It is imperative to solve the plastic problem, says Minister Guilbeault

(OTTAWA) In the year since new rules took effect to slow global exports of plastic waste, shipments from Canada grew by more than 13%, with the bulk going to states United without knowing where they end up.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault believes this kind of nonchalant approach to exporting plastic waste needs to stop.

In an interview, Mr. Guilbault expressed concern about this and said that Canada “clearly needs to do better”.

The Minister believes that if Canada ships plastic for recycling, it must ensure that this is what happens. He admits that at this moment it is not clear to him that this is still the case.

Guilbeault said he was discussing with his officials what could be done to fix the problem “because right now we’re not doing a very good job”.

Canada’s lackluster plastic waste export record drew international attention in 2019, when shipments of garbage falsely labeled as plastic for recycling led to a diplomatic standoff with the Philippines.

This has shed light on the global garbage trade, which has mainly seen wealthy countries put their rubbish on container ships bound for developing countries where it often ends up in landfills or burned, leading to a series of repercussions on the environment and human health.

Basel Convention

Following this embarrassment, Canada said it would work with the Border Services Agency to end exports of tainted plastic and agreed to amendments to the UN Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste that added plastic waste mixed with substances covered by the rules of the convention.

On paper, this meant that after the 1^er January 2021, Canada should only be able to export waste to other members of the convention, and such exports should require the prior informed consent of the importing country and confirmation of how the waste is disposed of.

But a few months before the changes took effect, Canada quietly signed an agreement with the United States allowing the free flow of plastic waste between the two countries, even though the United States is not a party to the Convention. Basel. The deal is allowed under the Basel rules, but because the US isn’t bound by the convention, it can do whatever it wants with the waste, including shipping it wherever it wants.

Trade data collected by the Basel Action Network shows that more than 340 million kilograms of plastic waste was exported by the United States to just four countries in 2021 — Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Vietnam.

Kathleen Ruff, founder of Right On Canada, which lobbies against the export of all hazardous waste, described the Canada-US agreement as a “colossal loophole that violates the Basel Convention by allowing us to export huge amounts of plastic and other waste into the United States without any controls to prevent it from being shipped to developing countries”.

“This is not the environmental leadership we were promised,” she said.

Rise, instead of the promised fall

The plastic amendments to the Basel Convention aimed to begin to reduce total plastic waste exports. But in the 12 months since the changes came into force, Canada’s plastic waste shipments have increased by 13% to 170 million kilograms, or about the weight of 17 billion plastic bottles from a half liter.

Its shipments to the United States totaled 158 million kilograms, an increase of 16% over 2020 and 92% of total exports.

The 2021 total is the highest since 2017, when almost 200 kilograms were exported, less than 60% of which went to the United States.

Vancouver Island NDP MP Gord Johns, who successfully passed a motion to create a national plastic pollution strategy, said Canada’s record on plastic pollution “is appalling.”

He added that if Guilbeault was serious about plastic waste, he would get Canada to sign on to the comprehensive Basel Convention amendment that would ban the export of hazardous waste, including most plastics, with or without the consent of an importing country.

One hundred of the 188 parties to the Basel Convention have ratified this amendment, but not Canada.

“Until Canada joins the 100 countries that accept this amendment, they are not bound by it,” he said. “And the amendment makes it illegal to export hazardous waste from Canada to developing countries. So I guess the question is why is Canada refusing to join the rest of the world. »