Scientists are delivering new insights into the source, fate, and effects of plastics and microplastics in Canada
Research is driving innovation in policies and practices.
Since 2017, Canada has pursued an ambitious agenda to reduce plastic waste through its Ocean Plastics Charter1, its national Zero Plastic Waste initiative2, and its Single Use Plastics Prohibition Regulations.3
With this backdrop, Canada was poised to provide international leadership at the Plastic Pollution Treaty negotiations in Busan, Korea, in early December, but instead came home empty handed after the world’s nations failed to agree on a final text.
I recently participated in the first Expert Roundtable on Plastic Science hosted by Environment and Climate Change Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa along with other researchers from across the country. This meeting illustrated just how plastics have permeated every corner of our consumer society.
This meeting also illustrated just how pervasive plastic pollution has become in the environment.
Plastics are forever. They do not break down chemically. We must cap their production and limit damage to the health of the people and the environment.
We have all witnessed first-hand the blight of plastic litter on shorelines, heard tales of birds and whales entangled in plastic fishing nets, and read about microplastics in our food and water.
Complicated – and yet simple: plastics in the environment pose a threat to the well-being of fish, wildlife, and people.
Plastics production represents a rapidly growing global conservation imperative that needs to be addressed.
The tentacles of this challenge permeate every facet of our lives.
The Busan talks fell apart because of a divide between those nations that espoused a limit to plastic production – probably the only effective way to reduce plastic pollution in our rivers, lakes and oceans – and those nations that heeded the self-interested pleas from the petrochemical sector and others that rely on profiting from a throw-away consumer culture.
Let’s look at the facts. An estimated 100,000 seals, whales, and dolphins die every year from plastic ingestion or entanglement. Plastic litter represents a conservation-level threat to albatross, having emerged as the major cause of death in several species. In Canada, we produce over 400 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, and that number is growing.
All plastic products degrade physically over time into smaller and smaller fragments, with burgeoning reservoirs of resulting microplastics (<5 mm) and nanoplastics (< 1 micron) pointing to the dangers posed by plastics that are mistaken for food by smaller and smaller animals and pass into the bloodstream or across the blood-brain barrier in mammals – including humans.
And while Canadians at home are increasingly committed to recycling, a paltry 9% of our plastic waste ends up being recycled. With the growth in polyester clothing, a shocking estimate comes from our recent report with Dr. Anna Posacka at Ocean Diagnostics: as much as 1,420 tonnes of microfibres are released from washing machines and dryers into the Canadian environment each year!
As I saw at the Expert Roundtable on Plastic Science, we face deep challenges as we aim to mitigate the harmful effects of plastics in the Canadian environment. However, sitting at the table with leading scientists from across Canada also left me with moments of optimism.
For example, there are notable science gaps in our understanding of plastic and microplastic pollution. There’s a need for improved methods to measure microplastics in wastewater and biosolids. Canadian-led science and innovation initiatives have been stepping up to address these information needs and related solution opportunities.
Complicated – and yet simple: plastics in the environment pose a threat to the well-being of fish, wildlife, and people.
Participants explored opportunities to improve the ‘circular economy’ for plastics in Canada, with less waste, less pollution and more recycling. However, the notion of a fully closed loop for plastics remains a panacea. At best, brand new plastics rarely provide for more than two products in their cradle-to-grave linear economy: the first product that is created from the original feedstock, and a second ‘dead-end’ product that uses recycled feedstock. This second product might be a park bench or polyester carpet. These second products cannot be recycled and end up in landfills across the country, or worse.
There was strong support at the workshop for labelling standards for plastic products, which would list harmful additives and enhance recyclability after initial product use. Such standards would strengthen the identification, monitoring, and risk-based understanding of plastics and microplastics in the environment. Labelling could even enhance the value of recycled plastic stocks.4
At the end of the day, we must find and implement solutions.
Plastics are forever. They do not break down chemically. We must cap their production and limit damage to the health of the people and the environment.
We achieve this by nurturing innovation, strengthening recycling systems, and improving liquid and solid waste management practices.
Notes and references
- Read about the Ocean Plastics Charter.
- The Zero Plastic Waste Initiative is facilitated with the provinces and territories by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment or CCME.
- The Single Use Plastics Prohibition Regulations (SUPPR) is currently before the courts after industry objections.
- Labelling would reduce the potential for contamination of recycled plastics by endocrine-disrupting flame retardants, phthalates and bisphenols – a real problem for food-safe packaging.
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
