Plastic is pervasive. Especially the single-use kind.
It's useful for carrying groceries and storing food.
It's durable, and light-weight for shipping.
But over the decades, its convenience
has created a plastics problem.
(Whirring)
Every year, Canadians throw away over three million tonnes
of plastic waste.
Only a fraction of that gets recycled.
A whopping nine percent.
29,000 tonnes of plastic end up in our natural environment,
including lakes and oceans,
while the rest ends up here, in landfills.
Take, make, waste.
That's what we're doing today in Canada,
and it's what's called a linear recycling economy.
Take petro chemicals out of the ground
and we turn it into plastic, we put it into packages,
we put it on our shelves, we bring it to our houses,
we put it in the bin, it goes to a recycling depot,
and then it ends up in landfill for the most part.
There are several reasons why Canada's recycling rates
are so low.
For one, what's allowed in blue bins differs
from province to province and city to city.
And it's often cheaper for manufacturers to buy virgin
or new plastics instead of recycled plastics,
because of the price of fossil fuels.
But one of the biggest offenders is consumer behaviour.
A lot of the time plastics that can be recycled
are simply thrown into the garbage.
Not only is there an environmental impact
with all these plastics being discarded,
but there's a big economic loss as well.
To the tune of nine billion dollars.
There has a been a call from environmentalists
and consumers to eradicate plastics,
but we're far from that.
What is being done now,
is a push to what's called a circular economy.
A circular economy is about ensuring the carbon
within plastic does not end up in our environment,
does not go to waste,
but continues to be reused in some fashion.
The concept is simple, and is like the old slogan,
"reduce, reuse, recycle."
But keeping the resources in circulation
relies on more than a slogan.
Experts say it requires regulations and innovation.
The Canadian government has a regulation in the works.
In an effort to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030,
it's banning six single use plastics by the end of 2021.
The ban includes plastic grocery bags, straws,
stir sticks, plastic cutlery, six-pack rings,
and food containers made from hard-to-recycle plastics,
like black plastic.
We really need to be doing everything we can
to be reducing our unnecessary plastic use,
and that should mean banning more than just
these single-- these six single use items,
which are really low-hanging fruit.
JEYAN: According to a survey
by environmental organization Oceana Canada,
two thirds of Canadians believe the ban should be expanded.
We think that the list is too narrow.
If you think about those items, things like straws,
check-out bags, um, a lot of them are items
that are already falling out of favour.
Ontario is in the process of moving away
from blue box programs and putting the responsibility
of collecting and managing plastics onto the producers,
but that transition isn't expected to be completed
until 2025.
Another policy potential, setting a minimum percentage
of recycled content in new plastic products.
In 1991, our neighbours to the south,
in the state of California, passed a law
that mandates manufacturers use 25% post-consumer content
in some of its packaging.
Now that packaging producer needs to go and say,
"Okay, I need to get recycled plastic
"to put into this product,
"so I need to make sure there's a good supply
"that's high quality, that's reliable,
"and that's at a price that really can compete
"in this price-sensitive market."
Another way to achieve a circular economy
is to re-think the way we design plastic.
Often times when you buy plastic packaging,
you'll see a lot of air space between the top
of what's put in the package and the package.
This is called "head space."
That plastic packaging between--
that really is holding nothing but air
is unnecessary plastic.
And so that would be a good example of where
there is a role for elimination.
Industry experts say innovation needs to be at the forefront
of reducing our plastic consumption.
We're prioritizing feed stocks or plastic materials
that are currently economically challenging to recycle
through the mechanical process.
JEYAN: GreenMantra technologies in Brantford, Ontario
is among more than 200 facilities in Canada
processing and recycling plastics.
Unlike mechanical recycling where discarded plastics
are collected, washed, and crushed up into tiny pieces,
GreenMantra uses chemistry to break down discarded plastics
at a molecular level.
This facility goes through tens of millions of pounds
of plastic every year.
The end product, a synthetic wax in the form
of tiny black pellets.
So they can go back into the manufacturing
of plastic products, but they can also go into
brand new markets where traditional recycled plastic
couldn't be used, so some examples would be
in the manufacturing of roofing shingles,
where we can help make a stronger shingle,
or into the manufacturing of asphalt-paved roads,
where we make a road that lasts longer or is more durable.
Industry experts say that reaching the federal
government's goal by 2030 is a lofty one
and will involve an all-hands- on-deck approach.
They say policies can ban items and help create incentives
but collaboration and innovation from within the industry
is what will help get us to zero plastic waste
and ultimate to a circular economy.
And that can happen all across Canada.
It can happen in the chemical industries,
it can happen in small municipalities
that are investing in sorting and collecting
and recycling technology.
It can happen in our companies and retailers
that are looking at bringing in reuse or refill models.
It's really a broad set
of involvement from a lot of companies that can--
that can drive this change.
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