Plastic problem continues to plague world’s oceans
How do we keep waste out of oceans
Editor’s Note: The theme for this year’s Earth Day is “Restore Our Earth” and recognizes that while climate change is a big concept, there are small things we can each do to help. This week, we’re looking at ways that Atlantic Canadians can make a difference, right here at home.
CAPE BRETON — It’s a familiar story. You’re walking along the shore, enjoying the ocean breeze and the noise of crashing waves, and eyeing the ground for interesting shells or small sea creatures when you notice something odd.
It’s bright green and round. Upon closer inspection, you realize it’s not a shell at all: it’s a plastic bottle cap.
You sigh, pick it up and vow to throw it in the nearest garbage can. But soon you see more, along with other things: plastic bottles, plastic cutlery, face masks, discarded fishing gear. There’s too much to take with you.
Our infatuation with plastic continues, and the pandemic is exacerbating that, generating new sources of waste like masks and gloves.
And much of it is ending up in our oceans and on our shores.
After China banned plastic waste imports in 2018, P.E.I. banned plastic bags, followed by Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Though the ban has had far-reaching effects on the amount of plastic being recycled, much still slips through.
“The China ban … has focused attention on where plastics in Canada are going and also the relatively, well, very low levels of recycling of plastic that’s currently taking place at the same time that we’re using more plastic,” said Mark Butler, a volunteer with the Nova Scotia environmental organization Ecology Action Centre.
The fishing industry contributes waste to the oceans as well, especially along Atlantic Canadian shores, and other plastic gets thrown over the sides of boats or blown offdeck.
“… Everywhere we look, we’re seeing microplastics in our air, food, water, body tissue. …,” Butler said. “We’re finding microplastics in the ocean and in seafood now. So, you know, there’s a huge incentive for the fishing industry and everybody to stop plastics going into our oceans, because it ends up in the food we eat. And of course, we know it kills marine animals like turtles and birds.”
Butler said he hopes the federal government follows through on its commitments to ban several single-use plastic items nationwide, including plastic bags, cutlery and stir sticks, as well as adding plastic manufactured items to the Canadian Environmental
Protection Act.
What can Atlantic Canadians do to minimize plastic in our lakes, rivers and oceans?
First, it’s helpful to know what happens to our recycling waste after throwing the blue bag to the curb.
HALIFAX
Halifax Regional Municipality’s waste management operations collected and sorted recyclable materials during the pandemic. The municipality looks for end markets for recycled plastic and has continued to ship some material to markets that are primarily Canadian.
“For example, the municipality has continued to send recycled plastics to Goodwood Plastics in Stewiacke, N.S. Goodwood Plastics uses the recycled plastic to manufacturer various products including plastic lumber,” said Maggiejane Spray, public affairs adviser for the Municipality of Halifax.
However, economic uncertainties brought on by the pandemic have resulted in a decline in demand for recycled plastic in markets.
“For materials that aren’t immediately sent to market, some plastics are being stored until new markets are available,” she said.
When market demand is weak, storage is a challenge and the municipality may request permission to landfill plastics from the province. However, they haven’t had to do that yet.
CAPE BRETON
Waste that ends up in blue bags in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality heads to the Camdon Recycling facility in Edwardsville, N.S., where it’s sorted. Right now, the CBRM is pulling out High Density Poly Ethylene plastic, a material valued for its strength and rigidity.
“That’s one where there is a market, and then what would be remaining would be mixed plastic,” said Francis Campbell, solid waste manager at CBRM.
“(Mixed plastic) would contain the film plastic as well as some other plastics, and we bail that and we continue to look for markets for it and store it until such a time as we find somewhere to market it.”
Campbell suggests people reuse plastic materials as often as possible before throwing them out. Ensuring materials like plastic bags are secured in your car, rather than lying loosely on the floor, is also helpful since they blow around easily.
“You know, you see it in landfills, all that loose garbage blows all over the place. Reduce
the amount that you use, get reusable bags. Just that kind of basic stuff.”
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
Newfoundland and Labrador sends three different plastic products to market for sale, and has, like Nova Scotia and P.E.I., banned plastic bags.
“… So we take everything that comes into the blue bag and that’s separated and sorted and bailed and sent to a marketplace,” said Edward Evans, chief administrative officer at Central Newfoundland Waste Management.
“And we also do low end (plastics), what we call tops and lids, which would be sorted through the centre. The only thing that we don’t do anything with would be plastic film.”
Plastic film — like the clear films in the produce area of most grocery stores — are notoriously difficult to recycle, and often end up being stored for months or years.
“That material goes through a reject system and is buried into our engineered wetlands, so we do have a fair amount of control of the plastic recyclables that are collected here in central Newfoundland,” said Evans.
All of central Newfoundland’s
plastic materials are stored in an indoor facility until they’re either sent to market or landfilled, he added.
THE PROBLEM WITH LANDFILLS
According to Oceana Canada, about 2.8 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in Canadian landfills every year. And about 86 per cent of Canada’s plastic waste ends up in landfills, while only nine per cent is recycled.
Plastic that’s littered on the ground or sitting in overflowing trash cans or in landfills can get blown into stormwater sewers, rivers or streams. And most of them eventually lead to the ocean — especially in Atlantic Canada.
Fishing gear accounts for about 20 per cent of Canadian plastic that ends up in oceans. The other 80 per cent comes from land-based sources.
Butler always goes back to the waste hierarchy that he was taught in school, which shows the best to worst ways of reducing trash. The best place to start is refusing products that will result in waste in the first place.
“We’ve got the petrochemicals/plastics industry trying to sell us more ways to use plastic, so it’s kind of an uphill battle, but the more we can find ways to reduce our plastic use, the better,” he explains. “And also, you know, reusing things, repairing things … (our) disposable culture mindset isn’t helpful.”
“We’re finding microplastics in the ocean and in seafood now. So, you know, there’s a huge incentive for the fishing industry and everybody to stop plastics going into our oceans, because it ends up in the food we eat.” Mark Butler Ecology Action Centre volunteer
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a concept that places the responsibility of the end of a product’s life on the company that makes it or sells it.
“So the company that makes or sells a product is responsible for taking it back at the end of its use and recycling it. … The producer is responsible for the packaging, the product at the end of its life,” said Butler.
Butler said an EPR program already exists in Nova Scotia for electronics, with specific recycling centres designated for items like cellphones.
“Right now, we don’t have EPR for printed paper and plastic and packaging.”
Butler said an EPR program for printed paper and packaging would cover most of the stuff in our blue bags.
“So it would make a huge difference if we got Extended Producer Responsibility for printed paper and packaging. And if you talk to any of the municipalities, you would find that they would be very supportive,” he says.
“It’s the taxpayer and the municipalities that ultimately have to figure out how to recycle that plastic or (figure out) what to do with it. … So this would make the folks making these materials and producing these plastics responsible for getting rid of it, and take the burden off municipalities and individuals.”