A pilot project currently underway in Collingwood is putting the contents of the town’s gutters under intense scrutiny.
Five women spent a day last week meticulously sorting through the contents several buckets of garbage caught in waste traps installed in eight Collingwood storm drains.
They were staff working for Georgian Bay Forever, which is the non-profit organization that brought Gutter Bins to Collingwood, along with a few other plastic/waste diversion initiatives aimed at keeping garbage and microplastics out of Georgian Bay.
On the table in front of the group was an indistinguishable pile of dark mush. Up close, it contained used masks, cigarette butts, food wrappers, bits of glass, pieces of plastic, twigs and leaves.
“Cigarette butts are our main culprit,” explained Nicole Dimond, project coordinator for the Georgian Bay Forever Diversion 2.0 program.
She and four summer students, including Emma Christenson, Sofie Ohrlin, Kerry Lynch (all from Collingwood, and Bronwyn Kirby, of New Tecumseth, were combing through the waste -– literally using tweezers for some items – as part of a “deep dive waste characterization.”
“We want to know what kind of waste is in these devices,” she said. “It’s great we’re removing it and preventing it from going into the bay, but knowing what actually is in these devices is also important so we can come up with a plan to help reduce it.”
The contents were gathered from eight Gutter Bins placed in downtown locations. Collingwood was the first municipality in Canada to have the Frog Creek Partners’ product installed in the storm drains.
The bins use a fine filter bag – about three feet long – to collect debris while allowing water to pass through. The bag hangs from the storm drain, catching whatever washes down after a rainfall.
Georgian Bay Forever approached the Town of Collingwood to gauge interest in participating in a year-long pilot project with the Gutter Bins, which were purchased thanks to funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Daniel Cole, Collingwood’s manager of public works, said the town was interested and happy to participate in the program because of the environmental benefits.
He said it’s too soon to tell whether the Gutter Bins will remain in use long-term, but the town will get to keep the devices after the pilot project.
The information gathered and provided by Georgian Bay Forever will, said Cole, help the town make decisions on how to use the bins in the future.
“Any trash we can remove prior to entering a storm sewer is a benefit,” said Cole.
Collingwood’s storm drains empty into either a stormwater management pond or other body of water (including the bay). The water that goes through storm drains does not end up at the wastewater treatment plant.
“I think there is, maybe, a lack of knowledge that most of these storm drains aren’t going somewhere to be treated,” said Dimond. “These cigarette butts, foam and plastic, if they hadn’t been caught by Gutter Bins, are going into the bay.”
Georgian Bay Forever will be using the information gathered from waste characterizations and Collingwood’s experience using the Gutter Bins in the hopes it will be an effective and convenient solutions for other municipalities to implement.
The Gutter Bins will need to be emptied about once every four months for as long as they are installed. The company website indicates they have a three-year warranty.
“We want to make a difference and remove plastics, but we want to do it in a way that is effective and not overly time-consuming,” said Dimond.
Making a difference is exactly what attracted Georgian Bay Forever summer student Bronwyn Kirby, a university student living in New Tecumseth and attending Lakehead University in Orillia for Environmental Sustainability.
“I think the environment is the most important issue facing the world, and I want to be able to make a difference. I’m excited to be able to do it close to home,” she said.
The Gutter Bins have been tested in colder climate states in America, but town staff and Georgian Bay Forever will be monitoring them in Collingwood throughout the winter to confirm they don’t create any issues.
There are other diversion programs at work in Collingwood under the supervision of Georgian Bay Forever.
The town worked with Georgian Bay Forever and the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup to install three Seabins in Collingwood Harbour. A Seabin floats and collects debris and microplastics as small as two millimetres from the water. One seabin can collect 3.9 kilograms of debris in a day.
Georgian Bay Forever is also offering free microfibre filters for Collingwood residents who are using town water. The filter attaches to your washing machine to catch microfibres from synthetic clothing before the water goes to the wastewater treatment plant.
If you’re interested in a filter, you can contact [email protected] to see if you qualify for a filter on your washing machine.
