Dear Friend,

Plastic pollution is the second greatest threat to the environment after
climate change. Garbage dumps overflow with plastic waste. It pollutes
rivers and washes into the ocean, forming massive islands of plastic junk,
killing birds and marine life. Microplastics travel up the food chain and
end up in our food supply. Enough is enough!

Four years ago, in June 2018, Canada adopted the Ocean Plastics Charter to
demonstrate our "commitment to take concrete and ambitious action" on toxic
plastic pollution. A year later, Prime Minister Trudeau proudly announced
that a ban on single-use plastics (SUPs) would come into effect as early as
2021. (Spoiler alert: it didn't.)

Now the government has finally released draft regulations - the so-called
Single-Use Prohibition Regulations - that will underpin the proposed SUP
ban. But they are so seriously flawed, you have to wonder: are we actually
going to ban single-use plastics or not?

For a start, the six items prohibited under these regulations represent a
small proportion of the single-use plastic waste generated in Canada. In
fact, most of the common SUP items found on beaches - coffee cups and lids,
for instance - are excluded.

Further, the government has caved to the plastics lobby by allowing SUP
items that will be banned in Canada to continue to be manufactured here and
exported to other countries. As if creating future pollution by sending it
overseas is somehow okay.

In the House of Commons, Green MP Elizabeth May summed up the problem [1]
and demanded that "we do something about the mounting amount of plastics in
our environment, the microplastics that permeate almost all the water on
Earth and the plastics that are found in the stomachs of animals that wash
up dead. The Prime Minister promised to eliminate single-use plastics by
2030. We do not have a plan. The regulations that are in draft form are
completely inadequate. When will we see a plan to eliminate single-use
plastics by 2030?"

[1]

The government's proposed regulations are clearly inadequate to deal with
the toxic plastic waste problem and the current 2030 target date is far too
late to implement the needed changes.

Friend, will you join fellow Green Party members
and supporters in writing to Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven
Guilbeault urging him to strengthen the proposed Single-Use Prohibition
Regulations?

SEND A LETTER [2]

Let's make sure the Minister and his colleagues know that plastic pollution
is at a CRISIS LEVEL and that it's time to start acting like it.

Thank you for adding your voice.

Sincerely,

KAREN FARLEY
Shadow Cabinet critic for Innovation
Green Party of Canada

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