PolymPart: The face of Canada’s battle against plastic pollution could change in a matter of days. The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), has plans to meet in Ottawa on Friday, November 23. The meeting has not been talked about much in the media and it is not well publicized, however, if all goes as signals suggest, this meeting could be a game-changer in moving our country forward in the global plastics fight.
“Something’s got to give – Canada needs to step up. We have been pushing the feds to come up with a strong national plan to deal with the 89 per cent of plastic not being recycled in Canada each year,” says Keith Brooks, program director at the Canadian group, Environmental Defence. His group closely follows the inside world of Canadian Environmental policy. They believe that this upcoming, under-the-radar meeting could actually be the forum that the long-awaited national strategy for tackling plastic pollution, or at least a draft version of it, is released.
According to Environment Defence, CCME is a committee made up of the federal, provincial and territorial environment ministers.
“They meet annually to discuss their environment priorities. This year one of those priorities is plastic pollution,” Brooks said in an exclusive interview with The Weather Network, adding that while an announcement this week may not be the final version of the plastics plan, it will most likely give an idea of how committed the current government is to fight against plastic pollution.
“Right now there is no national recycling target. There are no rules requiring or even encouraging plastic producers to use recycled plastic. There are not even bans on hard-to-recycle or toxic plastics like styroforam. Producers are allowed to put any kind of packaging onto the market, and municipalities have to figure out how to deal with it.”
THE STATISTICS ARE STAGGERING
Officials from Environmental Defence tell us:
Less than 11 per cent of all plastics are recycled in Canada
90 per cent of plastics end up incinerated, or in our landfills, lakes, parks and oceans
Once in the environment, plastic waste contaminates ecosystems, kill wildlife, and leach toxic chemicals
There has been tough talk and rhetoric floated around the environment and governance arenas as of late. In addition, Brooks hopes for concrete results this time around. He will be on the look out for the following out of the upcoming CCME meeting.
Bans: Like a ban on plastics that are tough to recycle or toxic, such as styrofoam. Brooks describes Styrofoam as “unnecessary, very difficult to recycle, and we throw out enough of it each year to fill 208 Olympic-sized swimming pools”
Targets: A possible a national recycling target of at least 85 per cent by 2025, and 100 per cent captured, so that no more plastic is entering the environment
Legislation: Putting the onus on producers to be financially and operationally responsible for cleaning up their own plastic products. Similar to how beer bottles are returned to the beer store for recycling
ARE THESE ATTAINABLE OR FEASIBLE GOALS?
“We hope that they are. We think they are ambitious, but achievable. We need a strategy that has some teeth. There needs to be some legislation that underpins this. If there’s no legislation and no teeth than no one will carry it out,” Brooks says.
source: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/canadas-battle-against-plastic-pollution-environmental-defence-canadian-environmental-policy-national-strategy/117183
