Beach Clean Loot: Lake Michigan
Picking up trash of a beach quickly becomes a treasure hunt, a quest to find the most interesting thing you can find. Simultaneously they often confirm all the major contributors of marine litter you hear about: straws, single use plastics, cigaret filters, toothbrushes, & worst of all the teeny tiny micro-plastics.
Almost Every summer…
I spend some time in a small town called Charlevoix, MI in the northern part of the state. Not quite so north to be in the Upper Peninsula (the UP), but an hour from the Mackinac bridge, the connection between the “Mitten” and Upper Peninsula.
My fathers family has been coming up here in the summer months since the 1960s and it’s one of my sisters and I’s most beloved traditions. It was a place and house that stayed very constant in our nomadic upbringing. Our family’s house still holds many old treasures, the rooms are coordinated by color (the pink room, blue room, yellow room) and the neighboring homes have remained in large part with the families my dad grew up with.
Every time I am there it smells exactly the same, the sun has a particular warmth that feels the same, and days are filled with the same activities: swimming, sailing, a game of tennis with dad, walking around barefoot, reading on the beach, drinking Shorts Indian Pale Ales, grilling sweet corn, making a fire on a cold summers night, and skinny dips by the full moon. The best summers are those where my stay overlaps with a cousin or two for catch up and sharing traditions, every nuclear family has their own micro traditions to share within the larger tradition of Charlevoix.
Safe to say Charlevoix is near and dear to my heart.
Lake Michigan Beach
Charlevoix, MI
Lake Michigan looking practically pristine, on a day with not but a lick of wind or a wrinkle on the massive body of crystal clear fresh water.
Unfortunately, perusing the beach reveals layers of tiny plastics both washed up on her beaches and left behind by beach goers. I got in the habit of spending every other evening walking along a local beach, typically Lake Michigan Beach, for sun set and to collect beach litter.
By sharing stories of beach cleans, my intention is not to suggest that I am somehow more righteous to be spending free time picking up trash on my local beach. I wouldn’t do it without joy and I really do enjoy it. I’m fascinated by what I find and each time my collection reiterates to me the important of curbing my use of plastic.
When you do a beach clean up, even just once, you will see all the likely suspects: straws, plastic spoons, plastic toothpicks and toothbrushes, chapstick containers, styrofoam cups, pieces of balloons, so many cigarette filters and tiny colorful micro-plastics that are no imbedded into our food chains.
It is an intense reality, but an important one.