(Ottawa) Mother Nature provided a typical spring day Wednesday in Ottawa, with a morning of light drizzle fading into the afternoon sun, temperatures near freezing and… thousands of grams of plastic.
These “plastic forecasts” come from a project by Australia’s Minderoo Foundation, which is trying to draw attention to the scale of the global plastic problem, as negotiations for a global treaty to end plastic waste continue. continue in the federal capital.
“We’ve produced so much plastic that it’s now in our weather forecast,” the foundation’s report says.
The data is based on scientific measurements of microplastics in the air in Ottawa that were collected by Minderoo scientists last February and March.
Researchers also measured the amount of plastic in Ottawa’s drinking water and found that every day, a person consuming the recommended 2.5 liters of water would also ingest about 5,400 plastic nanoparticles.
Microscopic plastic particles can be described as “microplastics” — up to five millimeters in diameter — or “nanoparticles,” less than a millionth of a millimeter.
“Thousands of tonnes of plastic particles are falling on Ottawa, as well as other cities around the world,” said Andrew Forrest, founder of Minderoo. It falls on your food, it falls in the air you breathe, it falls in the water you drink. »
To drive the point home, Minderoo posts its daily plastic forecast throughout the city of Ottawa, including on digital billboards at the airport.
Medical research has linked plastics to a myriad of health problems, including infertility, a higher rate of miscarriages and certain cancers. The research is still very premature, in part because the plastics problem is a relatively new phenomenon.
More than half of all plastics ever made in the world were made in the last 20 years alone.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says global plastic production increased from 234 million tonnes in 2000 to 460 million tonnes in 2019, while plastic waste increased from 156 million tonnes to 353 million tonnes .
Around 20% of this waste ended up in the environment, while less than 10% was recycled.
On the rise in Canada
Statistics Canada, which recently updated its plastics data to contribute to Canada’s zero plastic waste strategy, reports that nationally, plastic production and imports increased from 5.6 million tonnes in 2012 to almost 7.1 million tonnes in 2019, and just over 7.1 million tonnes in 2020.
In 2012, Canadians threw away approximately 4.3 million tonnes of plastic; in 2020, this figure increased to 4.9 million tonnes. Forty% of all plastic waste in Canada comes from packaging.
Plastic particles enter the environment in multiple ways, sometimes intentionally as litter or from unmanaged trash piles. Sometimes these plastic particles come from landfills, where the plastic slowly decomposes, seeps into the ground, or is washed into waterways.
Some start small — microbeads, for example, or glitter, which are really just tiny pieces of plastic coated in aluminum. Others start big and get smaller over time.
“Every plastic bottle, bag or straw we leave in the environment will eventually break down into thousands and thousands of microplastics,” said Anja Brandon, associate director of U.S. plastic policy at Ocean. Conservancy.
Once these plastics seep into the soil, water and air, they become part of the food chain. Plastics have been found in all parts of plants, including roots, stems, petals and fruits.
In meat and vegetables
A study published in January led by researchers at the Ocean Conservancy and the University of Toronto found microplastics in 16 different proteins, including fish, seafood, beef, pork, chicken, sticks plant-based fish and ground beef.
A 2021 study published in the journal Science Direct found evidence of plastic particles in apples, pears, carrots, lettuce, broccoli and potatoes.
Mme Brandon said every time a load of laundry goes through the washer, it can flush 18 million plastic microfibers down the drain. Once these particles are added to the environment, it is impossible to eliminate them completely, she said.
She points out that because exposure to plastics is still relatively new, there is no long-term evidence of what will happen to people following repeated and prolonged exposures. She says the main solution to the problem is to reduce the amount of plastic we put into the environment and that the only way to do that is to make less of it.
If we want to tackle the plastic crisis for the sake of our oceans, public health, human health, etc., we must start with reductions to make and use less single-use plastic.
Anja Brandon, associate director of US plastic policy at the Ocean Conservancy
“We need to do a better job of managing the plastics that we’re going to use, and that means rethinking those plastics so that they can actually be reused or recycled and stay in the economy. »
The plastic treaty negotiations are considering all sorts of solutions, including whether to strictly cap the amount of plastic produced and ban the most toxic chemicals used to make plastic.