82% of Canadians support single-use plastic ban regardless of political affiliation

Oceana’s poll

Key findings from Oceana's poll include:

• 84% of women and 80% of men support the ban of single-use plastics.
• The support was high across every region of Canada, from 72% among residents of Alberta to 92% from residents of Quebec.
• 82% of Canadians support the ban on single-use plastics, including 71% of those who plan to vote Conservative in the next election, 86% NDP and 93% Liberal.
• People over the age of 60 (82%) and people under 30 (85%) are most concerned about the health impacts of plastics.
• 85% of women and 79% of men are concerned about the health impacts of plastics.

Part of the charity's call for governments to prioritise ending plastic waste involves ending the sale of plastic packaging that isn’t collected and recycled in Canada.

“Retailers have been promising this for years without action, and we cannot continue to burden a failing system. Moving to materials that do get recycled and systems that reuse materials is both cost-effective and better for the planet. Companies continue to sell Canadians garbage in the form of plastic packaging that ultimately ends up in the environment and our bodies,” Merante said.

"The solution is clear: Canada needs to tackle the problem before it reaches the shelves, rather than wasting resources on cleaning up massive amounts of waste.”

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Canada’s plastic waste

Canada produces more than four million tonnes of plastic waste annually, with half coming from single-use plastic packaging and only 8% of plastic is recycled nationally. Major grocery stores, fast food chains, e-commerce and beverage bottlers are the primary contributors to this waste, according to Oceana. Furthermore, studies reveal that plastic breaks down into there's the problem of micro- and nano-plastics, which have been found essentially everywhere, including in rain clouds, the air and our food, as well as in our lungs, brain and blood.

Oceana Canada was established as an independent charity in 2015 and is part of the largest international advocacy group dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana has successfully campaigned to ban single-use plastics, end the shark fin trade, make rebuilding depleted fish populations the law, improve the way fisheries are managed and protect marine habitat.

The poll was conducted by Abacus Data.

Difference between ESG, SRI and impact investing

Sustainable investing is about directing investment capital to companies that care about making a positive social impact. It has become increasingly important as society battles threats from the climate emergency and environmental destruction, but also still struggles to promote gender equality and the protection of human rights. Sustainable investing also means looking at how a company handles security and privacy, the make-up and independence of its board of directors, and other factors such as tax transparency and conflicts of interest.

This type of investing has been around for centuries, with investors not only boycotting certain companies for ethical reasons, but also avoiding entire countries that were involved in the slave trade, wars, or that violated basic human rights.

Today, a growing number of investors care about that double bottom line and want to put their money into stocks or funds that are both profitable and reflect their social values — known as “sustainable investing.”

There are three styles of investing that socially conscious investors can choose to fulfill their mandate: environmental, social and governance (ESG), socially responsible investing (SRI) and impact investing.

These terms are often used interchangeably, but in reality, they each have different meanings for investors:

• ESG considers a company’s environmental, social and governance practices, coupled with traditional financial measures
• Socially responsible investing (SRI) involves actively removing or choosing investments based on specific ethical guidelines
• Impact investing is about helping a business or organization complete a project, deliver a program, or create something positive to benefit society

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Invest in companies committed to social responsibility

One of the easiest ways to support sustainable action is to support companies committed to sustainable, responsible business practices. While there are a variety of ways to filter and find firms that support ESG or SRI best practices, one of the easiest ways is to tap the power of professional investors through the use of robo-advisors. A robo-advisor is a digital trading platform that provides automated, algorithm-driven financial planning and investment services. While the day-to-day portfolio management requires little to no human supervision, typically the creation and set-up of these portfolios are informed by professional managers.

A typical robo-advisor asks questions about your financial situation and future goals through an online survey and uses the data to offer advice and automatically invest for you.

One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to get started with sustainable investing is to open an account with a robo-advisor that provides SRI portfolios. Good options include:

• Questwealth offers socially responsible investing portfolios that include social and corporate governance ETFs, low carbon ETFs and Cleantech ETFs. Sign up for Questwealth today and enjoy competitive commission rates with no annual account fees or inactivity fees, making it a cost-effective option for investors.
• Wealthsimple's socially responsible investing option lets you build portfolios using proprietary low-free SRI ETFs that include the most socially responsible companies in North America and developed global markets, and eliminates the top 25% carbon-emitters in each industry. Every company in their funds has 25% or at least 3 women on their board of directors. Sign up for Wealthsimple today and experience the same management fees for SRI portfolios as non-SRI portfolios, plus get $25 bonus when you open and fund your first Wealthsimple self-directed investing account with at least a $500 initial deposit.

Take action with Oceana Canada's single-use plastic ban

You can find out more on how to reduce or eliminate single-use plastic through the Oceana Canada's campaign: Oceana.ca/Plastics.

Sources

1. Oceana Canada: Tackling Plastic Pollution is a Non-Partisan Issue: Oceana Canada Poll Shows Vast Majority of Canadians Still Support Banning Single-Use Plastics (July 24, 2024)

—with files from David Saric