{"id":68173,"date":"2021-08-31T03:30:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T07:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=68173"},"modified":"2021-09-01T08:14:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T12:14:30","slug":"environmental-engineering-students-leading-area-research-to-clean-up-great-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/08_31_2021\/environmental-engineering-students-leading-area-research-to-clean-up-great-lakes","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Engineering Students Leading Area Research to Clean Up Great Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A football, bike helmet, hacky sack and plastic bottles are great for picnics and outdoor fun, but they are not so great for waterways.<\/p>\n

On a recent blazing summer afternoon, near the parking lot of the north Toledo Menards, 1415 E. Alexis Rd., a trio of seniors in environmental engineering at The University of Toledo, joined Dr. Defne Apul, professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, to remove the items that had somehow found their way into Silver Creek as well as more common litter and trash as part of a UToledo research project in collaboration with the city of Toledo and other partners.<\/p>\n

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From left, Elly Filas, Ethan Eidt, Dr. Defne Apul, professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Saee Gunjal sort through litter collected on the surface of a north Toledo creek through a device called a “trash trap.”<\/p><\/div>\n

Using a \u201ctrash trap,\u201d a floating device that sits on top of the water and collects the trash and litter on the water\u2019s surface as it streams down the creek, Saee Gunjal, 21, \u00a0Ethan Eidt, 21, and Elly Filas, 23, sifted through what was fished out of the creek before it got to Lake Erie, and then sorted it by type and counted the totals in each category.<\/p>\n

There were 2.29 \u00a0pounds of plastic, 2.51 pounds of foam and nearly 3 pounds in the category of \u201cother\u201d \u2014 mostly the sports equipment. In total, nearly 8.5 pounds of trash was removed from Silver Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first haul that we\u2019ve gotten that had plastic bags in it,\u201d Filas said.<\/p>\n

And with the general rule that plastic begets plastic \u2014 meaning plastics like large plastic bottles produce microplastics in the water that humans and animals ingest \u2014 any plastic in our lakes, rivers and streams will significantly impact us through a chain of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think, \u2018This is so clean. I\u2019m drinking clean water,\u2019 \u201d Filas said. \u201cIt\u2019s not. It\u2019s got microplastics in it. The beer that you got at the bar? There are microplastics in it. There\u2019s waste in everything that you\u2019re drinking now because we\u2019re not taking care of the trash properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you think, \u2018Do I need to use this plastic fork or should I use my fork at home?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

While the trash trap litter removal is important in the short and long term, cleaning the area\u2019s waters is a positive byproduct of the students\u2019 project: They are analyzing where the trash in the area\u2019s water is originating \u2014 commercial, industrial, residential or parkways.<\/p>\n

And since the city of Toledo also wants to know where and how the waste is getting into the water and eventually into Lake Erie, a partnership with UToledo students is ideal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Toledo is excited to be one of the first cities on the Great Lakes to install multiple trash trap devices on waterways that lead to Lake Erie,\u201d said Edith\u00a0Kippenhan, senior environmental specialist in the city of Toledo\u2019s Division of Environmental Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with our partners, Partners for Clean Streams and UToledo, our project will not only ensure that much of the trash is stopped from making it to Lake Erie, it will also help us to gain a better understanding of how trash moves from the city to the waterways to Lake Erie, and determine some of our options to do better to stop the problem at its source.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This map shows the names and locations of the different trash-gathering devices to be used as part of the UToledo research project in collaboration with the city of Toledo and other partners.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even on a hot day, removing and cataloging the river waste is relatively easy in comparison to the\u00a0research that went into building the project, such as how to best collect the trash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that there were five kinds of devices the city is buying to install\u201d in the area waterways, \u201cand we had to figure out everything else,\u201d Gunjal said. \u201cWe started figuring out what protocol we had to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

They settled on the EPA\u2019s Escaped Trash Assessment Protocol (ETAP) Free Waters program, a survey tool that provides a standard method for collecting and assessing litter data, because it best fit their needs. Even after the students were trained on ETAP, they were still faced with challenges.<\/p>\n

Most of the studies and information available focus on coastal and marine litter \u2014 not on lakes and the litter-feeding process via local waterways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kinds of projects are really new,\u201d Gunjal said, \u201cand a lot of innovation is happening. A lot of cities are picking up on projects like us. We are definitely sort of pioneers in this, especially in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, because their project is so new, Eidt said, \u201cWe have to figure out the problems, which we then have to figure out how to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funded through a two-year grant from the city of Toledo, the research project includes the deployment of five separate trash-collecting devices strategically located in the area, Apul said.<\/p>\n

And given all the layers of this research project, including working directly with subcontractors and the city, she was specific in the students she recruited.<\/p>\n

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A football, soccer ball and bike helmet was among the nearly 8.5 pounds of trash removed from Silver Creek.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI really wanted to get some students who cared about the problem, had good communication skills, good research skills and analytical skills,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re writing a paper, so they have to have good technical writing skills as well. That\u2019s why we have these three students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunjal, Eidt and Filas will continue working on the research through fall semester, with the plan to incorporate this project into classwork for other students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI envision we\u2019ll have a dozen students involved in this project before it wraps up,\u201d Apul said.<\/p>\n

While Gunjal and Eidt are working on this as a co-op and Filas is taking this as a class, the trio share the same enthusiasm for their research and the benefits it will engender.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew that I had to do something related to the environment focusing on water because it\u2019s essential,\u201d said Gunjal, an international student from India. \u201cEveryone needs water. I was very glad to have this opportunity to create an impact right now that\u2019s going to last into the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Eidt pointed out, 22 million pounds of plastic end up in the Great Lakes each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I found out that number, I was astounded,\u201d he said. \u201cIf these systems actually are effective at capturing plastic, we might see a lot more installed in the Great Lakes region and hopefully we can get that number down.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also raise awareness \u2014 if for nothing else, because prevention is the best way of solving this. People not littering would definitely be the best preventative measure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Funded through a two-year grant from the city of Toledo, this research project includes the deployment of five separate trash-collecting devices strategically located in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":878,"featured_media":68175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,34,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68173"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68188,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68173\/revisions\/68188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}