Feds to push clean oceans

Photo: The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell, Ben van Beurden at the World Economic Forum Wednesday, January 24, 2018 in Davos, Switzerland. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Canada plans to use its presidency of the G7 this year to push fellow member countries to help stop the oceans from becoming massive rubbish heaps.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trudeau hosted a roundtable discussion Wednesday on ocean protection with academics, political representatives and executives from multinationals including Coca-Cola and Unilever.

He told the assembled group Canada is using its G7 year to bring forward issues that don't always get a lot of attention at the highest levels of international governance, including ocean protection, "particularly around plastics and pollution."

In an interview later, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said that could include creating a "plastics charter or a zero waste goal."

The problem is no fairy tale message in a single bottle floating across the sea.

It's estimated as much as eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in the world's oceans each year. That's the equivalent of approximately 630 billion single-use plastic water bottles.

"The health of the oceans is under threat," said McKenna, who was in Miami for meetings with local political leaders, academics and university students on climate change and clean technology.

The plastics issue will be a main theme at the G7 leaders' summit in Charlevoix, Que., in June, with follow-up planned for a G7 environment ministers' meeting next fall, said McKenna.

Last fall, Canada signed on to the United Nations Clean Seas campaign, which was launched in February 2017 to draw public attention to the massive amounts of garbage that are ending up in the world's oceans.

Despite a rise in both recycling and composting in Canadian cities and towns, Canadians are still among the most wasteful people in the developed world, with 25 million tonnes of waste ending up in landfills in 2014. Garbage produced by households went up 18 per cent between 2002 and 2014.