“My goal is to get all of the nurdles [small plastic pellets about the size of a lentil] out of the river this summer,” said Bryan McNeill on Facebook, where he documents his #riverloot collection project.
[media-credit name=”Heather Gilmore” align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
“The Grand River Conservation Authority says that they ‘don’t have the man-power’ to help me clean the plastic deposits out of the river,” he adds.
[media-credit name=”Heather Gilmore” align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
According to McNeill, the ministry of the environment is investigating where the plastic came from, but he questions: “If no one can be blamed for the plastic pellets in the river, who will clean it up?”
[media-credit name=”Heather Gilmore” align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
McNeill adds that the company responsible for this “should be accountable for their spill into the river, which creates bio-magnification and bio-accumulation, while also sending more plastic along the Grand River system and eventually into the ocean.”
[media-credit name=”Heather Gilmore” align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
McNeill fills regular kitchen garbage bags with plastic pellets; “this will be my 34th bag this summer.”
[media-credit name=”Heather Gilmore” align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
As he paddled away in his canoe to continue his work, McNeill told The Ontarion that he hoped students would see this article and it would, at the very least, prevent all of the other litter he picks up during his “river loot collection.”
Photos by Heather Gilmore