Billions of bottles: Canadian statistics paint grim picture of plastic litter problem
OTTAWA — New Canadian data suggest that over a nine-year period between 2012 and 2020, the equivalent of more than 15 billion plastic bottles and as many as 14 billion plastic grocery bags became litter in Canada’s environment.
The numbers are based on a new data set Statistics Canada compiled to support the federal government’s “zero-plastic waste agenda.”
The report was published in March, ahead of the global plastic treaty negotiations being held in Ottawa this week. The United Nations environment office is overseeing the talks, which aim to find international consensus on how to eliminate plastic waste by 2040.
The report shows that Canada produced or imported 7.1 million tonnes of plastic in 2020, up 28 per cent from 2012.