Plastic sunset: Canada has a generational chance to protect the oceans while boosting the economy
Since the Carney government took office last year, Canada has seen a spate of environmental rollbacks in supposed pursuit of environmental regulations that do not impede economic prosperity. So far, this is indistinguishable from sacrificing the environment at the altar of the economy. Yet, plastic microfibres present a unique opportunity to get it right: to protect the oceans from a now unrelenting scourge of microfibre pollution while enabling Canadian intellectual property to dominate a key sector for innovation in the coming decades.
Microplastics are a slow-moving environmental disaster of massive, but unknown proportions. These pieces of plastic smaller than a grain of rice are suddenly being found everywhere: in freshwater and oceans, in soil, air, wildlife, and human tissues including blood, lungs, intestines, placenta, breast milk, ovaries, testes and the brain. They can act like sponges, carting concentrated toxic chemicals and harmful pathogens into the bodies of humans and other animals. Recent research reveals that they are more abundant in the brains of people with dementia than those without. In animal testing, they affect female and male fertility, through hormone imbalance, ovulation and sperm health.
Because the science is complex and emerging—and solutions take time—waiting to precisely quantify specific risk pathways before taking strategic action is reckless, if not catastrophic.
Canada is already a leader in reigning in plastic pollution as exemplified by its adoption of the international Ocean Plastics Charter, its microbeads ban, and the single-use plastics ban. This spring, the courts affirmed federal jurisdiction over plastics when the Court of Appeals ruled that plastic manufactured items should indeed be listed as a toxic substance under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Yet, existing actions reveal a substantial blindspot: microplastic fibers.
One of the largest sources of microplastic fibres is the clothing on our backs. Every washer or dryer load releases thousands or even millions of microfibers into the water and air. A recent review estimates that 80 per cent (49-97 per cent) of the microplastics found in Canadian water, soil, and wildlife are microfibers. Plastic microfibers frequently shed from synthetic fabrics including your spandex activewear, quarter-zip fleece, and polyester faux-fur blankets. But natural fibers are not neutral because they can act similarly to synthetic fibers in some contexts and serve as conduits for problematic synthetic dyes and softeners.
Wastewater treatment plants are not equipped to handle the deluge. Even the most sophisticated ‘tertiary’ treatment plants—relatively uncommon in Canada—may capture up to 99 per cent of microplastics, but still release billions of microplastics into rivers and lakes. Even when microplastics are captured, they are inseparable from the sludge that is then applied to agricultural fields as biosolid fertilizers, where they begin a new journey into Canadian freshwater.
Today’s solution is for this country to mandate that laundry appliances manufactured or sold in Canada include a built-in microfiber filter—essentially a lint trap for your washer. Legislation to this effect has been proposed in several places including Oregon, California, and Ontario, and enshrined into law in France. Existing filtration technology has been shown to capture up to 90 per cent of fibers at the source.
Critics allege that people can already buy after-market external filters. But why should individual households be burdened with expensive retrofits when market-wide regulations would result in only marginal price increases for consumers due to economies of scale? This cost effective solution would prevent Canadian households from being unwitting participants in the plasticization of our oceans.
The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers has successfully killed all regulatory efforts in North America by continuing to repeat the scientifically debunked claim that filters are inefficient, “capturing only 25 per cent of microfibers.” Although filters vary, and some seem less efficient than claimed by manufacturers, several have been demonstrated to remove more than 50 per cent, with two repeatedly capturing almost 90 per cent.
Tomorrow’s solution is even better. We will never truly solve the microplastic problem without transforming the textile industry, replacing synthetic fibres and dyes with truly biodegradable ones. What does Canada have plenty of? Biomass and smarts, which together could morph into genuinely biodegradable biofibres and dyes, disrupting the apparel industry and enabling countries everywhere to transition away from plastic textiles and all the problems they produce. If the Carney government invests heavily in biofibre research and development now, it could own the technology and intellectual property for a massive new global market for plastic-free clothing. And it would enable our abundant agricultural residues and wood pulp to leave Canada as value-added products, not as pellets and paper for immediate burning and flushing.
Today, a coalition of 21 groups and organizations including CoSphere, David Suzuki Foundation, Toronto Zoo, and the Starfish Canada are submitting an environmental petition to the federal government identifying nine pathways where Ottawa’s strategic action could vastly improve Canadian health and wellbeing—ecological and public—while safeguarding our biosphere.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, this World Oceans Day let’s do something for the oceans that turns the tide for Canada’s future: turn off the tap on microplastic fibers.
Samantha Blackwell, Chloë Chang, Kevin Landrini, and Clare Price are graduate students and Kai Chan is a professor at the University of British Columbia. They also co-lead the ‘Plastic Sunset’ initiative of CoSphere, at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability.
The Hill Times