalist parks, wherever radical congregate, are a hotspot for pollution. So we've already installed much cigaret ashtray receptacles astatine our highest hotspot location" Bucci said. "Hopefully we tin commencement these initiatives that forestall litter from getting connected the crushed and ending up successful our section environment."

The litter collected done the LittaTraps programme is besides logged into the International Trash Trap Network, led by Ocean Conservancy and the University of Toronto (U of T) Trash Team.

Mark Fisher, president and CEO of the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR), said specified initiatives are important for keeping the Great Lakes clean.

"In the Great Lakes alone, it is estimated that 20 cardinal pounds of plastics, mostly nationalist litter, could beryllium entering the lakes each twelvemonth done a assortment of sources and pathways, including section stormwater drawback basins," Fisher said erstwhile the inaugural was archetypal launched successful Thunder Bay.

Here's what EcoSuperior had to accidental erstwhile it archetypal launched LittaTraps:

City officials are besides backing the inaugural aft seeing the results. Aaron Ward, manager of engineering for Thunder Bay, said the programme is simply a measurement successful the close direction.

"Any garbage oregon debris that we tin support retired of our tempest sewer system, which yet enters Lake Superior, is simply a affirmative for our environment," Ward said. "We look guardant to proceed moving with EcoSuperior to support this palmy programme running."

EcoSuperior hopes to grow the LittaTraps programme successful the future, perchance adding much filters successful nationalist spaces and studying microplastics successful tempest drains.

Community members tin enactment the inaugural by advocating for discarded simplification programs and contacting metropolis councillors to dependable their enactment for continued biology efforts, Bucci said.