This page will focus on the broad stroke of Canada’s waste management response and its relation to other countries policies and development of policies specifically in the global south.
Plastics awareness has been one of the more pressing issues of environmental degradation to be addressed. A large part of the increase in plastic-related policy is due to growing awareness of plastics in the ocean (Henderson, 2020). **However the public perception of plastic pollution is still limited to a visual presentation of plastic, when in reality the issue is much more complex when considering the different forms of plastic. This is why there is an increased demand from experts to move beyond large plastics and distinguish different types of micro-plastic to grasp the complete scope of what different regulations and agreements need to be done.
Currently international and local plastic policy deals with the safe disposal and production of plastic waste, ignoring the environmental pressures to find alternatives. This exemplifies the core principles of the what many researchers are now referring to as the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene refers to this current geologic time period where human activity has a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Academics and environmentalist are advocating for policies and a societal reform that aligns with a “post-humanism” understanding of environmental relationship(Fox, 2019). A “post-humanism” perspective “privileges human interests in relation to to those of other animate and inanimate matter, while not denying continuing human involvement in the Earth’s ecosystem”(Fox, 2019).
A reoccurring issue in Canada and plastic waste mitigation efforts around the world, is ensuring that plastic is recycled in a safe and correct manner. For example it is estimated that roughly 500 billion plastic bags are used per year(Plastic Oceans, and according to the Environmental Protection Agency less than 5% of plastic are recycled worldwide(Anderson, 2016). This plastic waste ends up contributing to 80% of all marine based waste and has devastating global impacts(Natgeo).
Diagram 1: A map of all 51 countries that have signed plastic bans since 1991, as of 2018. (Doris, 2018)
Since 1991, 51 countries have adopted bans on the production or use of plastic bags (See diagram 1) (Doris, 2018). It found that the global south is one of the main adopters of plastic policy of the 51 countries that have adopted plastic policy since 1991; 36 or 70.6% are located in the global south (Doris, 2018). After the first wave of plastic policy adoption in the global south during the mid 2000’s, all influential advancements to follow have come from the the global north. Studies by Xanthos and Walker (2017) as well as Clapp and Swanston (2009), produced some of the first extensive analysis of global plastic environmental policies, and different forms of plastic bag policies.
The Basel Convention was signed into effect in may 1992. The aim of this convention was to limit the transport and disposal of a wide variety of hazardous waste across the world. Its key objectives are to: