Plastic pollution has become one of the leading environmental crises of our time.
The planet and its communities worldwide need you to care, and to act
Plastic pollution causes the loss of biodiversity, contributes to global carbon emissions, transports Persistent Organic Pollutants, and alters the biogeochemistry of soil and water systems worldwide. Additionally, plastic pollution is entrenched in a complex fabric which intersects issues surrounding poverty, environmental and human health degredation, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing as well as a myriad of other issues.
With more than 400 million tonnes of plastic produced annually and exponentially growing, it is estimated that more than 13 million tonnes enters aquatic environments. The growing impact of plastics leaking into the natural environment has become one of the largest environmental crises of our time. It is imperative that we not only better understand the implications of our plastic addiction and its full life cycle but that we collectively set a course which can begin to shut off the tap while managing the leakage points.
Solving the crisis with Ocean Legacy and you can participate
For the last decade, Ocean Legacy has been working tirelessly with the goal to end the plastic pollution crisis with a proven four-pillar approach called EPIC, which integrates Education, Policy, Infrastructure Development and Clean-up. These pillars are used to co-create innovative solutions which engage the public, media, ENGOs, government agencies, indigenous governance and communities as well as other businesses and industries globally to achieve plastic-free lands and waters. Ocean Legacy has developed the first and largest scale Plastic Pollution Emergency Response Facility in Canada that is focused on finding solutions to recycle marine plastic gear and pollution. This Facility has launched Ocean Legacy as an international leader in plastic pollution reduction, collection and processing, showcasing successful methods in stimulating the plastic circular economy across 7 formal Ocean Plastic Depots which have now diverted over 1.8 million pounds of debris that would have otherwise ended up in landfill or re-entered the natural environment. The program also provides a prolific online education academy in three languages, and works to improve mitigative plastic pollution policy measures with all levels of government. Currently, the program has removed more than 2 million pounds of plastic pollution from over 1000km of coastline, creating just under 800 meaningful employment opportunities and has catalyzed long-term tools communities need to steward their natural environment. The Foundation has performed and led global plastic pollution field operations for over nine years, becoming one of Canada’s most experienced field teams to collect, remove, sort and recycle materials collected from clean-up efforts and currently works with over 100 entities across an international community.
With the development of this model, we are asking for your participation to continue growing this program by participating in our free online education platform, dropping off your plastic one of our depots or using our recycled content.
To learn more, please visit Ocean Legacy at www.oceanlegacy.ca.
