Science on Tap tackles plastics

CORNWALL, Ontario – In the latest edition of the Science on Tap series presented by the St. Lawrence River Institute will tackle the problem of plastics in the environment of Canada.

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, Gilles Gagnier and Jason Muscant will present Canadian Geographic‘s new initiative, 10,000 Changes.

The 10,000 Changes initiative challenges Canadians to make small changes to help reduce their plastics consumption and keep plastics out of the environment.

“It is estimated that about 20 million pounds of plastic waste enters the Great Lakes each year that will never decompose entirely but is broken down, eventually into microplastics that can be too small for the naked eye to see”, reports Dr. Jeff Ridal, Executive Director of the River Institute who also sits on the Advisory Board for the Smart Management of Microplastic Pollution in the Great Lakes project led by Wayne State University in Detroit. “Because of their small size, microplastics are hard to detect and measure, and we are just in the early stages of understanding their impacts on human and ecological health.”

Louis Savard, Program Lead at River Labs, said that plastics is a real challenge that the St. Lawrence River faces and for that reason, they reached out to Gagnier and Muscant.

“Having identified plastic waste as a top priority topic, we immediately reached out to Gilles Gagnier, who lives locally and is the Chief Operating Officer of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Through Canadian Geographic, Gilles and colleague, Jason Muscant, recently launched the 10,000 Changes project empowering all Canadians to make small changes for an overall large impact,” she said. “We’re so excited that Gilles and Jason are willing and available to come speak to us about this awesome project. We really think this is going to turn into something even bigger in our community.”

Science on Tap starts at 7 p.m. and guests are asked to register in advance at https://www.riverinstitute.ca/ontap/