Allison Hanes: Plastic pollution is a homegrown problem

Organisation Bleue’s findings should prompt some soul-searching about our reliance on disposable products and the impact they have on the environment.

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You’ve probably heard terrible tales about giant sea turtles choking on plastic bags or seen horrifying images of birds entangled in discarded six-pack rings.

You may have read about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which, according to National Geographic, is actually two virtual islands of debris churning in the ocean: one close to Japan and one between Hawaii and California.

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I once went to Mexico and found myself on a beach strewn with plastic bottles, caps and cans as soon as I left the resort. Friends who visited Bali recently told me they were shocked at the amount of litter marring paradise.

But if you think plastic pollution is a far-off, foreign phenomenon, think again.

Plastic waste collects on the shores of the Lachine Canal near Atwater Market on April 11.
Waste collects at the gate of the locks at the Old Port on April 11. A study by Organisation Bleue took note of the brands on packaging that was picked up and found many of them were commonplace in Canada. In order of the volumes located, the top ones were: Nestlé, Tim Hortons, Nature Valley, Frito-Lay, St-Hubert, Mr. Freeze, Miss Vickie’s, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Naya. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

A new study of local trash accumulation along waterways in Eastern Canada by Montreal-based Organisation Bleue should be a wake-up call that we have a serious plastic waste problem in our own backyard.

Between 2019 and 2023, the researchers, aided by 2,500 volunteers, conducted 91 shoreline cleanups spanning the vast expanse from the Great Lakes, along the St. Lawrence River, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a territory that is home to about 15 million people, but also encompasses remote, natural landscapes.

During each sweep, the trash collected was weighed, categorized and inventoried to create a database to work with in the future.

The findings are alarming. In total, 20 tonnes of waste was recovered, including 10,167 cigarette butts, the most numerous item counted. This was closely followed by 9,654 fragments of plastic, 7,017 pieces of Styrofoam, 3,199 plastic bottles, 2,811 aluminum cans, 2,466 plastic bottle caps and 1,914 plastic bags. There were also many takeout coffee cups, chip bags, granola bar wrappers, drinking straws, stir sticks and tampon applicators.

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During each sweep, the trash collected was weighed, categorized and inventoried to create a database to work with in the future.
During each sweep, the trash collected was weighed, categorized and inventoried to create a database to work with in the future. Photo by Organisation Bleue

For too many Canadians, it’s out of sight, out of mind when it comes to our garbage. But that’s simply shirking responsibility.

“Our territory is so vast and so big that it’s like our relationship to the pollution within it is compromised by the sheer immensity of the space. But the average Canadian is the biggest per capita producer of waste in the world,” said Anne-Marie Asselin, the director general of Organisation Bleue and lead author of the study. “A huge amount of waste is released into the environment, whether it escapes inadvertently on garbage pickup day or it’s not well managed … so our impact as Canadians is fairly large.”

The study also took note of the brands on the packaging that was picked up and found many of them were commonplace in Canada. In order of the volumes located, they were: Nestlé, Tim Hortons, Nature Valley, Frito-Lay, St-Hubert, Mr. Freeze, Miss Vickie’s, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Naya.

“The pollution we’re finding here is not something that’s been carried by international currents, or that has come from overseas,” Asselin said. “The waste we’re finding on our shores is our own.”

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One of the more troubling and surprising discoveries was that the farther east the area where the trash was tallied, the higher the concentrations of refuse and the more fragmented the plastic — even though populations in those regions are much sparser. This suggests the rubbish is travelling long distances and breaking down along the way, Asselin said, which has worrying implications for human health, ecosystems and wildlife. Microplastics are difficult to clean up, quickly amass in nature and eventually work their way up the food chain.

Plastic waste collects at the gate of the locks at the Old Port on April 11. The study also took note of the brands on the packaging that was picked up and found many of them were commonplace in Canada. In order of the volumes located they were: Nestle, Tim Hortons, Nature Valley, Frito-Lays, St-Hubert, Mr. Freeze, Ms. Vickie's, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Naya.
Plastic waste collects at the gate of the locks at the Old Port on April 11. “It’s strange: we see fewer smokers than before, but the habit of throwing the cigarette butts on the ground remains,” said Organisation Bleue’s director general, Anne-Marie Asselin. “So it helps us to see behavioural changes that are needed. And for us, that was a major finding.” Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

The findings should prompt some soul-searching about our reliance on disposable, one-time-use products and the impact they have on the environment, even far from urban centres. Pristine places like Anticosti and Îles de la Madeleine are not spared by our appetite for convenience.

“The repercussions of the lifestyle and consumption habits of Canadians are atrociously visible even on distant islands of the estuary, some of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, others which are protected under multiple classifications and still others which are wildlife reserves, showing that no area, no matter how remote, is spared from plastic pollution in the St. Lawrence network,” states the report.

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More study is needed on currents in the estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence to better understand where all the plastic pollution is coming from, predict how it is flowing and inform policy choices. For decades, research has focused on garbage in the oceans, without giving much thought to bodies of fresh water. But about 80 per cent of ocean plastics originate inland.

Asselin said there are different theories about how the debris is getting into the environment in Eastern Canada, from a plastic water bottle falling out of the bin on recycling day and being blown by the wind into a waterway, to litterbugs not picking up after themselves when they visit parks, to recreational boaters dumping their rubbish, to hunters and anglers leaving a mess behind in remote areas.

Then there’s plain old carelessness.

“It’s strange: we see fewer smokers than before, but the habit of throwing the cigarette butts on the ground remains,” Asselin said. “So it helps us to see behavioural changes that are needed. And for us, that was a major finding.”

Canadians consume two per cent of the planet’s plastics, though we represent just 0.5 per cent of the Earth’s population. We are also among the biggest producers of trash per capita, according to the World Bank.

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Globally, only 18 per cent of plastics are recycled, while 24 per cent are incinerated and 58 per cent released into the environment. In Canada, just nine per cent of plastics are recycled. Despite decades of efforts to divert trash from landfills, programs lack efficiency and our plans to reduce waste at the source are lagging.

For instance, two new Montreal organics plants have been plagued by delays. And the city got caught up in disputes with the company that once handled recycling, causing materials to be dumped in landfills or shipped overseas.

Quebec finally introduced an expanded rebate program for aluminum cans last fall, but is years behind on rolling out consignment for wine bottles and other drink containers.

Meanwhile, the federal government’s attempts to classify some plastics as toxins to justify curbing single-use products like bags and straws was ruled unconstitutional in court and quashed for being too broad. Ottawa is appealing.

Montreal, however, is an interesting laboratory. The city outlawed disposable forks, knives and takeout containers last year. Organisation Bleue did cleanups around the Lachine Canal both before and after the ban to draw comparisons.

“We collected about as many disposable forks and spoons in plastic as we did forks in wood,” Asselin said. “So it allowed us to say, ‘OK, the waste is still there. Consumers haven’t really changed their behaviour.’ However, the wooden fork is only going to last in the environment for months. The plastic fork is going to be around for 150 years.”

Organisation Bleue’s research is being unveiled Monday, and will be presented this month in Ottawa when Canada plays host to United Nations delegates negotiating an international plastics treaty — something Asselin believes could make a huge difference.

“When the science sounds the alarm, we have to react,” she said. “So I’m really hopeful such a treaty can really improve the health of the planet and give our oceans, the St. Lawrence, a new lease on life, and help them rebound from a climate crisis that is bringing many stressors to biodiversity.”

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