Report | September, 2020

Drowning in Plastic

 

Canada is a disproportionately large contributor to the growing global plastic disaster, according to the report, Drowning in Plastic: Ending Canada’s contribution to the global plastic disaster. Drowning in Plastic shows that Canada is a plastic nation:

  • Although Canadians make up less than 0.5 per cent of the global population, we use 1.4 per cent of all plastic produced.
  • Canada currently uses 4.6 million tonnes of plastics every year — roughly 125 kilograms per person.  
  • In 2010, Canada produced nine times more plastic waste per person than India, up to 3.6 times more than some countries in Southeast Asia and up to twice that of some Scandinavian countries
  • Between 1988 – 2016 Canada shipped almost four million tonnes of plastics abroad mostly to Asian countries.
  • Approximately half of all plastic discarded in Canada is single-use.

The Canadian federal government made a commitment to tackle this disaster by banning harmful and unnecessary single-use plastic by 2021. Oceana Canada is calling for immediate action on the ban to end the plastic disaster and help save our oceans from this growing crisis.   

Media contact:
Tammy Thorne (Oceana Canada), tthorne@oceana.ca, 437-247-0954