Between the storms

Storms rushed in over lake Huron and onto the shore all weekend. The dark clouds moving over the open horizon look especially menacing this time of year (and in 2011 the tornado that hit Goderich on August 21 was especially devastating).

The storms thundering over the lake are beautiful to watch, so during a break in the clouds, we headed down to the beach for a short hike with Elliot.

While on the beach, we combed through the sand and driftwood to find Styrofoam and other plastics.

Waves and storms churn up these small pieces of plastic until they become harder and harder to recover. Foam is one of the major macroplastic materials contaminating the Great Lakes, and once it’s in nature, its light weight and ability to fragment make it difficult to recover.

But foam fragments were not the only debris on the beach that morning. We also found a rubber tire, which we carried up the bluff and properly disposed of at a tire recycler. In total, we removed over 8 kg of debris from the beach in one short stroll before the next storm rushed in to churn the shore and replace some of the materials.

Through our time on Lake Huron we removed 24 kg of debris (including the two tires we found on the beach) and recycled 69 cans and bottles. Our goal was to leave this area cleaner than we found it, and removing some of the debris from these wild, beautiful beaches is our way of showing our appreciation for this shoreline.

Here’s a short video of our cleanup: