New Canadian data suggests that over a nine-year period, between 2012 and 2020, the equivalent of more than 15 billion plastic bottles and up to 14 billion plastic grocery bags became waste in the environment.
These figures are part of a new data set compiled by Statistics Canada to support the federal government’s “Zero Plastic Waste Initiative.”
The report was released in March, ahead of global negotiations on a treaty to eliminate plastic waste, taking place this week in Ottawa. The United Nations Environment Program is overseeing these negotiations, which aim to find international consensus on how to eliminate plastic waste by 2040.
The report shows that Canada produced or imported 7.1 million tonnes of plastic in 2020, an increase of 28% from 2012. Packaging accounted for almost a third of the plastic used, and construction plastics, a fifth. A seventh of that number was spent on vehicle manufacturing and a tenth on electronic and electrical parts manufacturing.
In the same year, almost five million tonnes of plastic were thrown away, most of it in landfills. About a sixth was diverted for recycling, but the data does not indicate how much was actually recycled and how much ended its days in the landfill, ultimately.
A 2019 study for the federal government found that less than a tenth of plastic waste in Canada is recycled. The City of Toronto says about 13 per cent of what residents put in their blue bins is ultimately thrown away because its facilities can’t handle certain products.
The report also estimates that between 2012 and 2020, almost 350,000 tonnes of plastic ended up in the environment. Nearly half of that, or 155,000 tons, was plastic packaging, including 31,000 tons of bottles and 73,000 tons of plastic wrap used to make grocery bags and food packaging.
By weight, this is equivalent to approximately 15.5 billion disposable plastic water bottles and up to 14.4 million single-use plastic grocery bags; Another 45,000 tonnes came from other rigid plastic containers, such as yogurt cups, “clamshell packaging” and laundry soap bottles.
Various sources
Alice Zhu, a doctoral student in ecology at the University of Toronto and a researcher at the faculty’s “Trash Team” research lab, said she recently conducted her own study and found that 4,000 tonnes of plastic leak into the ocean every year. environment from Toronto only.
The sources are varied, she explained, but include litter thrown around, garbage that escapes from street bins or falls from the back of trucks, and microplastics — which shed when fibers escape into the washer, or that rubber dust escapes from the tires when they rub against the asphalt.
“If plastic escapes into the environment, it has a multitude of effects, including but not limited to greenhouse gas emissions from the plastic as it breaks down, but it can also lead to various negative impacts on living organisms,” said Ms. Zhu.
Plastic can strangle animals, tear their intestinal tracts, or build up in their stomachs over time, causing starvation and death.
Nanoplastics are more commonly found in food and drinking water, and evidence of their negative effects on human health, including hormonal disruption and cancer, is growing.
Plastics are made from thousands of different chemicals, mostly derived from fossil fuels, including ethylene, styrene, propylene and vinyl chloride.
Act on all stages of the cycle
Discussions during negotiations on a treaty to eliminate plastic waste aim to prevent all plastic ending up as waste by 2040, so that no plastic ends up in landfills or escapes into the environment.
Ms. Zhu emphasizes that solutions can be found at all stages of the plastic life cycle. It is essential to first reduce the amount of virgin plastic produced, she said, which will include requiring more recycled plastic to be used and making the use of virgin plastic more expensive than recycled plastic .
Currently, the new plastic, cheaper and easier to manufacture, dominates the market.
Data from Statistics Canada shows that Canada produced or imported only 362,000 tonnes of recycled plastic pellets in 2020, out of more than 7.1 million tonnes of plastic in total.
Zhu said municipalities also need to harmonize their recycling programs because it is extremely confusing for consumers to find that the products that can be recycled vary greatly from city to city.
Toronto, for example, does not allow the recycling of black plastic such as trash bags and plant boxes. Peel Region, right next door, does.
Ottawa refuses to accept any type of plastic wrap, including grocery bags, while Toronto accepts resealable grocery bags and sandwich bags, but not cling film, bubble wrap or bags in boxes of cereals.