A Bayfield-area clean water advocate was the guest speaker at the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority's Conservationist of the Year event.
Jennifer Pate says the conservation authority was one of the sponsors of an event last summer that saw 1,000 people travel across all of the Great Lakes taking water samples for microplastics and conducting shoreline clean-ups.
Pate says the main goal of the project was to raise awareness of the amount of plastic that is now found in the Great Lakes, and it's very difficult to understand the extent of the problem without seeing it first hand.
Pate says plastics are present in a variety of forms, but most plastics eventually break down to tiny microbeads similar to the ones found in a number of cosmetic problems.
But she adds one of the biggest problems today are microfibers that are found in all kinds of clothing. She says every time a microfibre fleece is washed, about two million unseen microfibre threads are released.
Pate says the microbeads in most cosmetic problems have been banned and will start to be phased out in the Great Lakes in 2018. But Pate says it is possible to find out where microbeads or microthreads are present in a product by reading the label.
Mels and Ruthanne van der Laan of Cold Stream Ranch near Denfield, in Middlesex County were named Conservationists of the Year.
(Left to right) George Irvin, Vice-Chair ABCA, Mels van der Laan, Ruthanne van der Laan - ABCA Conservationists of the Year. (Bob Montgomery photo)
