Canada and Environment

With over 614 million tonnes of carbon dioxide produced every year, and emissions from oil sands growing rapidly, Canada is the fifth most polluted country in the world. Because of constant environmental issues occurring in Canada, the government and citizens of Canada must make important decisions to regulate these problems. Although Canada cannot be mended back to its original state, Canada’s environment would show many signs of improvement, through decreasing pollution as well as lowering waste levels. North Americans make up only eight percent of the world’s population, yet they produce half of the world’s waste and consume one-third of the earth’s resources. Clearly, Canadians need to reduce their waste in order for the entire world to benefit. For this reason, countries like Italy have illegalized disposable plastic bags and have replaced them with biodegradable fabric and paper bags; this would be a successful policy to implement in Canada as well. In one year alone, 500 billion to 1 trillion bags are made each year; in the United States (US) alone, 12 million barrels of oil are required each year in order to make these bags. Not only would banning plastic bags decrease waste, it would lower carbon dioxide emissions as well. Another way to reduce garbage production in Canada would be to use biodegradable, all natural packaging. Companies such as Sunchips use 100 percent biodegradable, earth-friendly packaging which definitely benefits Canada, as well as the earth as a whole. In fact, a plastic bottle takes around 450 years to decompose, glass takes one to two million years to decompose, and Styrofoam will never decompose. Evidently, through using environmentally-friendly packaging, Canada’s waste would decrease dramatically. Lastly, using Canadian tax payer dollars to fund more recycling would be of great value in order to reduce waste. In fact, only one percent of government spending goes to environmental causes; this goes to prove that Canada needs to