UMD Students Join International Movement to Help Solve Plastic Pollution Issue

The students held their own trash and plastic clean up Sunday at Chester Park

DULUTH, Minn. – Two international organizations have been working together throughout the week to clean up parks and learn more about plastic pollution, and a group of UMD students joined the movement to learn more about the issue here in Duluth.

“The Story of Stuff Project” and “#BreakFreeFromPlastic” Movement are currently working together across the world to clean up plastic waste and identify the brands responsible for the pollution.

UMD environment and sustainability student Alaina Lawrence became a local brand audit organizer here in Duluth and created a plastic cleanup at Chester Park on Sunday.

“I thought Duluth would be such a great place because of the high amount of sustainable people and people interested in protecting our environment so I thought Chester Creek would be perfect because it’s one of the creeks that connects to Lake Superior and Lake Superior needs as much help as it can get with sustainability and environmentally friendly practices,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence and a group of other UMD students spent the morning picking up any trash and plastic they could find, keeping track of the type and brand of plastic to report it back to those programs.

“A lot of the waste that we have found so far has been cigarette butts, which are very toxic. We’ve also found a high amount of recyclable aluminum cans of different brands, most of them energy drinks and liquor, and high amounts of plastic candy wrappers. So that leads me to believe that there’s a high amount of waste throughout the entire park,” Lawrence said.

This is the first ever public litter clean up and brand audit here in Duluth.

The Story of Stuff Project hopes this new global project will help better tackle the issue of plastic pollution at its source. You can learn more about the initiative by visiting The Story of Stuff Project website.