How will we keep the Great Lakes great?

Ontario needs deposit returns for plastic bottles

Recently, the Great Lakes made headlines after U.S. President Donald Trump announced proposed funding cuts to the U.S. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). The announcement not only raised alarm bells for scientists, environmentalists, and Great Lakes communities, but it also raised an important question: Are we doing enough to keep the Great Lakes great?

The Great Lakes are a source of drinking water for more than 40 million Canadians and Americans, and the cornerstone of a $6-trillion economy. But they also face many threats: invasive species, like Asian carp; pollutants from urban and rural areas that can make the water toxic and kill fish; plastic garbage which is accumulating in the lakes in concentrations rivalling those found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch; and climate change which is leading to warmer waters, and changing water levels.

In the face of these threats, if we want to ensure the health of the Great Lakes for current and future generations, provincial, federal, and state governments are going to have to step up, and put real dollars on the table for science, conservation, and restoration programs.

The GLRI plays an essential role in cleaning up, restoring, and protecting the lakes, which are the world’s largest source of surface freshwater. Over the last seven years, more than $2 billion has been invested in the Great Lakes to help fight toxic algae blooms, block invasive Asian carp, remove contaminated sediments, and restore degraded ecosystems. This U.S. funding has been hailed as a highly successful initiative that enhances scientific understanding of the lakes, and provides jobs. As a matter of fact, every restoration dollar invested in the Great Lakes creates approximately two dollars in economic return.

But now, all of that work is at risk of being undone.

The Great Lakes are a shared resource, and a shared responsibility. Cuts to Great Lakes restoration funding in the U.S. will be felt in Canada. Now more than ever, it’s crucial that Canadian governments step up, and commit resources to programs that protect and restore the Great Lakes.

Unfortunately, the recent Canadian federal budget still falls short of what’s needed. The proposed $70.5 million over five years to help address threats to all of Canada’s fresh waters — not just the Great Lakes — is just not sufficient.

The Ontario government’s Great Lakes budget isn’t any better. The province only spends about $15 million per year (or approximately 0.01 per cent of the total provincial budget) on programs related to the lakes. Meanwhile, 30 per cent of Canadians (11 million people), and 10 per cent of Americans (32 million people) live in the Great Lakes watershed. There’s no doubt about it — more resources are needed to protect the lakes.

We have a solution that we’ve been offering for over a year now: an Ontario deposit return program for plastic bottles, similar to the existing program for beer and wine bottles. Not only would a deposit return program increase recycling rates and reduce plastic pollution in Great Lakes, it could also generate sustainable funding to improve the health of this essential water source. In Michigan, unredeemed deposits from its deposit return program support environmental programs and initiatives. It’s a model Ontario should follow.

Considering that most deposit return programs achieve at least an 80 per cent recycling rate (more than 30 per cent higher than Ontario’s current recycling programs), putting a 10-cent deposit on plastic bottles would generate over $100 million a year in unredeemed deposits. That money would be well spent by increasing research including data collection and monitoring, funding innovative practices that reduce pollution entering the lake, and supporting stronger community engagement. It would help clean up the lakes.

We have an opportunity for a triple win: reduce plastic pollution, raise revenue to protect the Great Lakes, and tell the world that Canadians take their responsibilities as stewards of the world’s largest source of surface freshwater seriously. Will we take it?