Plastic Waste-Canada


 

Emmy/ Eric W /Neal / Shamar

 

  1. As a group you will co-construct your leaning about your chosen National topic. 
  2. Over the next 5 days, you will research your topic in relation to PEPS and using the Success Criteria as a guide. 
  3. All research will have to be sourced and put into jot notes. 

  Line through jot note/bullet means already used. 

already used for paragraph

1.  Physical-Physical Landscape of the Earth

(location, country size, time zone, natural resources, important physical landforms, climate)

 

Plastic waste is effecting our earth by pollution and chemicals effecting the earth which is mainly effecting the oceans and there is also a big garbage dump. Also, the area is more than twice the size of Texas by the Pacific Rim (China, Japan and Korea) and Canada and Alaska. It's more plastic waste than water. Also plastic waste in Winnipeg gets shipped to China and it's made into things that can't be recycled like fly swatters. Although the plastic doesn't end up in Winnipeg it ends up in a landfill somewhere else in the world.  Also, animals (mainly birds) are thinking the plastic waste is food so they gobble it up. That plastic waste can kill the birds or animals that think it's food. Like This or Like This  Either way, it still shows my point about animals getting killed by plastic waste. It's not just birds getting killed. Other animals to.  In the developing countries all the plastic waste that's sent there can contaminate the drinking water, air and soil.  All across Canada, plastic bags are killing/trapping marine animals, clogging sewers and ending up even in people's backyard's and even a country as big as Canada, the wind is strong and if it's consistent then it could carry a plastic bag Newfoundland to British Columbia and of course it could get blown the other way into the Alantic Ocean and end up on somebodies ship.

 

 - hurting environment  

- birds and other animals dying because of it 

- wind blowing plastic bags 

- clogging sewers and blocking drains so rain water gets left on streets and is a safety hazard to cars

- marine and other animals dying because they're are trapped and lose air

- animals think the plastic is food

- littler water in the water sources because plastic is most of it

- Plastic waste such as plastic bags are put in landfills and doesn't biodegrade
- The decomposition of a plastic bag takes about 1000 years under perfect condition
- Each year more and more plastic bags are ending up littering the environment

- Arboform has better thermal and mechanical properties than plastic and wood put together and

- liquid wood is also called Arboform

- About 100,000 animals are killed each year because the animals think it's food and then they die
- Worse the ingested bags remain in after the death and decomposition of the animal and it lies on the landscape waiting for another victim to eat it
- the future of plastic bags depends on the oil we have and while we are making these bags we are forgeting about the oil we need in our car
- liquid wood is an eco-friendly alternative to plastic
- liquid wood is a strong thermoplastic formulated from lignin, natural fibers and wax
it is non-toxic, biodegradeable and doesn't depend on a nonrenewable resource such as petroleum

- Environment Canada and Canada Border Services say that the electronic plastic waste taken from 27 Canadian companies since November 2005 originated from across Canada but mainly Quebec and Ontario (continued)
- The waste included: thousands of computer monitors containing lead, lead-acid batteries  flourecent lamp ballasts containing polychlorinated biphenlys (PCBs) which is toxic to the environment and humans

- It takes 430000 (four hundred thirty) gallons of oil to make 100 million (100, 000, 000)plastic bags

- In Vancouver plastic bags are of the top ten things that litter the community beaches, roads, sidewalks, and parks

- More1.6 billion gallons of oil is spent on making plastic bags, what a waste

- more people want the  government to make liqiud wood

- other animals might become extinc because of plastic waste 

-  creating to many landfills

 

2.  Economic- Forms of Trade, work or any money related activities

(currency, GDP, major exports and imports, literacy rate etc.) 

 

  This effects the economy because it blocks imports from coming to and fro from countries that are currently importing and exporting with Canada like China and especially China. If you look around your house most things in your house comes from China and I don't think China wants to go most of the way around the world because if the garbage wasn't there they could easily travel to BC and now they might stop exporting things to us because of the plastic waste. Another economic problem is that "Canadians still carry home about 55 million plastic bags a week" (Quote from the Toronto Star) and the problem with that is that we buy the plastic bags that are causing all of these environmental problems.  Something else is all the rich countries are buying then discarding it and we keep doing that meanwhile, the poorer countries are trying to recycle all of this waste that's sent to them from the rich countries and the workers in the poorer countries are dying because of all of the things were are buying. On June 1,2009 the store Metro which owns  nearly 600 across Ontario and Quebec stores started charging $0.05 for plastic bags along with Loblaws and Sobeys. However, Sobeys only charges for plastic bags in Ontario. Even though Metro's program only affects Ontario and Quebec, it's a matter of time until all of Canada is following the same program.

 

_ Metro started fee june 1st, 2009

- plastic blocking imports/exports (by water transportation) from different provinces/terretories 

- 55 million bags taken home in a week 

- charging 5 cents per bag

- Only Ontario and Quebec stores charging 5 cent fee in Canada

- Metro and Loblaws are only chain of stores in both provinces that charge the fee

- Export of the toxic material is a violation of Chinese and Hong Kong domestic laws, Canadian law, and the Basel Convention, adopted in 1989 to regulate the exporting of hazardous wastes

- Canada illegally exports plastic waste and other toxic wastes
- 50 containers loaded with about 500,000 kgs of metal and plastic scrap exported to Hong Kong and China from Port of Vancouver

The federal government is allowing exporting of plastic waste to developing countries 

 

3.  Political- Government Activities, laws, or any symbols related to these activities (forms of government, capital city, political leaders).

                         

One good thing that the government is doing is reducing plastic waste. You can help the government by not buying plastic bags, telling your friends to do this and reusing what you can. Also, I'm kind of glad Rob Ford isn't prime minister because he doesn't want the $0.05 fee for plastic bags and the fee is helping people come off there habits of buying plastic bags and instead using renewable bags. If we didn't have that fee Canada's landfills would be a lot fuller.Also, we as a rich country (developed country) buy things then discard it, buy things then discard it. Ever wonder what happens to all the waste. Well, we ship it off to the poorer countries because we have absolutely no idea what to do with it all. When it gets to the poorer countries the waste is recycled but all the waste endangers the workers health because the waste carries a number of toxic substances. It also can contaminate the air, soil and the little drinking water they have. On June 1,2009 the city of Toronto starts forcing stores to charge for single-use plastic bags.

 - recycling and reducing plastic waste

- reusing plastic bottles

- government of Ontario helps recycling 

- people should stop buying plastic bags we would have less taxes and the government wouldn't be paying for landfill workers and the government would be spending money on things for our country

- if that happend we would have a better economy

4.  Social- People and the cultures, beliefs and traditions that define them

(languages, religion, celebrations, recreation, values, immigration, population etc.)

 

 

  A good thing is hopefully people will tell friends not to buy plastic bags and then we won't need as much landfills and places to dump our plastic bags and if people tell their friends they're going to tell other people and so on and eventually most people in Canada won't be using plastic bags.  Something else is that we as Canadians carry home over 55 million plastic bags home every week! In two weeks we carry home 110 million plastic bags. At the next Olympics or big event that we have in Canada we should get (if there's an announcer) the announcer to put all the companies that make plastic bags to shame by the announcer saying " Citizens of Canada, on behalf of the students in Mcmurrich School in Toronto, Ontario, I would like to say that Canada in the year of 2030 will hopefully be almost fully green and Eco-friendly." Also, that announcement will start to motivate lots of people to start making their communities greener. Although, Canada will probably never fully green and fully Eco-friendly, we can come close to it!  A problem with plastic waste is the workers that are trying to recycle it can't support their families because the waste is hazardous to their health and that means children have to go work so they can support their families while them doing that is giving up any chance of getting an education, especially girls.

 

- People telling people not to buy plastic bags , they want canvas bags 

- spread canvas bags to the community 

- Concerned parents are already wanting to replace plastic water bottles to protect their kids from bis phenol A and phthalate toxins (chemicals used to harden plastics)

- Plastic is most of the objects of people's house such as:
                
-     Detergent containers
                 - Sour cream containers
                 - Candy/Chocolate wrappers and hundreds of other things

                - garbage bags

                 - computers

                     - TV remotes

                  

 

- According to the Institute of Chemical Waste Management, about 15% of our garbage is classified as toxic, and only 85% (approximately) of that is disposed of properly
- The environment protection agency (EPA) estimates that every person living in Canada produces one ton of toxic waste every year

- when we are buying plastic bags, we are telling the companies that make them to keep making them

- if every person in that lives in Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec City, Charlottetown, Halifax, Fredericton, St.Johns (capital of Newfoundland), Winnipeg, Regina, Victoria and Edmonton stopped using plastic bags then there would be a noticeable difference and other cities/villages would follow not wanting to be left out 

- Food Democracy - The right of all people to an adequate, safe, nutritious, sustainable, food supply.

nogmomofga2.jpg 

 

 



 

 

You Can Help!

 

Question: How Do I Help?

 

Answer: By Following These Simple Rules!

 

 

 

 

Cite Your Resources! 

 

 

Plastic waste books:

 

 - Suzuki, David, David Suzuki's Green Guide, Vancouver, Graystone Books,2008 

 

                                

-Barnham Kay, RECYCLE, New york, Crabtree Publishing Company, 2008

 

- Hirschmann, Kris. Pollution. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005 

 

            - Text by: Delannoy, Isabelle , photos/illustrations by :Arthus-Bertrand, Yann. Our Living Earth. New York: Harry N.Abrams,Inc. 

 

 

Newspapers

   

 

 

 

Related links and Resources

 

 

Plastic waste websites: 

 

http://www.ideaconnection.com/solutions/4349-Non-biodegradable-plastic-waste.html

 

http://www.sundayvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCategoryId=7&newsCategoryId=131&newsId=745160

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

 

http://plasticless.com/

 

http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/reusablebags.htm

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags.html

 

http://www.ec.gc.ca/education/default.asp?lang=en&n=600C1403-1

 

http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/waste/plastic-bags/index.html 

 

www.CBC.ca/Canada/Manitoba/.../man-recycling-garbage-plastics-expo.html

 

 

Video on different countries that have plastic bags dumped:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw4wqthVpQU

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZPBO-c5GMDQ

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tnUjTHB1lvM

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a4S23uXIcM&feature=player_detailpage

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=CJ-ox6kzwTk

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=i20tw5Gcjfg

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxNqzAHGXvs&feature=player_detailpage

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6wUoFbqIe5Y

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flTbLnn5w_0&feature=player_detailpage

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uzGIzIy3xU&feature=player_detailpage

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnSK5pJnB7c&feature=player_detailpage

 

If you could see the real impact of plastic bottle usage in Canada 

 

Plastic Waste in Mantoba 

 

 

Plastic Waste Images

 

http://c1.planetsave.com/files/2010/04/ocean-of-plastic1.jpg

 

http://svmomblog.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/19/garbage.jpg

 

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/26673/

 

http://geographydirections.wordpress.com/author/gaconover/ 

 

 http://www.CBC.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2010/11/ 09/story/mychaylo-recycle.jpg

 

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ecologycenter.org/iptf/WastePile.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ecologycenter.org/iptf/&usg=__TvjZEObCYxWsi3a35Nj-fc3pTmo=&h=286&w=516&sz=215&hl=en&start=5&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=R3D-0AWjSpT3lM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplastic%2Bwaste%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=ZLtKTebjCoGClAewyeHXDw

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OFTHTAH9590/TDSeH-SOplI/AAAAAAAACmQ/6-bqkXU5Y7w/s1600/Oystercatcher.jpg

 

http://www.ozville.org/blog/uploaded_images/waterbottles-742144.jpg

 

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