Canada needs to support the global treaty on plastic pollution
BlogHEJSupport endorsed the letter to Mr. Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change urging the Government of Canada to support a global treaty on plastic pollution to protect our planet from irreversible damage.
Canadians discard three million tonnes of plastic waste annually, only 9% of which is recycled, meaning the vast majority of plastics end up in landfill or incinerated, and about 29,000 tonnes finds its way into our natural environment. Plastic pollution impacts our environment, our climate and our health; affecting every ecosystem on Earth. If current trends continue, roughly 12,000 million metric tons of plastic will reside in landfills and the environment by 2050, and significantly more plastic fragments and chemicals in our bodies than there currently are.
The economic impacts are also significant, with marine plastic pollution alone costing the global economy up to $2.5 trillion per year and threatening food security. But it’s not too late. The Canadian government is critically positioned to help turn the tide.
