Cigarettes and their filters made from plastic account for almost 50 per cent of the waste collected along the Vancouver and Victoria shorelines, says a study analyzing data from volunteer coastline cleanups in British Columbia.
Dozens of environmental groups say if Canada wants to be a leader in getting the rest of the world to kick its plastics habit, it has to start by setting the bar for recycling plastics far higher at home.
The European Union has proposed banning plastic products like cotton buds, straws, stirs and balloon sticks when alternatives are easily available to reduce litter spoiling beaches and ocean beds.
Seeing trash cans overflowing with straws night after night has prompted a server in Toronto to launch a campaign against the plastic item that's become a target of the British government as it aims to rid such pollution from oceans, though Canada has stopped short of pushing for a similar commitment.
Justin Trudeau is heading home from a lengthy, three-country foreign tour in which the prime minister appeared to recapture his international mojo and reassert several key alliances, but didn't sign off on any big deals or declarations.
What’s 1.6 million square kilometers, weighs 80,000 metric tons, and is three times the size of continental France? That would be the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — the enormous collection of detritus that floats in the Pacific Ocean
Bright-eyed children run between heaping piles of plastic, a worn-out worker spends his meager wages on alcohol, and a preteen girl gazes solemnly at Western product advertisements she picks out of the monstrous piles of trash around her home. Welcome to Wang Jiuliang’s Plastic China.
Plastic straws are among the top 10 litter items picked up during beach cleanups, with thousands picked up every year, writes celebrated Canadian scientist and TV host David Suzuki.