Trash on our Shorelines: What We Leave Behind
A Look Back
In our Sept/Oct 2005 newsletter, we highlighted our early involvement with the Adopt-a-Beach program through Alliance for the Great Lakes, an effort that helped build awareness around shoreline stewardship and the impact of trash on our beaches.
You can explore the original newsletter article here.
Where Are We Now?
Walk along the Lake Michigan shoreline after a busy weekend or after a strong storm, and you’ll see it. Bottle caps mixed in the wrack line. Bits of plastic worn smooth by waves. Balloon ribbon or food wrapper caught in the grasses.
Some of it is left behind by visitors and some of it travels from miles away. All of it ends up in the same place, along the shorelines and in the habitats that birds and other wildlife depend on.
At Lake County Audubon Society, we spend a lot of time on these beaches. Through our Sharing Our Shore Waukegan initiative, we see firsthand how even small pieces of trash can have an outsized impact. Shorebirds forage in the wrack line, where insects gather. When plastic and other debris mix in, it becomes part of that environment, sometimes mistaken for food and sometimes causing real harm to birds and other wildlife through entanglement in fishing line or hair, or ingestion that can lead to choking or internal injury.
Trash doesn’t just disappear. It breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, often becoming microplastics that persist in the environment and move through the food chain.
Each year, volunteers across the Great Lakes region collect tens of thousands of pounds of debris through shoreline cleanups. Data from these efforts consistently show that the most common items found along our beaches include cigarette butts, plastic fragments, food wrappers, and bottle caps. Much of this material originates on land and is carried by wind and stormwater into rivers and streams before eventually reaching Lake Michigan.
How Long Does Trash Last?
One of the challenges with shoreline debris is how long it sticks around. Here are some common items found along Great Lakes beaches and how long they can take to break down:
Plastic bottle: 450 years
Plastic bag: 10 to 20 years
Aluminum can: 80 to 200 years
Glass bottle: up to 1 million years (effectively does not decompose)
Foam (Styrofoam): hundreds of years
Cigarette butt: 1 to 5 years (filters are plastic)
Fishing line: up to 600 years
Balloon ribbon: several years, depending on material
Plastic straw: about 200 years
Disposable utensils: hundreds of years
Six-pack rings: about 400 years
Even items that seem small or temporary can persist far longer than we expect.
Why It Matters
For birds like the federally endangered Great Lakes Piping Plover, the shoreline isn’t just a place to pass through. It’s critical habitat! These birds rely on open, undisturbed areas to nest and forage. Trash can interfere with both.
Trash can interfere with both in these ways:
Attract predators
Entangle birds and other wildlife
Disrupt nesting areas
Introduce harmful materials into feeding areas
And beyond our charismatic piping plovers, Lake Michigan’s shoreline supports a wide range of species, from migrating songbirds to insects and native plants that depend on a healthy, functioning ecosystem.
What We Can Do
The good news is that this is one of the most visible and immediate ways we can make a difference.
Pack it in, pack it out when visiting the beach
Join a local cleanup or Adopt-a-Beach event
Reduce single-use plastics whenever possible
Pick up a few extra items when you’re out walking
Share what you know, because awareness goes a long way
Every piece of trash removed is one less hazard for wildlife and one step toward a healthier shoreline.
A Continuing Effort
Addressing shoreline trash isn’t a one-time fix. It’s an ongoing effort that depends on awareness, community involvement, and consistent care for these spaces.
If you’ve ever walked along Lake Michigan at sunrise or watched migrating birds move through in spring, you know how special these places are. Keeping them clean is one of the simplest and most meaningful ways we can help protect them.
