The top type of trash collected between 2003 and 2013 was cigarette butts, which also contain plastics. About ten years ago, the Alliance started a more specific category for pieces smaller than 2.5 centimeters. Now tiny plastic pieces are the most collected items.

The Great Lakes don't have currents like oceans do, so the litter that people see didn't wash up. It's there because someone put it there.

Volunteers picked up more than 9.7 million pieces of litter from Great Lakes beaches and shorelines since 1991.

Eighty-six percent – that’s how much of the trash collected on Great Lakes beaches was found to be partially or fully plastic between 2003 and 2023.