A major cleanup launched for the St. Lawrence River, from Montreal to the Gaspé

Mission 1000 Tonnes and Stratégies Saint-Laurent are launching a clean-up tour of the St. Lawrence River on Wednesday, from Pointe-aux-Cascades in Montérégie to Bonaventure in Gaspésie.

The objective of the “St. Lawrence and its Watersheds Expedition” is to remove as much waste and polluting materials as possible from the St. Lawrence and its shores.

“We’re leaving with a bus of 18 people inside. We have an ecological restoration team, a team of scuba divers, a team of scientists, a youth team, and a communications team,” expedition leader Jimmy Vigneux said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“Our goal is to conduct shoreline cleanups throughout Quebec along the St. Lawrence and its watersheds, in order to remove waste, but also to mobilize citizens and municipalities to collect waste with us and reduce the amount of waste we generate throughout Quebec,” added the expedition leader.

This one “invites people to show up with good shoes.”  

The expedition organizers “will provide all the cleaning equipment, including telescopic tongs, gloves, bags, and buckets.”

The clean-up chores can last “more or less three hours and are accessible to the whole family. Children love it,” explained the expedition leader, adding that “the more adventurous can put on rubber boots to put both feet in the water.”

An overabundance of plastic waste

Vigneux is co-founder of Mission 1000 Tonnes, an organization that has organized nearly 5,000 collective cleanups since its founding in 2018.

During the various cleaning chores, it is essentially the same waste that citizens find on the banks.

“We find a lot of single-use plastic. So, plastic bottles, coffee cups, fast-food packaging from major chains, food packaging. We also find a lot of cigarette butts, cans, and a lot of Styrofoam.”

This waste comes from different sources.

“Sometimes beachgoers will leave their trash,” and in other cases, the wind pushes trash onto the shores “and the river waters carry it” over long distances, Vigneux said.

“Our cleanups make a small difference, but real change comes from reducing waste production,” said Lyne Morissette, chief scientist of the St. Lawrence Expedition, in a press release.

Dangerous microplastics

Vigneux pointed out that “the quantity of microplastic is increasing year by year.”

The St. Lawrence River is indeed one of the most polluted rivers in the world with microplastics.

Many micro and nanoplastic particles come from the degradation of larger plastic items, but most importantly, from our clothing.

A recent study by the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS) and Laval University shows that the most abundant microplastics in the St. Lawrence River are polyester textile fibers. When synthetic clothing is washed in a washing machine, tiny plastic fibers are released, which end up in aquatic ecosystems.

“These microplastics are dangerous to human health, and the more there are in our waterways, the more there are in our drinking water. We consume these microplastics almost every day,” said Vigneux.

The expedition’s scientific team therefore plans to take sediment and water samples throughout their route in order to study the presence of microplastics on the banks and in the St. Lawrence.

The samples will then be analyzed in university laboratories to determine their chemical compositions and the quantity of microplastic particles they contain.

“The other scientific aspect of the expedition is the characterization of the waste to also understand what type of waste is found on our banks according to the different sectors, the different regions and why certain types of waste are more present than others,” explained Vigneux.

The departure of the clean-up takes place on Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Soulanges Canal Park, in Pointe-des-Cascades.

The team will travel in the evening to Quai de Lachine, in Lachine.

It will then head to the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Mauricie, Centre-du-Québec, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Côte-Nord, Chaudière-Appalaches, Bas-Saint-Laurent, to finish the expedition on August 22 in Gaspésie.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews