Canada’s Plastic Waste Challenge

Marine biologists in Canada, which produces one of the largest amounts of plastic waste per capita in the world, have taken it upon themselves to organize trips to a number of marine protected areas to clean up plastic trash. OECD data shows that over the past 20 years, annual global production of plastics has more than doubled to 460 million tons, and the total amount of plastic waste has nearly doubled to more than 350 million tons, of which less than 10 percent is recycled. In Canada, where millions of tons of plastic waste are generated each year, more than 90% of plastic waste ends up in landfills or incinerators, and only 7% is recycled.