Honourable senators, I rise today as critic of Bill S-234, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, a bill that will prohibit the export of certain types of plastic waste to foreign countries for final disposal.

This bill is the same as former Bill C-204, for which I had given a speech as critic in the last Parliament before the election. My position on this bill has not changed: I agree with the main principles of the bill.

As you know, my thoughts on plastic and pollution are informed by my three-decade career as a civil and environmental engineer assessing and solving pollution and contamination problems created by domestic or hazardous industrial waste. I have witnessed first-hand the negative impacts of our irresponsible and ever-growing waste-producing habits and mishandling of toxic substances. Typical landfill operations stockpile all kinds of domestic objects that could have been recycled but instead become macro- and microplastics that will find their way to soil and water, initiating their path into ecosystems, food chains and, ultimately, wildlife and human organs.

The mismanagement of plastic waste creates social, environmental and health problems that put at risk the well-being of our communities and future generations. The entire planet recognizes we have a major global plastic waste problem. That is why the United Nations Environment Assembly started a process in February 2022 to develop a legally binding agreement by 2024 to end plastic pollution, and the G7 countries have committed, this last April, to “. . . end plastic pollution, with the ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040.”

Colleagues, the situation is dire. Every year, 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans, pollute the waters and destroy marine ecosystems. Once these plastics enter the ocean currents, they are unlikely to leave the area until they degrade into smaller microplastics under the effects of the sun, waves and marine life. This has led to the formation of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Please Google it and watch it; it’s incredible. It’s a mass of floating plastic that covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometres. It is the area equivalent to our province of Quebec. At this rate, and if we do nothing, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.

High-income countries generate more waste per person, and thus Canada is part of the problem. With an estimated 1.3 billion metric tonnes of waste per person in 2017, Canada unfortunately ranks as the most wasteful country per capita, and our waste problem is increasing.

With respect to plastic waste, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s report in 2019, we generated 3.3 million tons of plastic waste in 2016, with only 9% of it being properly recycled, 4% being incinerated for energy recovery and an incredible 86% being sent to landfills. But we also mismanage or avoid managing plastic waste, since we export it to developing countries. Waste export per capita in Canada is almost 5 kilograms per day, less than the U.K. with 9.5 kilograms, but more than the U.S. with almost 2 kilograms per day.

The plastic producer representing almost half of total plastic waste in Canada is the packaging industry, followed by the automotive, textile, electrical and electronic equipment, and construction sectors.