The Great Lakes are a set of five lakes in Canada and the United States, connected by approximately 5,000 tributaries. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The Great Lakes basin includes two countries, eight states, one province, dozens of tribes and First Nations communities and hundreds of local municipal and regional governments.
Plastics are all around us, from the clothes we wear and the packaging that contains our food to construction materials in our homes and much more. Microplastics are small pieces of plastic that are less than 5 millimetres long. Microplastics can come from a variety of sources. They can come from plastic that has broken apart or resin pellets used for plastic manufacturing or in the form of microbeads. They can also be found in the fabric of synthetic clothing.
