This morning, I listened to Environment and Climate Change minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s long-awaited announcement regarding the government’s approach to zero plastic waste by 2030.
And my first reaction was that Canada’s strategy reflects the work of the plastic industry and food sector, pushing to maintain our disposable business-as-usual model. But that model isn’t serving our climate, ecosystems or our communities. There’s only one way to solve our plastic pollution problem and that is at the source. We need to #TurnOffTheTap of single-use plastic production.
The government must listen to the people, not the industry. Will you tell them to #TurnOffTheTap and make a comprehensive ban list now?
The ban proposed by Jonathan Wilkinson includes a very limited number of plastic items. Even bottles, caps, cups and lids did not make it to this list, despite being among the top 10 plastic items found during shoreline and community cleanups in Canada last year. [1]
What’s more, the government continues to largely rely on our broken recycling system, when only 9% of all plastics are currently recycled and Canada still exports some of its plastic trash to the Global South. [2]
We have to #TurnOffTheTap once and for all. Tell the federal government to ban a comprehensive list of harmful single-use plastics.
The government says it wants to tackle the climate crisis, protect our oceans, and move toward a circular economy. But as long as single-use plastics continue to be produced at current rates, there is no incentive for companies to transition to cleaner and healthier reuse models.
Tell the government to #TurnOffTheTap and make a comprehensive ban list now.
Advertisement
