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[Epoch Times June 06, 2018] (Epoch Times reporter Zhou Hang, Toronto) More than 40 environmental groups issued a joint announcement on Monday, calling on the Canadian government to adopt a series of measures to enable Canada to achieve zero emissions of plastic waste by 2025.
According to the announcement, nearly 90% of plastics in Canada are eventually incinerated, sent to landfills, or thrown into lakes, parks, and oceans. Once in the environment, these plastics will pollute the ecosystem, kill wild animals and leach toxic chemicals.
In Canada, the proportion of recycled plastics is less than 11%, and voluntary, industry-led measures do not work well because the cost of recycling and reuse of plastics is high, and dumping plastics into the environment is “free”, which will only make The problem has become worse.
The G7 member summit will be held this week in Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada. The Canadian government has stated that it will try to persuade the world’s richest industrialized countries to set higher plastic recycling and waste reduction targets during the meeting .
According to Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Canada’s goal is “ zero plastic waste ”. She said that this goal will be higher than the EU’s plan to recover at least half of plastic packaging by 2030.
The announcement of the Canadian environmental protection organization was announced before the G7 member summit. The signature organizations include the Environmental Defence, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Ecology Action Centre, and the Canadian Environmental Law Association. Canadian Environmental Law Association).
This announcement is for the Canadian government. Ashley Wallis, an environmental protection organization plastics project manager, told the CBC that to eliminate the flow of plastics into the sea requires the cooperation of the international community. However, “we need to ensure that we do what we can do in our country”.
The environmental protection organization has called on the Canadian government to work with the provinces, special zones, municipalities, and aboriginal governments to formulate policies to eliminate plastic pollution from the environment. Including the prohibition of the use of hazardous or difficult-to-recycle plastics and additives; the establishment of innovative materials and alternative raw material product performance standards; ensure that by 2025: 100% of disposable plastics are recycled, at least 85% can be reused; for single use Plastics products have to set standards for 75% recycled materials; legislation requires companies to financially and operationally recover and reuse plastics they put on the market; and remediate plastics that have accumulated in the environment.
These organizations also require the government to establish a consistent definition, standard, and measurement system for plastic waste and recycling requirements; and declare the problematic plastics in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) to reduce environmental and human health risks by 2020. To the minimum; add relevant environmental protection requirements for suppliers in the federal governments public procurement policy; advocate a global treaty, including achieving “ zero plastic waste ” goals by 2030 .
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