Global Plastics Pact Network

The Canada Plastics Pact is part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network, joining other Plastics Pacts in Europe, Africa, North America and Latin America, in a network of national and regional initiatives working towards a common vision of a circular economy for plastics.

The Pacts bring together shared ambition, combined expertise, and collaboration to create regional and national solutions toward a circular economy in which plastic never becomes waste.

Plastics play an important role in our society. However, our plastics system is broken: We take-make-waste. As a result, in Canada alone, three million tonnes a year of plastics waste end up in landfills, escape into the environment, or are burned.¹

This harms biodiversity and uses up natural resources. It also contributes to the climate crisis, and sees billions of dollars of valuable materials lost to the economy.

More clean-ups and better recycling won’t solve our plastic pollution problem. Achieving a world without plastic waste or pollution will take new levels of innovation and collaboration.

And we must act now: Waiting just five more years to take action risks an additional 80 million metric tons of plastic going into the ocean by 2040.

¹ http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2019/eccc/En4-366-1-2019-eng.pdf

The Canada Plastics Pact is a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Plastics Pact network. It operates as an independent initiative of The Natural Step Canada, a national charity with over 25 years experience advancing science, innovation and strategic leadership to foster a strong and inclusive economy that thrives within nature’s limits.