For Friday, Dec. 15, 2023

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1 – An environmental group called the Alliance for the Great Lakes is urging people to comment on a federal proposal for “new lakers.”

Lakers, or freighters that haul cargo exclusively on the Great Lakes, are exempt from ballast regulation. And the Alliance for the Great Lakes says this could open the door to the further spread of invasive species.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to require “new lakers” to use ballast water management systems to reduce the discharge of harmful aquatic organisms.

But the Alliance argues that new lakers are rarely constructed. The last new one in 2022 was the first in 35 years. So the Alliance argues that the proposal would allow existing lakers to travel the Great Lakes for decades to come. 

The EPA says in a Federal Register notice that the agency is not considering an equipment standard for existing Lakers due in part to high costs to retrofit ballast water management systems onto existing Lakers as compared to new ones.

Comments are due by Monday, Dec. 18. 

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2 – Artificial intelligence will be checking out curbside recycling containers in Bay City. 

The city is embarking on a six-month pilot project to use city recycling trucks to check the contents of curbside recycling carts using AI.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy is involved along with the national nonprofit Recycling Partnership and a Canadian tech startup called Prairie Robotics.

Officials say the project builds on last year’s distribution of 15,000 new, 96-gallon recycling carts to households in the city. It’s meant to further educate people about what can and can’t be recycled. 

Using machine-learning techniques, AI scans the material as it’s mechanically dumped from recycling carts into trucks and recognizes unacceptable items such as plastic bags, foam, yard waste and trash. 

Such items are flagged, allowing for notifications to be sent to a resident with information about how they can recycle better.

Bay City is the second in Michigan to adopt the Prairie Robotics’ technology. East Lansing debuted the program last year, and initial results show contamination was reduced by almost 25 percent. 

– Mr. Great Lakes is heard on Friday mornings in Bay City, Michigan, on Delta College Public Radio 90.1 FM (listen live). Follow @jeffkart on Twitter #MrGreatLakes

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