New 2020 Article

2020 Rationale

The following is an excerpt from the full updated article. Download the full 2020 article for all content and references.

• • Take the Ocean Wise plastic wise challenge https://ocean.org/plastic-wise/challenge/.
  • Don’t flush anything other than toilet paper.
  • Choose more sustainable toiletries and personal hygiene products, e.g., use silk dental floss, plastic free shampoo and conditioner bars, look for wooden handles on razors and toothbrushes and avoid disposables, choose menstrual cups or reusable period underwear instead of disposable feminine hygiene products.
  • Always be plastic-prepared: keep an extra “plastic free” kit at work or in your vehicle, e.g., reusable cutlery, straw, water bottle, coffee cup, shopping bag, Tupperware/container for leftovers/takeout. 
  • Bring your own container for take-out leftovers. Refill containers at bulk food stores or bulk sections in your grocery store. 
  • Support initiatives to reduce single-use plastic items like bags, cutlery, cups and fast food containers.
  • Reduce your microfiber footprint:
    • Use fixtures for washing machines to trap microfibres, e.g., Fitrol, Lint Luv-r
    • Use a laundry ball or a washing bag to catch fibres, e.g., Cora Ball , Guppyfriend
    • Avoid fast fashion – purchase garments that last and repair
    • Wash less often
    • Do a full load of laundry, and wash on cold to reduce fibre shedding from clothing.
    • Pick up litter, lead or join a shoreline cleanup to prevent debris from re-entering the ocean, and submit your data to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup – www.shorelinecleanup.ca.
  • Pick up litter, lead or join a shoreline cleanup to prevent debris from re-entering the ocean, and submit your data to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup – www.shorelinecleanup.ca.
  • Call the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre if you see a marine mammal in distress/entangled – 604-258-SEAL (7325).
  • Become a “Steward of the Strait” 
  • If you are a diver, help collect data. See what these groups are doing in your area:
    • Project Aware – www.projectaware.org/take-action
    • Global Ghost Gear Initiative – www.ghostgear.org/
    • Emerald Sea Protection Society – www.emeraldseasociety.ca/ 

Government Action and Policy:

• • Fund working towards a circular economy for plastics: design products that are recyclable, reusable and recoverable.
  • Fund working towards solutions to single-use plastics such as sustainable alternatives to feminine hygiene products, plastic cotton buds, cutlery, plates, straws, drink stirrers and balloon sticks; in addition to incentives, consumption reduction targets, and waste management.
  • Revise taxes on reusable feminine hygiene products.
  •  Enact legislation to put the responsibility of cleanup on the producers of plastics (extended producer responsibility) and incentivize the use of recycled plastics or natural materials.
  • Fund actions towards ghost gear removal, and research toward solving the ghost gear problem.