Friends of Heinz Refuge Take on
Plastic Pollution

by Carol Armstrong, Ph.D., Secretary of the Board, Chair of Plastic Pollution Committee, Friends of Heinz Refuge (PA)

The Plastic Pollution Committee of the Friends of Heinz Refuge began in 2020 because of the flood of plastic trash entering the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum (PA) daily, especially during storms.

Our goal is to reduce plastic pollution sources and to increase public awareness of the problem. Repeated cleanups appear to reduce the amount of trash over time because of the many volunteers who restore clean and beautiful habitats.

During the years of the COVID pandemic, we created video webinars on I. Plastics in Our World Today, II. What Are Plastics, and III. Zero Waste: How Do We Do It? This was followed by a webinar series by professionals in the field of plastic pollution reduction. [See below for the webinar series topics.]

We have held bird walks with plastic impacts on wildlife as a focus.

We provide information on the effects of plastic pollution on wildlife to visitors and at public events. We measured the number of debris per square foot at 10 riparian locations upstream from the refuge to understand where and why plastic trash was flooding into the refuge. We sorted and counted trash from five cleanups to contribute to global efforts to track plastic pollution through the International Coastal Cleanup program.

Those who are aware of the dangers of plastic pollution recognize that prevention of plastics from entering the environment, and reduction of plastic production, are both essential. Our events use only non-plastic, single use food serving items. We are working on other solutions, such as using our data to engage upstream municipalities to consider ordinances for plastic single-use food items and bags, as well as assessing automated collection systems, such as debris booms, to remove plastic from aquatic environments for use in the refuge.