Twenty-two Divvy bikes and e-bikes tangled in fencing and covered in mud were pulled out of Lake Michigan and piled on the lakefront this weekend. The sight was reminiscent of a scrap yard.
But, small pieces of plastic are the most voluminous and concerning litter in the lake, according to the nonprofit Alliance for the Great Lakes.
While these kinds of plastics are nearly invisible, the underwater accumulation of bikes was more apparent. Glenn Rischke — a 50-year-old North Center resident and hairstylist — first noticed them during his daily polar plunges this winter.
“On days where it was super calm and clear, we were able to see the bottom of the lake. And, as we were just walking up and down the ledge area near the Montrose bird sanctuary, it was undeniable that these bikes were in the water,” he said.
Divvy’s bikes, e-bikes and scooters have become prolific in Chicago since the Department of Transportation entered into an exclusive partnership with Lyft in 2019 to operate the bike-sharing system. There are over 800 stations and 15,000 bikes and scooters throughout the city as of May 2023.
People are encouraged to report abandoned bikes to the city’s 311 nonemergency system, said Transportation Department spokeswoman Erica Schroeder.
Rischke, however, decided to take another approach.
He formed the Alternative Anglers Association to retrieve bikes from the lake. The “informal group of friends and strangers” has collected over 60 since June, according to Rischke. On Saturday evening, they pulled 15 out of one 40-foot section along Oak Street Beach.
The Transportation Department was unable to provide an estimate of how many Divvy bikes might be in the lake since water damages the geolocation devices on the bikes.
These electric geolocation devices and the batteries that power the e-bikes compelled Rische to fish out the bikes. He expressed concern that they may be leaching chemicals into the lake and affecting drinking water.
However, the city’s Department of Water Management said the drinking water is not a concern.
“Given the size of Lake Michigan and the rigorous purification process that the Chicago Department of Water Management employs to treat the lake water, there are no concerns about the Divvy debris causing any drinking water concerns,” said Megan Vidis, a spokeswoman for the department.
Chicago’s drinking water also does not come from the shore where the bikes were found. It’s collected 2 miles offshore and then run through a purification system. This is done intentionally to avoid pollution from shoreline trash, said Vidis.
The bikes are also only a small fraction of the pollution found in the lake.
A recent study from the Alliance for the Great Lakes found that 86% of litter entering the Great Lakes annually is either partially or completely made of plastic.
“While chemicals leaching from e-bike batteries is concerning, when it comes to large trash items, people are often surprised to learn that most trash in Lake Michigan is actually tiny pieces of plastic,” said Alliance COO and Vice President for Programs Molly Flanagan.
Plastics break down into smaller and smaller pieces, allowing them to travel easily and making them difficult to collect. The tiniest, known as microplastics, have been found in drinking water and human blood, according to the alliance study.
Metal fencing was tangled with the bikes, revealing another type of trash that ends up in the lake.
The piles of bikes created over the weekend have strengthened calls from Rischke, his association and their social media following for the city and Lyft to take responsibility for recovering Divvy bikes from Lake Michigan.
“If we didn’t take those 60 bikes out of the lake, they’d still be there,” he said.
The pile of bikes was gone by Monday evening though, according to the association’s social media.
While Divvy operator Lyft could not be reached for comment, Divvy bikes retrieved from the water are generally repaired or deconstructed for parts, according to a Tuesday statement from the Transportation Department.
The department is working with Lyft to make docking stations along the lakefront more accessible to deter riders from leaving their bikes in or near the water. They are also developing a plan to more proactively retrieve devices that end up in the lake, according to the Transportation Department statement.
In the meantime, the Alternative Anglers Association will continue removing bikes from the lake.
“We’re going to keep doing it because this is our lake too. But, the point is, we shouldn’t have to,” Rischke said.
Chicago Tribune’s Sylvan Lebrun contributed.
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