Great Lakes Plastic Pollution

Plastic pollution is a significant problem around the world. There always seems to be trash littered everywhere. It is in the water, ground and the entire environment. The problem in Western Europe has been escalating. Vannessa Goodship, author of many articles in the GALE database, states, “ In Western Europe it is currently estimated to be rising at 4% a year,” (Goodship pg.4). This is a problem that increases every year. There needs to be a solution to keep the inflation down. The pollution is currently affecting the beautiful Great Lakes as well. Samples from Lake Erie have an enormous amount of plastic particles. Most of these samples were microplastics, (Sigler pg.15). Andrew Reeves, a professor of political science, states, “A substantial portion of the floating Great Lakes plastic comes from exfoliating microbeads found in facial scrubs,” (Reeves pg.3). …show more content…
Further research shows that facial cleansers have around 300,000 microbeads in a bottle, (Reeves pg.4). This will affect the Great Lakes as long as there is a large amount of microbeads in each bottle. These small beads can be absorbed by anything in the lakes. They can be ingested by plankton or larger organisms. If absorbed, the beads can cause damage to the organism's body. Marcus Eriksen, a widely renowned environmentalist, also provides information on why it is significant, “We estimate that at least 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing 268,940 tons are currently floating at sea,” (Eriksen pg.18). The real problem is that anyone can cause plastic pollution. It can happen without even realizing