Plastic Waste in Canada

Canada is facing a growing plastic waste challenge, and calls to action on plastic waste reduction have gained traction over the past years. Most recently, the Recycling Council of Ontario, a global leader in waste reduction and recycling, hosted a Circular Procurement Summit to raise awareness of how circular procurement can play a role in addressing Canada’s waste problem. The summit highlighted that it is high time for Canada to shift from a linear to a circular economy to deal with, among other issues, the increasing demands for better plastic waste management.

What Is Canada’s Plastic Waste Challenge?

We use plastics every day: it is found in our electronics, we package our food in it, construction elements are born from it, children’s toys are built with it, and more. An increase in plastic dependency has fuelled global production of plastic resins and fibres, growing at a compound rate of 8.4 per cent annually. However, currently plastics are not kept in closed-loop systems. This means most plastic material produced ends up in landfills after its designated lifetime. Since 1950, a mere 9 per cent of plastic waste was recycled back into the economy, whereas 12 per cent had been incinerated and 79 per cent discarded (Geyer et al., 2017).2 Plastic waste management thus far has been unsustainable, and the world faces a growing problem. Conventional plastic waste management contributes to climate change, the effects of which are felt across the globe. Plastics are made of monomers derived from fossil hydrocarbons. When plastics are incinerated, greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other toxic chemicals like dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls are released into the atmosphere (Verma et al., 2016).3 Plastic waste that ends up in landfills also emits large amounts of GHGs—such as methane— into the atmosphere, if these facilities are not equipped with landfill gas capturing technologies. In 2016, the waste sector was responsible for 2.6 per cent of Canada’s GHG emissions, with 2,400 landfills emitting 13 Mt CO2-eq Poor plastic waste management in Canada contributes to environmental pollution and economic inefficiencies. The country deposits 86 per cent of plastic waste in landfills, and incinerates another 4 per cent, while only 9 per cent is recycled (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2019).6 The country also exports a fair amount of plastic waste; in fact, 3.89 million tonnes was exported between 1988 and 2016 (Lewis & Hayes, 2019).7 This represents not only a lost economic opportunity for Canada but also displaces environmental challenges and health threats to countries that may recognize the economic opportunity but often have less stringent environmental regulations. Such waste-importing countries tend to be emerging economies in Asia, such as China, Malaysia and India. However, environmental pollution in and outside of Canada is not the only consequence of Canada’s plastic waste problem. In 2016 alone, the unrecovered plastic materials represented a lost opportunity of CAD 7.8 billion to the Canadian economy, a loss expected to increase to CAD 11.1 billion in 2030 under a business-as-usual scenario (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2019).8 Plastic resins and plastic products, on the other hand, accounted for more than 5 per cent of the sales in the Canadian manufacturing sector in 2016, amounting to CAD 35 billion (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2019)9. To overcome this economic inefficiency, we need to shake up the Canadian market and economy so the appetite for plastics in Canada may feed itself.

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