FACT: Unfortunately, bioplastics present many of the same issues as traditional fossil fuel-based plastics. That storyline remains evident even now.
The recycling numbers show that Canada only recycles 305,000 tonnes of its plastic, just 9% of the total plastic waste. It would have been great to see companies like these, who are helping to solve the problem, featured in a future article. While we do agree that ghost gear is a significant problem affecting our oceans, fishing gear is created with the intention of long-term use and can be very expensive. They ate things. In Canada, recycling has dramatically improved since all residents can now recycle nearly 100% of their paper waste. And yet, here in Canada some people still think that plastic pollution, especially in our oceans, is not a Canadian problem. View all references for the facts listed in this blog here. You can also join us as a Wavemaker for the latest campaign updates and actions you can take action. A $170/ton carbon tax should help. Even worse, the vast majority of bioplastics are not compostable in your backyard composter, meaning they can only be processed in special industrial compost facilities, which are few and far between.. I dont live near the ocean, so my plastic doesnt end up there.. A small but soon to be big Canadian company, Cielo Waste Solutions has some answers to these pressing problems. Since the oceans do not have boundaries, plastic gets carried far and wide by ocean currents.
Plastic is everywhere: Manhattan, the Marianas Trench, even Mars. Plastic recycling numbers indicate that 12% gets shipped outside of North America, mainly to Southeast Asian countries, where, unfortunately, most of it is burned or reenters the environment. Some of these products include paper towels, trash bags, carpeting, and cereal boxes. Canadians throw out around 3.3 million tonnes of plastic each year. Most importantly, the plan calls for a new circular economy that would rely on massively scaling up existing recycling facilities and still-nascent recycling technologies to keep disposable plastic ubiquitous in our daily lives. Global plastic production skyrocketed after 1950, increasing more than tenfold to reach about 35 million tonnes by 1970. Industrys hope was that recycling would assuage growing concerns among Americans (and Canadians) about the environmental and aesthetic impact of pollution, including from disposable plastic. "Plastic cant be contained," they say. According to a 2019 study, Canadians dont recycle as much as they should! Oceana Canada is advocating for plastic-free oceans and we need your support to be successful. Green consumerism is an industry project. Different materials have different recycling rates. Recycling as "saviour of our planet destroying plastic addiction is like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic after hitting the iceberg!! 2022 ReviewMoose.ca All Rights Reserved. Canadians quickly followed the trend.
We just need to pay closer attention to the items we purchase and reuse or repurpose them accordingly. Canadians throw away about 3.3 million tonnes of plastic each year. Nickel and copper have rates of 63% and 53%, respectively. Furthermore, some numbers suggest that Canadian citizens use a staggering amount of straws (57 million) daily and around 15 billion plastic bags yearly. There is some promise in a suite of new recycling technologies, collectively called advanced" or "chemical" recycling, which break plastics down into their molecular components so they can be remade into like-new products. When consulted as an expert during the federal policys initial drafting phase, they recommended ending subsidies for the oil and petrochemical industry to slow plastic production. Our oceans are facing a plastic crisis. Plastic pollution is everywhere and it is wrecking havoc on marine ecosystems and wildlife. Check out the video below for more on how the western world is driving plastic pollution in Asian countries. Even since we've had the green bin as well as blue and black boxes, I find the majority of what I send to the landfill consisting of soft plastic. Agreed that the root solution is to make and use less of the stuff. Left: A pile of garbage found at Sarstangen on the west coast of Svalbard, Norway. The bulk of which can be traced back to organizations apart of this list. The organization has pushed the Trudeau government to refrain from listing plastics as "toxic" under CEPA, a key part of the federal plan to reduce plastic waste announced last October. Employment OpportunitiesContactPrivacy PolicyAccessibility Terms of Use, InternationalEuropeChileUnited StatesBelizePhilippinesBrazilPeruMexico, A great way to get involved in protecting #oceans: Join Oceana Canada! Canadian recycling facts suggest that new technologies are helping facilities separate the glass. The rest is burned in incinerators, contributing to climate change and air pollution, or ends up in the environment as litter.
It doesnt make good sense to spend millions of dollars every year on a persistent problem, without addressing its root cause. Dyes and other (sometimes poisonous) additives, like plasticizers and fire retardants, further complicate the process and diminish the recycled products final quality.
Stouffer was a U.S. plastics marketing guru and the man who, in 1956, first pitched the idea that a virtually indestructible material plastic should be sold as disposable. FACT: With projections estimating that plastic waste is expected to quadruple in volume by 20504, and oceans covering about 70 per cent of earths surface, cleaning ocean plastic presents an almost insurmountable feat. Its a great industry it provides jobs, it makes use of whats around but it doesnt have anything directly to do with improving the environment.. They have introduced bans and crafted new waste management legislation to try to control the problem. You can also separate your waste, such as glass, egg cartons, and aluminum cans, for future reprocessing.
Paper recycling seems to happen most often, at around 68%. "Focusing on building better recycling systems MISSES THE POINT, says MacBride, the professor at CUNY. In the next section, youll find out which materials can be recycled, which region produces the most plastic, and much more. She enjoys writing on all sorts of subjects and she loves a good challenge. The collaboration will allow some Toronto customers to get their food and drinks in reusable and returnable packaging. About 2.8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in Canadian landfills every year equivalent to the weight of 24 CN towers. The number two spot goes to Bulgaria, with the USA following close behind. The bottom line is that the public bears the costs of this no accountability regime, with some added guilt sprinkled on top for individual consumers, because they aren't being "good citizens" by recycling enough. For this reason, many provinces and municipalities have joined global initiatives, issued bans, and passed new legislation to get the problem under control.
China produces the most plastic materials by region. NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement), which includes Canada, the USA, and Mexico, produced 19%, making it the second most plastic producing region. However, environmentalists point out that B.C., which has the countrys most advanced EPR, still has a poor recycling record. According to stats from 2019, China is the region that produced 31% of the worlds plastic materials. To make matters worse, the volume of plastic waste is expected to increase four times by 2050. Very little of it was recycled, and plastic soon infiltrated every facet of society, from grocery stores to hospitals. But we believe that its not the use of plastics thats the issue its the end-of-life management.. Plastic packaging - and multiple layers of it - is a huge contributor to this problem, like how many layers of plastic should be used to display a tool set? Plastic is not harmless. And activism against all pollution, including plastic, evolved quite differently in other parts of the world, Liboiron points out. Its their problem, not ours.. You need an active subscription to post a comment. It is also estimated that the cost of cleaning up plastic pollution in the Great Lakes area alone (U.S. and Canada) is about $468 million a year. Don't miss out. Where does Canada stand per global recycling standards?
A recent study found that approximately 96% of Canadians have access to recycle cardboard boxes and paper bags. Some municipal sorting facilities can accept most plastic types; others can't. But is Canada doing all that it can? Canadas landfill problem may be more significant than it seems. Although Canadians make up less than 0.5 per cent of the global population, we use 1.4 per cent of all plastic produced. Lithium ranks the lowest with 1%, while cobalt has a 68% recycling rate. Photos by Beach Guardian / Greenpeace, Thats what American environmentalism out of the 1970s was the individualization of environmental problems to let industry off the hook, they say. How about none? Unfortunately, the reality is that Canada is a disproportionately large contributor to the growing plastic disaster.
scenario, we pay for the destruction with our taxes, pay to keep "the jobs", to clean up the mess while the corps and shareholders line their pockets with our money , with income inequality, with our health, with our food security, with the planet - that is the ONLY place we have to live. According to the Canadian government, Canadians use almost 15 billion plastic bags every year and close to 57 million straws every day. It deserves to be declared Toxic with a capital T., We can just switch to biodegradable alternatives and bioplastics.. This all eventually carries into larger bodies of water, making its way to the oceans. Isnt plastic pollution being dealt with appropriately? The question is, is there a market for it? Its everywhere.
These repeat offenders (in order) are Nestle, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, McDonalds, and The Coca-Cola Company. Are you curious about which type of waste is recyclable? Our ONLY HOPE is supporting and allying with the young climate activists, organizations like 350.org and Raven's Trust, First Nation youth and elders, and supporting return to indigenous values of being good stewards of this world, and yes it can be done and people can work for a living wage, be safe, and their kids, grandkids, will have a liveable planet and sustainable future, instead of the dystopian nightmare we are living through right now. These inflated numbers were likely caused by the amount of personal protective equipment waste generated from people cleaning their homes and garages during the lockdowns.
The recycling numbers show that Canada only recycles 305,000 tonnes of its plastic, just 9% of the total plastic waste. It would have been great to see companies like these, who are helping to solve the problem, featured in a future article. While we do agree that ghost gear is a significant problem affecting our oceans, fishing gear is created with the intention of long-term use and can be very expensive. They ate things. In Canada, recycling has dramatically improved since all residents can now recycle nearly 100% of their paper waste. And yet, here in Canada some people still think that plastic pollution, especially in our oceans, is not a Canadian problem. View all references for the facts listed in this blog here. You can also join us as a Wavemaker for the latest campaign updates and actions you can take action. A $170/ton carbon tax should help. Even worse, the vast majority of bioplastics are not compostable in your backyard composter, meaning they can only be processed in special industrial compost facilities, which are few and far between.. I dont live near the ocean, so my plastic doesnt end up there.. A small but soon to be big Canadian company, Cielo Waste Solutions has some answers to these pressing problems. Since the oceans do not have boundaries, plastic gets carried far and wide by ocean currents.
Plastic is everywhere: Manhattan, the Marianas Trench, even Mars. Plastic recycling numbers indicate that 12% gets shipped outside of North America, mainly to Southeast Asian countries, where, unfortunately, most of it is burned or reenters the environment. Some of these products include paper towels, trash bags, carpeting, and cereal boxes. Canadians throw out around 3.3 million tonnes of plastic each year. Most importantly, the plan calls for a new circular economy that would rely on massively scaling up existing recycling facilities and still-nascent recycling technologies to keep disposable plastic ubiquitous in our daily lives. Global plastic production skyrocketed after 1950, increasing more than tenfold to reach about 35 million tonnes by 1970. Industrys hope was that recycling would assuage growing concerns among Americans (and Canadians) about the environmental and aesthetic impact of pollution, including from disposable plastic. "Plastic cant be contained," they say. According to a 2019 study, Canadians dont recycle as much as they should! Oceana Canada is advocating for plastic-free oceans and we need your support to be successful. Green consumerism is an industry project. Different materials have different recycling rates. Recycling as "saviour of our planet destroying plastic addiction is like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic after hitting the iceberg!! 2022 ReviewMoose.ca All Rights Reserved. Canadians quickly followed the trend.
We just need to pay closer attention to the items we purchase and reuse or repurpose them accordingly. Canadians throw away about 3.3 million tonnes of plastic each year. Nickel and copper have rates of 63% and 53%, respectively. Furthermore, some numbers suggest that Canadian citizens use a staggering amount of straws (57 million) daily and around 15 billion plastic bags yearly. There is some promise in a suite of new recycling technologies, collectively called advanced" or "chemical" recycling, which break plastics down into their molecular components so they can be remade into like-new products. When consulted as an expert during the federal policys initial drafting phase, they recommended ending subsidies for the oil and petrochemical industry to slow plastic production. Our oceans are facing a plastic crisis. Plastic pollution is everywhere and it is wrecking havoc on marine ecosystems and wildlife. Check out the video below for more on how the western world is driving plastic pollution in Asian countries. Even since we've had the green bin as well as blue and black boxes, I find the majority of what I send to the landfill consisting of soft plastic. Agreed that the root solution is to make and use less of the stuff. Left: A pile of garbage found at Sarstangen on the west coast of Svalbard, Norway. The bulk of which can be traced back to organizations apart of this list. The organization has pushed the Trudeau government to refrain from listing plastics as "toxic" under CEPA, a key part of the federal plan to reduce plastic waste announced last October. Employment OpportunitiesContactPrivacy PolicyAccessibility Terms of Use, InternationalEuropeChileUnited StatesBelizePhilippinesBrazilPeruMexico, A great way to get involved in protecting #oceans: Join Oceana Canada! Canadian recycling facts suggest that new technologies are helping facilities separate the glass. The rest is burned in incinerators, contributing to climate change and air pollution, or ends up in the environment as litter.
It doesnt make good sense to spend millions of dollars every year on a persistent problem, without addressing its root cause. Dyes and other (sometimes poisonous) additives, like plasticizers and fire retardants, further complicate the process and diminish the recycled products final quality.
Stouffer was a U.S. plastics marketing guru and the man who, in 1956, first pitched the idea that a virtually indestructible material plastic should be sold as disposable. FACT: With projections estimating that plastic waste is expected to quadruple in volume by 20504, and oceans covering about 70 per cent of earths surface, cleaning ocean plastic presents an almost insurmountable feat. Its a great industry it provides jobs, it makes use of whats around but it doesnt have anything directly to do with improving the environment.. They have introduced bans and crafted new waste management legislation to try to control the problem. You can also separate your waste, such as glass, egg cartons, and aluminum cans, for future reprocessing.
Paper recycling seems to happen most often, at around 68%. "Focusing on building better recycling systems MISSES THE POINT, says MacBride, the professor at CUNY. In the next section, youll find out which materials can be recycled, which region produces the most plastic, and much more. She enjoys writing on all sorts of subjects and she loves a good challenge. The collaboration will allow some Toronto customers to get their food and drinks in reusable and returnable packaging. About 2.8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in Canadian landfills every year equivalent to the weight of 24 CN towers. The number two spot goes to Bulgaria, with the USA following close behind. The bottom line is that the public bears the costs of this no accountability regime, with some added guilt sprinkled on top for individual consumers, because they aren't being "good citizens" by recycling enough. For this reason, many provinces and municipalities have joined global initiatives, issued bans, and passed new legislation to get the problem under control.
China produces the most plastic materials by region. NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement), which includes Canada, the USA, and Mexico, produced 19%, making it the second most plastic producing region. However, environmentalists point out that B.C., which has the countrys most advanced EPR, still has a poor recycling record. According to stats from 2019, China is the region that produced 31% of the worlds plastic materials. To make matters worse, the volume of plastic waste is expected to increase four times by 2050. Very little of it was recycled, and plastic soon infiltrated every facet of society, from grocery stores to hospitals. But we believe that its not the use of plastics thats the issue its the end-of-life management.. Plastic packaging - and multiple layers of it - is a huge contributor to this problem, like how many layers of plastic should be used to display a tool set? Plastic is not harmless. And activism against all pollution, including plastic, evolved quite differently in other parts of the world, Liboiron points out. Its their problem, not ours.. You need an active subscription to post a comment. It is also estimated that the cost of cleaning up plastic pollution in the Great Lakes area alone (U.S. and Canada) is about $468 million a year. Don't miss out. Where does Canada stand per global recycling standards?
A recent study found that approximately 96% of Canadians have access to recycle cardboard boxes and paper bags. Some municipal sorting facilities can accept most plastic types; others can't. But is Canada doing all that it can? Canadas landfill problem may be more significant than it seems. Although Canadians make up less than 0.5 per cent of the global population, we use 1.4 per cent of all plastic produced. Lithium ranks the lowest with 1%, while cobalt has a 68% recycling rate. Photos by Beach Guardian / Greenpeace, Thats what American environmentalism out of the 1970s was the individualization of environmental problems to let industry off the hook, they say. How about none? Unfortunately, the reality is that Canada is a disproportionately large contributor to the growing plastic disaster.
scenario, we pay for the destruction with our taxes, pay to keep "the jobs", to clean up the mess while the corps and shareholders line their pockets with our money , with income inequality, with our health, with our food security, with the planet - that is the ONLY place we have to live. According to the Canadian government, Canadians use almost 15 billion plastic bags every year and close to 57 million straws every day. It deserves to be declared Toxic with a capital T., We can just switch to biodegradable alternatives and bioplastics.. This all eventually carries into larger bodies of water, making its way to the oceans. Isnt plastic pollution being dealt with appropriately? The question is, is there a market for it? Its everywhere.
These repeat offenders (in order) are Nestle, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, McDonalds, and The Coca-Cola Company. Are you curious about which type of waste is recyclable? Our ONLY HOPE is supporting and allying with the young climate activists, organizations like 350.org and Raven's Trust, First Nation youth and elders, and supporting return to indigenous values of being good stewards of this world, and yes it can be done and people can work for a living wage, be safe, and their kids, grandkids, will have a liveable planet and sustainable future, instead of the dystopian nightmare we are living through right now. These inflated numbers were likely caused by the amount of personal protective equipment waste generated from people cleaning their homes and garages during the lockdowns.