consumption, understand the impacts of excessive water-use, and work on being more
water-efficient.
Plastics also represent a significant component of the waste people generate on a daily basis, as well
as a large portion of the pollution that impacts our watersheds. Synthetic plastics have only really
been a part of the consumer market since the 1950's. Of the approximate 8.3 billion metric tons of
3
plastic ever produced, 10% (830 million metric tons, Mt) will end up in the ocean, with at least half of
this sinking to the seafloor. Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the
4
cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the environment from land is predicted to
increase to 12,000 million metric tons by 2050. The presence of these plastics disturbs marine
5
ecosystems - where marine life can ingest, become entangled, or absorb chemical contaminants; as
well as pass exposure and pathogens up the food chain, destroying vulnerable populations.
6
Although we have organizations like the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA), the National
Energy Board (NEB) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) alerting our elected
officials of the pollution being produced, many industries still make non-eco friendly products.
Plastic directly impacts water quality in Canada.
We believe that Canadians need to make sure to conserve the amount of plastics we use, and if we
do buy plastics, to do our best to reuse and eventually recycle them. There are also proactive
measures we can take as consumers to dissuade companies from producing excessive plastics. For
instance, we can form protest groups around issues of plastic pollution, or use apps such as
"Buycott" that provide data and inform us about making sustainable choices for the items we
purchase on a daily basis; or boycott products that do not benefit the environment. Moreover,
environmental scientists and entrepreneurs can come together, share and expand their creativity to
innovate new ways to conserve our aquatic environments.
" The major issue right now is to think about how to prevent future mass-production of plastics as well as a
resolution to perhaps creating or inventing something that removes currently existing garbage in the ocean
since the ocean is a cycle." - Rebecca Jin, BC
3
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-102016-060700
4
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782
5
ibid.
6
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141113616300733
