The city of Oswego’s “Keep Oswego Clean” initiative banned the use of styrofoam containers, but that may not make a huge difference in the amount of waste along the lakeshore.
Justin Searles, a junior biology student, is the captain of the Oswego State Shining Waters initiative, a community service-based organization that focuses on keeping the Lake Ontario shoreline clean.
Searles said that one of the most common forms of pollution he sees along the lakeshore is plastic, but it does not all come from the Oswego area.
“A lot of styrofoam has traveled here from all over, as far away as Toronto,” Searles said. “Sometimes, you’ll pick up a cup from the lakeshore that’s labeled in French and English because it came from Ontario or Québec. You can even get trash here from Detroit, because the Great Lakes are all connected.”
Searles said that all plastics and man-made materials are a threat to the environment, and a lot of the waste can end up along the lake even after being properly disposed of.
“Polystyrene and styrofoam, neither are recyclable. They’re just tossed,” Searles said. “Even if it does make it to the landfill, it’s so light sometimes that it can get picked up by the wind and brought to the lake.”
In the area, the Oswego State campus has already phased out single-use plastics and styrofoam packaging. Since they cannot be recycled, styrofoam food packaging has been unpopular with the campuses environmentally-focused plans.
“We’ve phased out styrofoam products on the Oswego State campus. We’re actually working towards being a zero-waste campus,” Nicole Barry, an intern for the Sustainability Office, said.
In the city, styrofoam was used by restaurants like Fajita Grill for most of their take-away offerings, and styrofoam has seen increased popularity in the last year as food-delivery services like Grubhub and DoorDash have expanded services to Oswego.
Searles proposed that an alternative to styrofoam packaging, which is popular in part due to its lightness and relative durability, could be mycelium, which can be formed into packaging. Mycelium is the root system of fungi like mushrooms, and companies like Ecovative Design have offered green, mycelium-based packaging alternatives since 2007.
Searles said that the styrofoam ban is definitely a step in the right direction.
“Every small step is still a step,” Searles said. “Even if one city is the only one banning it, it’s a great thing nonetheless and it’ll still help the local ecosystem.”
There are other things that Searles said could be steps in the right direction, like banning single-use plastics and for the city to adjust how their sewage treatment process is handled.
The city of Oswego recently spent $4 million on sewage treatment upgrades, after it was discovered that, during the previous mayor’s term, the city wastewater treatment plant dumped raw sewage into Lake Ontario three times in 2015.
Former plant superintendent Gary Hallinan was charged with negligently discharging raw sewage into Lake Ontario under New York’s environmental laws, after it was found that he had exceeded the plants permitted allowance for discharge of solid waste by more than 60 times. He was sentenced to probation and a fine in early October this year.
Photo by Colin Hawkins | The Oswegonian
