Microbes could be the solution to our waste plastics problem

By Ishara Yahampath, guest contributor Globally, 400 metric tonnes of plastic are produced annually: 40% is single-use, resulting in significant waste. Every year, 29,000 tonnes of plastic are released into Canada’s environment, causing serious environmental problems—the accumulation of plastic waste in land and water ecosystems, leakage of harmful microbes into the environment, and threats to […]

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Plastic recycling in Canada

Images by Daylen, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0 and Regan Walsh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA modified

Esme Symons and Sri Ray-Chauduri, Technology & Engineering editors Plastic items, including single-use plastics, are ubiquitous throughout Canada. When we’re done with a disposable water bottle, many of us will spot a recycling symbol and throw it in a recycling bin, believing we’ve given the material a new lease on life. However, with Canada recycling […]

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Microplastics: Small pieces of plastic with a big impact

Image by chesbayprogram, CC BY-NC 2.0

Dorottya Harangi, Health, Medicine & Veterinary Sciences editor In 2016, 29,000 tonnes of plastic entered Canada’s marine ecosystem. That may sound like a lot, but it amounts to only one per cent of the country’s total plastic waste. Experts estimate that, by 2050, there will be about 12,000,000 kilotonnes of plastic waste in the global […]

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Bioplastics may be the answer to Canada’s plastic waste problem

Photos by Silvie Harder

Katie Compton and Silvie Harder, Policy and Politics editors When COVID-19 reached Canada in the spring of 2020, the Government of Canada was on track to ban single-use plastics. But in the scramble to reduce the spread of the virus, grocery stores and coffee shops discouraged people from bringing their cloth bags and travel mugs. […]

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