A non -profit organization in British Columbia deals with plastic for ocean by transforming away fishing equipment and coastal waste into commercial products such as deck furniture and building materials, but a lack of financing threatens its future.
Katie Hyslop reports for The Tyee.
Consoling:
- The Ocean Legacy Foundation operates Canada's largest recycling system for sea sculpture and processes ocean waste in pellets that are sold to manufacturers of long -term goods such as planters and terrace furniture.
- The group has removed more than 1,500 tons of plastic from oceans and coasts and trained hundreds during clean -up work, but the recent cuts in the funding of the federal government and the province have forced layoffs and tense operations.
- The foundation also operates educational and political programs that aim to stop the plastic pollution of the ocean in its source and extends the clean-up work to the maritime.
Key quotation:
“At the moment we bring less than 50 percent of what we need to maintain the operation through the income of the income without state grants [recycled] Plastic. “
-Chloé Dubois, co -founder and managing director of Ocean Legacy
Why does that count:
Plastic waste in oceans harms the life of the sea, disturbs ecosystems and increasingly drives into the human food chain. Thrown away fishing nets, ropes and packaging interrupt in microplasty that ultimately absorb fish and ultimately consume people. Canada produces around four million tons of plastic waste every year, a large part of them from disposable products, and the vast majority is not recycled. Groups like Ocean Legacy try to reduce these effects by creating a system with a closed circuit for sea plastics. Without consistent funds and stricter regulations for new plastic production, the best recycling initiatives risk at economic pressure.
Relatives: Scientists examine how microbes can naturally reduce persistent plastics