ontario recycling stats

2022.07.31
why does my kitten chew on everything

ontario recycling stats

Industry agrees that we have a plastic waste matter that needs to be addressed, says Elena Mantagaris, vice-president for the plastics division of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC), the countrys leading plastics industry lobbying group.

National Geographic reports that around 91% of plastic doesnt get recycled. Its everywhere. Canadas chemical recycling rate would need to skyrocket from one per cent to 36 per cent. Photos by Amy Scaife / Greenpeace.

It's all forgotten (wilful blindness really) that these corporations got the permits to extract the raw materials from this continent for peanuts. Over 2 million tonnes of plastic end up in landfills. For World Cleanup Day, Greenpeace, community allies and volunteers co-ordinate a cleanup activity and plastic polluter brand audit. Mechanical recycling is prevalent in Canada. The organization has pushed the Trudeau government to refrain from listing plastics as "toxic" under CEPA, a key part of the federal plan to reduce plastic waste announced last October. These repeat offenders (in order) are Nestle, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, McDonalds, and The Coca-Cola Company. The remaining 20 per cent of ocean plastic comes from at-sea sources, which includes both fishing and shipping litter. Due to COVID-19 affecting the citys ability to send less trash to the dumping grounds, Thunder Bay, Ontario, planned to expand its curbside recycling program over the next couple of years. Some communities even pass laws that mandate consumers to recycle. Proponents are optimistic the new methods will be cleaner and more efficient, but observers have doubts. Ontario made recycling mandatory for many of its businesses. Canadians dispose of about 3.3 million tonnes of plastic each year, according to a 2019 study commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), almost half of which is packaging. "Recycling was formalized and launched in 1970 on Earth Day by the Container Corporation of America, which had sponsored a design competition for the now-universal recycling symbol," explains Liboiron. Mechanical recycling, a method where plastics are sorted and shredded before being melted down into pellets to make new products, is by far the most common form of recycling in Canada. Other industry groups and companies have also been advocating for a similar approach. According to stats from 2019, China is the region that produced 31% of the worlds plastic materials. Faced with this ecological crisis, dozens of Canadian municipalities and provinces have joined a growing global movement against plastic pollution. Our ONLY HOPE is supporting and allying with the young climate activists, organizations like 350.org and Raven's Trust, First Nation youth and elders, and supporting return to indigenous values of being good stewards of this world, and yes it can be done and people can work for a living wage, be safe, and their kids, grandkids, will have a liveable planet and sustainable future, instead of the dystopian nightmare we are living through right now. As a result, lower-quality and badly sorted plastics usually end up in landfills or might be sent overseas via the U.S. Instead of having (thousands) of different recycling programs, get one, says Mantagaris. scenario, we pay for the destruction with our taxes, pay to keep "the jobs", to clean up the mess while the corps and shareholders line their pockets with our money , with income inequality, with our health, with our food security, with the planet - that is the ONLY place we have to live. FACT: About 86 per cent of Canadas plastic waste ends up in landfill, while a meager eight per cent is recycled. They are resource-intensive, rely on fossil fuels for production and typically do not rapidly biodegrade under natural conditions like in the ocean. All of us are just guinea pigs for whatever toxic cocktails are created in the name of profit and wealth concentration. Canadians generate 673 kilograms of waste per year per person, which places them at the top of the heap of excessive waste offenders. The recycling statistics show that Germany repurposes the most waste, at around 56%. For World Cleanup Day, Greenpeace, community allies and volunteers co-ordinate a cleanup activity and plastic polluter brand audit. Dyes and other (sometimes poisonous) additives, like plasticizers and fire retardants, further complicate the process and diminish the recycled products final quality. Although Canadians make up less than 0.5 per cent of the global population, we use 1.4 per cent of all plastic produced. Plastic from overflowing trash cans, litter on the street and waste sitting in landfill can get blown into stormwater sewers or rivers and streams. A small but soon to be big Canadian company, Cielo Waste Solutions has some answers to these pressing problems. Still, cutting back production is only half the solution, they say. Some of these products include paper towels, trash bags, carpeting, and cereal boxes. For this reason, many provinces and municipalities have joined global initiatives, issued bans, and passed new legislation to get the problem under control. They are masters of distraction from the real issue. And researchers at Memorial University found the B.C. Sign up today to get weekly updates and alerts from Oceana Canada. With the exception of easy-to-sort, single-use bottles like those used for water or pop, few mechanically recycled plastics can be reused to hold food, according to a December 2020 report by Greenpeace Canada. Well also discuss which cities hope to improve their recycling programs and how paper packaging gets recycled in Canada. Stouffer was a U.S. plastics marketing guru and the man who, in 1956, first pitched the idea that a virtually indestructible material plastic should be sold as disposable. That doesnt mean getting rid of plastic entirely it is necessary for some products like medical devices, she says. I'm not quite sure how we're drowning in plastic, if we aren't drowning in all the other stuff we throw out that doesn't degrade. Plastic recycling numbers indicate that 12% gets shipped outside of North America, mainly to Southeast Asian countries, where, unfortunately, most of it is burned or reenters the environment. According to Oceana data from 2019, Canadians dump 2.8 million tonnes of plastic in landfills every year. For example, Maori land guardians in New Zealand have linked plastic pollution to land and food sovereignty issues and are working to move people towards relying on local, unpackaged food sources, they say. The shift to this "total disposable system" was sold as a way to reduce hospital labour and infrastructure costs, despite evidence well-made cotton masks might work better, a 2020 article in The Lancet notes. The Canadian governments own science assessment on plastic pollution determined that plastics especially packaging and single-use plastics cause considerable harm to the environment and wildlife. The recycling numbers show that Canada only recycles 305,000 tonnes of its plastic, just 9% of the total plastic waste. This plan could help with curbing Canadas troublesome landfill pollution. Canadians produce a lot of plastic waste; an estimated 3.3 million tonnes per year. However, this is due mainly to our ignorance and from the lack of proper recycling information. Moreover, restaurants, office buildings, hotels, schools, and hospitals must recycle glass, steel, aluminum, paper, and plastic materials. Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick are planning to implement EPR programs. If youre interested in how an Ontario entrepreneur plans to use discarded tires to grow his business and potentially help his communityplease keep reading. You need an active subscription to post a comment. Well over three-quarters currently goes to landfills, a small proportion is incinerated and about one per cent ends up directly in the environment.

Youll learn just how much Canadians recycle and if they could be doing more. That is why we applauded the federal governments move to list plastic as Toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) this spring, and have been pushing for a strong ban on unnecessary single-use plastics. Plastic debris has been found floating on the sea surface, washing up on the worlds most remote coastlines, melting out of Arctic sea ice, sitting at the deepest point of the ocean floor, and in the stomachs of fish, marine mammals and seabirds. Still, in Ottawa today, the idea that recycling is salvation remains prominent, both in the federal governments plastics plan and on the lips of industry lobbyists. However, the numbers of these materials that actually get recycled are shockingly low. For the first 50 years after plastic was invented, the idea of only using the long-lasting material once was blasphemous, an affront to values of frugality honed over years of war and economic strife. North American and European countries specifically have been sending waste there for decades, but many countries, like China, are now refusing it. But disposability soon fell under attack. Lets dive into this issue and sort some of the fact from fiction. We need companies, from multinational corporations to small businesses and local restaurants, to adopt alternatives to single-use plastics; we need the Canadian government to enact strong legislation and regulations that limit or eliminate single-use plastics and ensure they dont end up in our oceans; and we need members of the public to keep the pressure on governments and corporations to end the threat plastic pollution poses to our oceans. It certainly seems the world is drowning in a sea of waste and that our planet desperately needs our help. Photos by Beach Guardian / Greenpeace, Thats what American environmentalism out of the 1970s was the individualization of environmental problems to let industry off the hook, they say. Everybody throws a can into the dump every week, but plastic is only a fraction of it. Pull up your most comfy chair, and lets do this! For example, a portion of Coca-Colas Plant Bottle is made from bio-based materials instead of fossil fuels, but it is chemically the same as a regular plastic pop bottle, meaning it needs to be managed through recycling systems. In 2018, the Trudeau government committed to the international Oceans Plastic Charter, an informal agreement to drastically reduce plastic pollution while increasing the amount of recycled plastic on the market. There is some promise in a suite of new recycling technologies, collectively called advanced" or "chemical" recycling, which break plastics down into their molecular components so they can be remade into like-new products.

Many businesses and apartment buildings have to recycle specific materials in the Province of Ontario. Recycling as "saviour of our planet destroying plastic addiction is like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic after hitting the iceberg!! To mitigate this problem, we need to stop plastics from getting into our oceans in the first place. Canadas estimated annual waste per capita is 36.1 metric tonnes, while the yearly total waste is estimated to be 1,325,480,289 metric tonnes. Canadians throw away about 3.3 million tonnes of plastic each year. More surprising facts like this one are available in the section below. As humankind becomes more aware of the benefits of recycling, were learning how to help repair nature and heal our planet. And while the proposed plan aims to meet these international targets, actually achieving them without cutting back on how much plastic Canadians use will be a struggle, environmentalists say. Itll last epochs which means reducing how much we produce is key to keeping it out of the environment. Approximately 32% of metal was recycled worldwide, and just 31.3% of glass. Beach Guardian's cleanup activity in Wadebridge, Cornwall, U.K. The bulk of which can be traced back to organizations apart of this list. Even since we've had the green bin as well as blue and black boxes, I find the majority of what I send to the landfill consisting of soft plastic. Not all of Canadas recycling happens inside its borders. ** End Rant. And Big Plastic that is, large plastic manufacturers like Dow, Imperial Oil and Nova Chemicals, along with their lobbyists have sold a narrative to the public for decades that our society needs the convenience of single-use plastic and that recycling is the solution to our plastic waste. Plastic is everywhere: Manhattan, the Marianas Trench, even Mars. Rather, MacBride would like to see a SYSTEMIC CHANGE TO OUR THROWAWAY CULTURE" (my emphasis in CAPs). Its not a coincidence that the inculturation of environmentalism happened that way. Thats no surprise. Add your voice calling on the Canadian government to end the plastic disaster and work toward #ZeroPlasticWaste. There are also many different types of bioplastics, which can lead to confusion in the disposal process. The lack of a co-ordinated waste stream reduces the amount of well-sorted, high-quality raw plastic available to recycling companies. It is therefore not likely to be intentionally lost or thrown away, and we cant say the same about single-use plastic products.. Shouldnt we focus on cleaning up the plastic thats already in the oceans?.

Furthermore, some numbers suggest that Canadian citizens use a staggering amount of straws (57 million) daily and around 15 billion plastic bags yearly. We need an urgent move away from disposables towards a reuse revolution.. Landfills are stuffed.

A $170/ton carbon tax should help.

Its a great industry it provides jobs, it makes use of whats around but it doesnt have anything directly to do with improving the environment.. One of the most recent technologies features a vacuum which eases the separating of paper from glass. Our award-winning journalists bring you the news that impacts you, Canada, and the world. Agreed that the root solution is to make and use less of the stuff. Out of all the battery metals, aluminum has the highest recycling rate (70%). Support award-winning independent journalism with Left: A pile of garbage found at Sarstangen on the west coast of Svalbard, Norway. The variety of plastics on the market adds to the challenge: There are over a dozen types, each with different melting points and manufacturing requirements. Almost all of which can be traced back to companies that are top Canadian polluters. And when it comes to market share, producers of recycled plastics remain small players. A recent study found that approximately 96% of Canadians have access to recycle cardboard boxes and paper bags. In fact, a study published in the spring of 2021 the most comprehensive of its kind to date revealed that single-use bags, plastic bottles, food containers and food wrappers are the four most widespread items polluting the global ocean. According to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act the law the federal government is using to regulate plastics a substance is Toxic if it is entering or may enter the environment in a quantity that has immediate or long-term harmful effects on the environment. Thats what drives recycling, says Samantha MacBride, an expert in solid waste management and a professor of urban environmental studies at the Marxe School of Public Affairs at Baruch College of CUNY in New York City. FACT: Unfortunately, bioplastics present many of the same issues as traditional fossil fuel-based plastics. Burning plastic is not a recycling solution; its more pollution, DYK: Leatherback sea turtles mistake plastic for food, Plastic-Free July is an opportunity to save our oceans from plastic pollution and make reusable solutions the norm, Basking sharks are the second largest fish in the ocean, We did it! Check out our list of recycling statistics to find out! She enjoys writing on all sorts of subjects and she loves a good challenge. Instead, the CIAC wants the federal government to co-ordinate a national plastic waste management regime. They also annually send around 510 kilograms of garbage per capita to landfills. The fundamental issue here, as with climate change, is the toxic environmental, health and socio-economic effects/inequalities from extraction capitalism. This type of recycling consists of shredding the plastic, melting it down, and then using it to create new products. Canadians quickly followed the trend. P.S., Re the permits, let's not forget that those are issued by the "Crown" which stole the land from the First Nations on top of everything else I noted above. But we believe that its not the use of plastics thats the issue its the end-of-life management.. So, cheer up, and take a second look at our facts about recycling to see what you can do to make this world a better place for the future! Photo by Christian slund / Greenpeace | Right: A northern gannet entangled in a green fishing net in the U.K. waters of the North Sea. In fact, out of the 240 businesses named in a 2019 audit, 39% of the pollution belonged to the top five companies. Other modern facilities use metal detection and mechanical screenings. Manufacturing facilities must recycle HDPE jugs, totes, crates, and more. According to recycling statistics from 2019, the average Canadian produced almost 673 kilograms of waste. The rest is burned in incinerators, contributing to climate change and air pollution, or ends up in the environment as litter. Lithium ranks the lowest with 1%, while cobalt has a 68% recycling rate. Canada now has a ban on single-use plastics. Oceana Canada is advocating for plastic-free oceans and we need your support to be successful. Employment OpportunitiesContactPrivacy PolicyAccessibility Terms of Use, InternationalEuropeChileUnited StatesBelizePhilippinesBrazilPeruMexico, A great way to get involved in protecting #oceans: Join Oceana Canada! Where does Canada stand per global recycling standards? Canada's oil and gas industries, for their part, receive about $4.8 billion annually in public subsidies noted a December 2020 analysis by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. If low-density polyethylene (LDPE), common in bread and trash bags, is one the four most recycled plastic products, how come my municipality (Ottawa) doesn't want me to put it in my blue box? This is why Oceana launched a global plastics campaign. It deserves to be declared Toxic with a capital T., We can just switch to biodegradable alternatives and bioplastics.. The only non-European country to be a part of the top five recycling nations is South Korea, with a rate of 53.7%. municipalities promote supporting deploying campaigns bluewater In the next section, youll find out which materials can be recycled, which region produces the most plastic, and much more. Listed below are some of the comments weve heard from people across Canada. Regardless, the claim that recycling is the panacea for plastic pollution has been promoted for decades by the plastics industry and its allies, says Max Liboiron, professor of geography at Memorial University and director of the CLEAR laboratory on plastic pollution. According to plastic recycling numbers from 2019, the most frequently collected single-use plastics are straws, cups, lids, and cigarette butts. Global plastic production skyrocketed after 1950, increasing more than tenfold to reach about 35 million tonnes by 1970. Its cheaper to make plastic from so-called virgin oil and put the waste in landfills than it is to recycle old plastics into new products. According to the December Greenpeace report, those subsidies have topped $334 million to virgin oil plastic producers alone since 2017.

As one of the wealthiest nations with a relatively small population, this is a huge problem made worse by the fact that we only recycle about 8 per cent of our plastic waste. Many countries in Asia have become the worlds dumping ground for plastic waste.

Are you curious about which type of waste is recyclable? Photo by Marten van Dijl / Greenpeace. Farmers, environmentalists and others infuriated by roadside litter began to point fingers at the plastic industry.

That storyline remains evident even now. Plastic bags are one of the most widely used non-recyclable items. For the process to be effective, however, the stream of plastics entering the recycling facility needs to be clean and well sorted a requirement that is difficult to meet. Recycling statistics for 2020 indicated that Thunder Bay sent 48,505 tonnes of waste to landfills. But is Canada doing all that it can? The December report by Greenpeace pointed out half of B.C.s waste ends up in landfills, incinerators or the environment. These foul-smelling dumping grounds are prone to rats, unwanted truck traffic, and can even leak heavy metals and chemicals into the groundwater.