Canada is drowning in plastic waste — and recycling won't save us
For World Cleanup Day, Greenpeace, community allies and volunteers co-ordinate a cleanup activity and plastic polluter brand audit. Photo by Amy Scaife / Greenpeace
By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson
For the first 50 years after plastic was invented, the idea of only using the long-lasting material once was blasphemous, an affront to values of frugality honed over years of war and economic strife. Then, in the late 1950s, the plastics industry launched a massive marketing campaign — and single-use plastic was born.