How Beach Cleanup Data Helped Canada Ban Plastic

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Now picture this.

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You rinsed your yogurt tub.

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You check the little number at
the bottom, you put it in the

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blue bin and hope for the best.

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But then a lot of it doesn't get recycled.

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And yet one of the biggest legal wins
against plastic in Canada started with

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people doing something even simpler
than recycling: picking up trash on a

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beach and writing down what they found.

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And we're gonna talk about this
fight on this episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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I am a marine biologist and science
communicator here to tell you all

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about what's happening in the ocean.

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This week, we are focusing
on marine pollution.

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On Monday, I did a great interview
with Judith Weis on the second edition

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of her book called Marine Pollution.

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Just a cool fact, she was my
first interview on this podcast,

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and more than 2,000 episodes
later, she is interviewing again.

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We interviewed for the first edition
of the book on the first day, and

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we are doing it for the second
day now, so which is kinda cool.

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I really appreciate her for coming on.

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But we're talking all about marine
pollution, all different facts.

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Like, we talked about how the
harbor in New York City got

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cleaned up on the Tuesday.

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We talked yesterday about how we're
actually able to get pharmaceuticals

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out of the water if we just put the
money into our treatment plants.

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And today we're gonna be talking about
plastic, because let's be honest,

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you can do everything right, put
everything in the blue bin, then all

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of a sudden you read the headline
about how there's so much plastic in

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the ocean, in the fish, and even us,
in people, in our lungs, in our blood.

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It's in the air.

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It's everywhere, and it can feel
like your effort, like, disappears

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into a system that just doesn't
really work in all honesty.

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And I hate to say it, the
system, the whole blue bin thing,

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was a fossil fuel invention.

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And so no wonder it
doesn't work that well.

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It's just a way to distract you from what
is actually happening, because the fossil

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fuel industry makes 30% of their funds,
of their revenue, from making plastic.

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so this episode, I'm gonna be honest
about what isn't working, and I'm gonna

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end with what actually is working.

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Now, I've covered plastic on the show
for years, and this is the first time

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I've actually felt the legal ground
shift under it in a way that lasts.

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Now, as I mentioned, we talked
about New York Harbor and

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how that problem was fixed.

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Yesterday we talked about, Switzerland
and what they're doing to upgrade their

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plants to get hormones out of the water.

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But plastic is different.

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It comes from everywhere: bags blowing
off a truck, tires wearing down, clothes

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in the wash, litter in the parking lot.

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It's really difficult to kinda get your
head around everything that happens.

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You can't build one plant to catch it.

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That's why this one, the plastic,
needs a different kind of fix.

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So let's talk about the thing that most
of us really think is solving the problem.

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That's recycling.

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Now here's a number that surprises
almost everyone: 9%, just 9%.

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A few years ago, the federal
government hired Deloitte to study

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where Canada's plastic actually goes.

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The answer?

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Using 2016 data, of about 3.2 million
tons of plastic Canadians threw away

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of that year, only 9% was recycled.

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86% went to the landfill, and about
29,000 tons, roughly 1%, ended up as

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litter in parks, in rivers, in lakes,
and of course, eventually the ocean.

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The global picture looks almost the same.

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Organizations found that the world's
plastic waste doubled between 2000

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and 2019 to 353 million tons a year.

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9% recycled, half goes to landfill,
about a fifth incinerated, and 22%

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mismanaged, which is the polite
way of saying it escaped into the

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environment and got into our oceans.

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So why is recycling so hard?

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' Cause plastic isn't one material.

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It's polyethylene, polypropylene,
polystyrene, PET, PVC, all the

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Ps. each one melts differently
and has to be handled separately.

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Then there are the colors, and the
dyes, and the additives, and the labels,

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and the food stuck to the inside.

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Mix them together and you get something
that nobody really wants to buy.

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That's what it really is.

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It's all about who can buy
the recycling material.

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That's why so much of what goes in the
blue bin never becomes anything new.

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It's also why people who study
plastic keep saying the same

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thing over and over again.

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We can't recycle our way out of this.

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We have to make less of it.

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Recycling still plays a part, but
it's not gonna carry the entire load.

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Now here's what happens to
plastic that doesn't get recycled.

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It doesn't go away, it
doesn't, like, break apart.

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there are, like, pieces five
millimeters or smaller, most

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of them are too small to see.

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These are microplastics.

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They've been found in seawater, sea ice,
fish, shellfish, table salt, rain, air.

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And scientists that study microplastics
have this problem that a lot of

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other researchers don't face.

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They can't find anything clean.

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Like, there's no reference material.

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A good e-experiment needs a
control, something that hasn't

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been exposed so you can compare.

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But microplastics are
in the air of the lab.

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They settle out, of the ventilation.

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They shed from lab coats
and plastic equipment.

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Some labs now work in ultra-clean rooms
just to get a reading they can trust.

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And in February 2025, a team led
by researchers at the University

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of New Mexico published a study
in Nature Medicine that made

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headlines around the world.

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They measured plastic in 91
human brain samples, from people

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who died between 1997 and 2024.

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They reported that the median amount
of plastic in the brain rose by

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about 50% between 2016 and 2024.

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50%. The media ran with the idea
that we each have a spoonful

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of plastics in our heads.

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Then other scientists took a closer look.

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Within weeks, people spotted duplicated
images in the paper's supplementary

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material, which the lead researcher
called a clerical mistake that

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didn't change the conclusions.

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So by January 2026, independent
research has had formally challenged

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seven high-profile studies on
microplastics in the human body,

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including the brain study, and flagged
methodological concerns with more.

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One big worry, the brain is about
60% fat, and fat can produce a false

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signal that looks like polyethylene
in one of the main testing methods.

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So where does that leave us?

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Sounds like a big controversy.

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Scientists on both sides agree on
the core fact: plastic pollution

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is everywhere in the environment.

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What we honestly don't know
yet is exactly how much ends up

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inside us and what it does there.

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We know it's in us.

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We just don't know how much.

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It's hard to tell.

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And this is the frustrating
part, the science is hard because

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plastic is everywhere, and
that's problem is proving itself.

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Waiting for perfect proof
means waiting forever.

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Canada decided, you know what?

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We didn't have to.

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So how do you act when the
science is this hard to pin down?

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In Canada, it started on the beach.

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In 1994, staff and volunteers at
the Vancouver Aquarium decided to

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clean up a beach in Stanley Park.

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By 1997, it had grown to
400 volunteers at 20 sites.

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In 2002, it went to national
with WWF-Canada as the Great

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Canadian Shoreline Clean-up.

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Today, it runs as the Ocean
Wise Shoreline Clean-up.

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Along the way, the volunteers did
something that turned out to matter a lot.

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They picked up the trash and
they started counting it.

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Every bag, every bottle cap, every
straw, recorded as data and shared

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with researchers and policymakers.

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By 2020, volunteers had organized
more than 21,000 cleanups across the

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country on ocean coasts, lake shores,
riverbeds, And year after year, the same

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kind of items kept topping their list.

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In 2018, seven of the ten most common
items they found were, guess what?

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Plastic.

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In October 2020, the federal
government released its science

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assessment of plastic pollution.

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It pulled together hundreds
of studies, and it drew on

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that shoreline data as well.

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Its conclusion was
clear on the big pieces.

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Plastic litter harms wildlife
through entanglement and

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ingestion, leading to suffocation,
strangulation, and starvation.

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On microplastics, it said the evidence
was still developing, and then

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it said the most important thing,
that action is needed now under the

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precautionary principle to reduce both.

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We're not gonna wait until it's too late.

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We're gonna do this now.

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In 2021, the government added plastic
manufactured items to the list of

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toxic substances under the Canadian
Environmental Protection Act.

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That listing gave it the legal
power to regulate plastic.

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Its first move was a ban on six single-use
items: checkout bags, cutlery, certain

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food service containers, six-pack
rings, stir sticks, and straws.

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Now look at that list again.

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Those are the same items volunteers
have been pulling off Canadian

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shorelines and writing down for decades.

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If you really look at this, you see
that people, people who participate

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in the shoreline helped contribute
to this new ban on plastics.

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It's huge.

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It was a huge thing that happened, and
it empowered people to stand up and

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say, "Hey, this is what we're finding
on our beaches, on our shorelines,

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on our riverbeds, on our lakebeds,
and this is what we're gonna get

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rid of 'cause we don't want it."

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And the government
listened, and it was great.

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But then we had a problem.

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A coalition of plastics
producers and industry groups

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took the government to court.

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They argued that plastic manufactured
items was far too broad to count

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as a single toxic substance,
and that the government didn't

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have the evidence to back it up.

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In November 2023, the federal
court agreed with them.

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The judge ruled the listing was
unreasonable and unconstitutional.

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For a moment, it looked like
the foundation under Canada's

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plastic rules might collapse.

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And to be honest, it wasn't about
the six plastics that were banned.

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It was about all the rest of the
things that could happen based on

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that plastics are toxic to humans.

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But then the government appealed, and
while the appeal played out, the ruling

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was put on hold, so the ban on those six
items stayed in place the whole time.

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And to be honest, I saw those items
disappear and for the most part.

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Straws, it was still questionable, but
a lot of people went to paper straws.

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I know, people don't like paper
straws, but it's better than having

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plastic straws unless you need it.

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There's always that option.

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Now, on January 30th, 2026, the Federal
Court of Appeal overturned the decision.

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And its reasoning is worth hearing.

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It said plastic manufactured items do
qualify as a substance under the law.

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It said the government had enough evidence
to reasonably conclude that plastic can

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cause harm, and it said the government
didn't need to test every individual

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type of plastic one by one before acting.

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So basically, the court accepted that
you don't need the perfect proof to

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protect the environment from something
this widespread, so the listing stands.

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Now, the Industry Coalition has asked
the Supreme Court of Canada to hear

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the case, and as I record this, the
court hasn't decided whether it will.

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Either way, the ban stays in effect.

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So what does that win actually get us?

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First, the ban itself.

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The government projected that banning
those six items would keep about

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1.3 million tons of hard to recycle
plastic out of the waste stream over

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the next 10 years, and prevent about
22,000 tons of plastic pollution.

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Now second, something a little
bigger, Canada created the

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Federal Plastics Registry.

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Companies that make, import, or sell
plastic packaging, electronics, and single

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use products now have to report how much
they put on the Canadian market, what

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kind of plastic it is, and what happens
to it at the end of its life: recycled,

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maybe composted, burned, or buried.

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For the first time ever, a country is
tracking plastic from the factory to

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the landfill Now for the honest part.

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Not everything was held.

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In late 2025, the government proposed
dropping its plan to ban the export

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of those six single-use items, citing
trade pressure and the economy.

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And the later phases of the
registry, which would have covered

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more products, has been postponed.

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So we're not out of the woods yet,
but the foundation is still there.

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The listing survived
its first court fight.

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the domestic ban is in place, and the
registry is collecting data every year.

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You can't reduce what you can't measure,
and Canada is finally measuring.

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Now this is the piece New York
Harbor had and Plastic never did.

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A way to see where the problem comes from.

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So when we start looking at all this, if
you don't live in Canada, that's fine.

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it's a great country, but it's fine.

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I get it.

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Not everybody can live in Canada.

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But the thing is, is whether you live in
Canada or not, you can join a shoreline

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cleanup that records what it finds.

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A lot of the organizations that
participate in this records it, or you can

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record it and send it to somebody, like
an organization that will take your data.

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Now, in Canada, the Ocean Wise
Shoreline Cleanup, formerly the Great

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Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, lets
you join one or start your own at

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any beach, lakeshore, or riverbed.

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Outside Canada, of course, you can look
for Ocean Conservancy's International

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Coastal Cleanup or a local group that
logs this data, just like I said.

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Now, the data card is the point, Your
tally goes to the same kind of dataset

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that helped build Canada's case.

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And I always think when you come to help
the shoreline, you stay for the people.

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You, come for the impact, but
you stay for the community.

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You don't wanna start saying, "Hey, we
should ban plastic straws," and just

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see all the people come out, the bots
and everything, to say, "Hey, we love

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plastic straws," and this and that, for
the people who don't really need it.

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And there are people who do.

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Now I just wanna, think about this.

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Like, picture a volunteer on a beach in
1994, writing straw just on a data card.

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30 years later, that same item is
banned across the country, and a federal

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appeal court has confirmed that the
government can regulate plastic as toxic.

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Plastic is still the hardest pollutant
in the series, we now have the legal

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tools, the data, and the registry
to start turning off the tap.

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Somebody recently said it, plastic
is really just solidified oil, 'cause

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it's a petroleum product, so the next
time you pick up a piece of plastic

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on a beach, write it down, because
it counts, and your effort counts.

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And I think that's, not only does
it help yourself, but it helps your

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government, it helps the scientists,
it helps policymakers to really

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understand how you can get rid of
plastic and make a case to ban plastic.

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I'd really love to hear your thoughts
on your efforts to clean up plastic.

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It's great to hear everybody's efforts
and their motivation of why they wanna do

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things, whether it's to just get outside
and do something, whether it's to clean up

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your local beach or riverbed or lakeside,
or you just wanna be with a community

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that thinks the same way you do in person.

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There's nothing wrong with that.

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We are in like a lonely pandemic, and
we need to get out and see people and be

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with people that have something in common.

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And those people who wanna protect the
shoreline, who wanna protect the planet,

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they have a lot in common with you guys.

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So I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast,
and I'd love to hear from you.

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If you are on Spotify and you're listening
to this, they have a comment section.

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Let me hear you talk about what you wanna
talk about in the comments, whether you

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all wanna talk about this episode or
you wanna comment on something else, or

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you can just hit me up on my socials.

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The links are in the show notes.

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Thank you so much for joining
me on today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.