The Executive Director of the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation says they were very pleasantly surprised to receive a donation of $3200 from Toyota Boshoku to help address the problems with plastic waste in the Great Lakes.
"They did a team challenge to raise awareness about the problem of plastics in marine eco-systems and to help tackle this problem," said Erinn Lawrie. "So they were able to raise $3200 and they decided to donate the money to the Lake Huron Centre."
Toyota Boshoku has two automotive manufacturing plants in southern Ontario, one in Elmira and one in Woodstock. Their parent company in Japan challenged them to raise Team Member awareness of the problem of plastics and other wastes in coastal marine eco-systems.
Lawrie said the problem is extremely serious and she points to the fact that last year, micro-plastics were found in 97% of their water samples taken from Lake Huron and that poses a threat to the health of both humans and wildlife.
"They felt that their goals for this fundraiser aligned with our goals of helping to keep plastic pollution out of our Great Lakes, that lined up very well and they decided to donate to our micro-plastics projects for 2021," said Lawrie.