The Department of Environment said that an unprecedented 63,000 tonnes of unrecycleable COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) ended up in landfills by last year.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, department officials contemplated how to deal with the plastic trash piling up during the pandemic in a Nov. 19, 2021 briefing note titled Canadian Action on Plastics.
“An unprecedented amount of single use personal protective equipment is being used in Canada to prevent transmission of Covid-19 leading to an estimated 63,000 tonnes of PPE waste by mid-2021,” wrote staff.
“Initiatives are underway to support the development of innovative systems, technologies and materials to keep personal protective equipment out of landfills.”
Officials even admitted in the memo that “plastics play an important” role in society.
“Plastics play an important role and are being used in the lives of Canadians on a daily basis, even more so now in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the memo. “However their mismanagement is a global concern impacting the economy and the environment.”
Environmentalist groups warned last year that 1.5 billion face masks could have made their way into the world’s oceans globally by the end of 2020.
“Single-use face masks are made from a variety of meltblown plastics and are difficult to recycle due to both composition and risk of contamination and infection,” wrote OceansAsia.
“These masks enter our oceans when they are littered or otherwise improperly discarded, when waste management systems are inadequate or non-existent, or when these systems become overwhelmed due to increased volumes of waste.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised in the past to ban single-use plastics in Canada by Dec. 31, 2021. The ban would apply to products such as straws, checkout bags, six-pack rings, cutlery and food containers.
The measure was delayed by the Liberal government nearly a week before it was set to go into effect.
