Aug 10, 20202 min read

A People's Campaign for Water Justice -- Part 1: Plastics

Updated: Apr 25, 2023

This Summer and Fall, the Wellington Water Watchers are hosting a series of talks and gatherings to expand and deepen a unified voice for water Justice across Ontario. This post is about plastics.

Read our posts about Privatization and Nestlé in separate posts and check back to see newer posts as the People's Water Campaign grows.

Environmental protections have decreased across the Province in recent years, but our longer term dilemma begs the question "what deeper broken relationships are these protections 'protecting' us from?"

'Water Justice' is a powerful framework for looking at water issues because it seeks to guarantee that there is enough water for people, that the water is clean, and that water is available to those most in need. This fits well with our Blue Community pledge for the universal human right to water and protecting water from privatization (like Public Private Partnerships for municipal water infrastructure) and commodification (packaged water for sale).

This post will catch you up to speed on the People's Water Campaign (so far) and offer various ways to get more involved.

The first talk was called Plastic, Plastic Everywhere and featured Dr. Chelsea Rochman of University of Toronto and Plastics Campaigner Ashley Wallis of Environmental Defence. There was also a live Q&A on plastic pollution, bottled water in Ontario, the role of government, and pathways forward. Watch the recording below.

Some key notes from this plastics presentation:

half of all plastic produced is 'single use'
10,000 tonnes of plastic enter the Great Lakes every year. Microplastics are also found in the fish
tap water has between 0-60 microplastic particles per litre and bottled water has been 100-6,500 particles
9% of plastic in Canada is recycled with 12% of it being shipped overseas
Approximately 2.6 billion plastic water bottles were produced in Ontario in 2017
less than 50% of plastic bottles sold in Ontario are recycled