Tagging Trash Trips
A Project Research Trash Flow in Georgian Bay
What can we do to protect Georgian Bay from pollution?
Our Tagging Trash Trips project was designed to collect data regarding how and where trash is dispersed into the Georgian Bay waters, giving us the opportunity to divert it. The data recorded during this project is now set to be shared on a global scale by an outside data analyst.
Pollutants That Enter Georgian Bay Daily
Trash
Ten million tons of garbage and pollution enter our Great Lakes every year from various sources including storm sewers, blown trash, and the act of littering.
Sewage
Raw sewage overflows (RSO) release millions upon millions of raw or partially treated sewage during storm events that spill directly into Georgian Bay and Great Lakes water because of old infrastructure in many coastal municipalities which are still using combined drains.
Toxins
Regardless of the entry source of pollution into our water, toxic elements can contaminate and potentially destroy water quality for both humans and animals alike.
How it Works
We used GPS-tracked bottles deployed from pre-determined locations in order to track the route that waste and pollution may take. The GPS bottles pinged their locations every hour for roughly two weeks. Once the bottles were retrieved, they were deployed and tracked again.
During the off-season, the data was analyzed with consideration for currents and wind velocity as factors for how trash and other pollutants move through Georgian Bay.
Thank you to
RBC Foundation for their generous support as our sponsor for this project.