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Those COVID-19 masks, gloves and wipes we're all using are polluting land and sea – CBC.ca

Published

4 years ago

June 9, 2020

Waste from more than a million toilets flows out of giant sewage pipes, creating a swirling stinky river that has to be processed at the Annacis Island Wastewater Treatment Plant which serves a large section of Metro Vancouver.

It’s just one of many facilities across Canada and around the world seeing an uptick in discarded masks, gloves and wet wipes being flushed down the toilet and causing treatment problems since the advent of COVID-19.

“It looks like we saw a few masks going up,” said plant supervisor Dave Hoffman, as he pointed to a giant metal mechanical screen that separates items that don’t biodegrade from the usual sludgy mass of poop and toilet paper.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) and other items that don’t biodegrade are dried before ending up in a large waste pile nearby. At this point, they’re matted into a putrid, grey mass, but a few medical gloves and items such as condoms stand out.

It’s a problem that’s drawn the attention of researchers at the University of British Columbia who are at work on creating a protective mask that biodegrades or can be recycled.

“Whether they’re wipes, whether they’re masks, whether they’re rubber gloves, all of those things can’t be treated in the sewage system and, in fact, damage our equipment,” said Jerry Dobrovolny, chief administrative officer for Metro Vancouver.

He says there’s been an uptick in this type of waste since the outbreak of the pandemic, but it hasn’t been quantified.

Some of the non-biodegradable garbage filtered out of sewage waste is set aside to be dried and trucked to landfills. (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)

This adds to the problem highlighted by the infamous fatbergs — wet wipes and kitchen fats clogging up sewage systems around the world after so-called “flushable wipes” surged in popularity.

COVID-19-related personal protective equipment (PPE) is adding to the problem, because even a small percentage of improperly disposed of items can clog pumps, pipes and other infrastructure.

Dobrovolny said colleagues across Canada who run sewer and solid waste systems are seeing a similar rise in improperly disposed of PPE, and taxpayers end up footing the bill.

“What we’re finding now with COVID is that those numbers are increasing. Across the country, it can total over $250 million a year in increased maintenance costs,” said Dobrovolny.

Masks made from plastic fibre

Metro Vancouver is putting new emphasis on an existing campaign to encourage people to be careful what they send into the sewer system. He reminds homeowners that they, too, can face personal costs if their home sewer system gets clogged.

Disposable masks, for instance, may feel like soft cotton, but they’re almost all made from non-biodegradable material such as polypropylene.

In addition to people flushing them down the toilet, cities are seeing personal protective equipment discarded on the street. A spokesperson for the city of Vancouver says that’s raising concerns for crews who have to deal with the waste.

Also, something dropped on the street can then get flushed into storm drains, many of which empty straight into streams or the ocean.

CBC reporter Greg Rasmussen looks at a pile of dried non-biodegradable waste filtered out of sewage at the Annacis Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Greater Vancouver. (CBC Dillon Hodgin)

Richard Thompson, a professor of marine biology at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom, says society needs to understand and deal with what happens to all disposable items after they’re used.

“The persistence of litter is incredibly long-lasting — hundreds if not thousands of years — and that’s why it’s really important that that end-of-life phase is fully thought out,” he said.

And he notes that this new waste stream is adding to the already serious problem of microplastics, the tiny pieces of debris now found in every ocean.

A fatberg covers an 1852-built sewer at Westminster in London in 2017. (Frank Augstein/The Associated Press)

“The sea is sort of downhill from everywhere, and so there’s a tendency for materials to accumulate there carried by rivers or carried by wind.”

Racing to make eco-friendly masks

At a research lab at the University of British Columbia, a group of scientists saw the problem and decided they could put a dent in the growing waste pile.

They recently formed an ad hoc team to come up with less-damaging mask.

“This is all paper — all wood fibre,” said Orlando Rojas, a professor at UBC’s Bioproducts Institute, pointing to an array of materials and mask prototypes on a workbench.

Professor Orlando Rojas of UBC’s Bioproducts Institute shows off a paper-based biodegradable mask prototype. (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)

Canada has a long history of making paper products, and he’s confident once the right formula is found, millions of eco-friendly masks and other protective gear can be produced at low cost.

“People are very conscious about sustainability, so this flies really high in people’s minds. If we match that interest with the performance of wood fibre, we likely have a winner here,” Rojas said.

It would also help reduce dependency on foreign suppliers, a huge ongoing problem, as demand for PPE far exceeds supply.

The key is creating a soft, durable paper product that can still filter out viruses.

WATCH | PPEs create a waste problem, but Canadian scientists are working on a solution:

All those disposable gloves, masks and wipes that people are using to protect themselves against COVID-19 are creating a waste problem, but scientists are working on a made-in-Canada solution. 2:04

Rojas said many of the initial technical hurdles have already been solved, and talks are underway with manufacturers.

It could be a long-term proposition, with people all around the world now wearing face masks and concern growing over their impact on the environment.

A made-in Canada-solution, with the potential for local manufacturing would also help ensure the country isn’t caught short again when it comes to supplies of crucial equipment needed to fight the pandemic, said Rojas.

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House of Commons committee looks to recall Tom Clark about New York City condo

Published

16 mins ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Members of Parliament studying the federal government’s decision to buy a $9-million luxury condo in Manhattan are preparing to recall Canada’s consul general in New York to answer more questions about his involvement in the purchase.

The Conservatives put forward a motion on Tuesday to have Tom Clark return to the House operations committee. The move was supported by other opposition parties after new information emerged that contradicted his previous testimony.

Clark told the committee in September he had no role whatsoever in the purchase of the new condo, or the sale of the previous residence.

But reporting from Politico on Tuesday indicated Clark raised concerns about the old unit two months after he was appointed to his role as Canada’s representative in New York.

Politico cited documents obtained through access-to-information, which were then shared with other media by the Conservative party.

A May 2023 report from Global Affairs Canada indicates Clark informed government officials the residence needed to be replaced.

“The current (consul general in New York, head of mission) expressed concerns regarding the completion of the … kitchen and refurbishment project and indicated the unit was not suitable to be the (consul general’s) accommodations,” the report reads.

“It does not have an ideal floor plan for (consul general in New York) representational activities.”

The final call on whether Clark will face further questions has not been made, however, because the committee adjourned before the motion went to a vote. The committee’s next meeting is next week.

Tuesday’s meeting featured Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly as a witness, and she faced questions about Clark’s involvement in the purchase.

“This was not a political decision because this was an operational decision,” Joly told the committee in a testy exchange with Conservative MP Michael Barrett.

“(The committee) had numerous people, officials of mine, that came to see you and said that. So, these are the facts.”

Joly later told the committee she only learned of the decision to purchase a new residence through media reports, even though her chief of staff was notified weeks earlier.

“The department informed my chief of staff once the decision was taken. Because, of course, it was not a political decision,” Joly said.

Shortly before Joly was excused, Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie put forward the motion to recall Clark for two more hours to answer more questions.

Bloc MP Julie Vignola proposed instead to have him testify for only one hour — indicating she would support the motion with that change.

“One hour is more than enough to know whether he lied to us,” Vignola told her colleagues in French.

NDP MP Taylor Bachrach also said he would support the move, given the contrast between the new report and Clark’s testimony about whether he spoke to anyone about a desire to move into a new residence.

“What really irks me is the consul general was so clear in response to repeated questioning at committee,” Bachrach said.

“Mr. Clark said, ‘Never.’ One-word answer, ‘Never.’ You can’t get more unequivocal than that.”

The Liberal government has argued that buying the new residence will save Canadians taxpayers millions of dollars and reduce ongoing maintenance costs and property taxes while supporting future program needs for the consul general.

The former official residence is listed for sale at $13 million, but has yet to be sold.

In her remarks Tuesday, Joly told the committee other like-minded countries have paid more for their Manhattan residences than Canada has — including $11 million for the U.K., and France’s $19 million purchase in 2015.

Joly said among the countries that have residences in New York, only Afghanistan and Bangladesh were not located in Manhattan.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

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Proposed $32.5B tobacco deal not ‘doomed to fail,’ judge says in ruling

Published

31 mins ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – An Ontario judge says any outstanding issues regarding a proposed $32.5 billion settlement between three major tobacco companies and their creditors should be solvable in the coming months.

Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz has released his reasons for approving a motion last week to have representatives for creditors review and vote on the proposal in December.

One of the companies, JTI-Macdonald Corp., said last week it objects to the plan in its current form and asked the court to postpone scheduling the vote until several issues were resolved.

The other two companies, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., didn’t oppose the motion but said they retained the right to contest the proposed plan down the line.

The proposal announced last month includes $24 billion for provinces and territories seeking to recover smoking-related health-care costs and about $6 billion for smokers across Canada and their loved ones.

If the proposed deal is accepted by a majority of creditors, it will then move on to the next step: a hearing to obtain the approval of the court, tentatively scheduled for early next year.

In a written decision released Monday, Morawetz said it was clear that not all issues had been resolved at this stage of the proceedings.

He pointed to “outstanding issues” between the companies regarding their respective shares of the total payout, as well as debate over the creditor status of one of JTI-Macdonald’s affiliate companies.

In order to have creditors vote on a proposal, the court must be satisfied the plan isn’t “doomed to fail” either at the creditors or court approval stages, court heard last week.

Lawyers representing plaintiffs in two Quebec class actions, those representing smokers in the rest of Canada, and 10 out of 13 provinces and territories have expressed their support for the proposal, the judge wrote in his ruling.

While JTI-Macdonald said its concerns have not been addressed, the company’s lawyer “acknowledged that the issues were solvable,” Morawetz wrote.

“At this stage, I am unable to conclude that the plans are doomed to fail,” he said.

“There are a number of outstanding issues as between the parties, but there are no issues that, in my view, cannot be solved,” he said.

The proposed settlement is the culmination of more than five years of negotiations in what Morawetz has called one of “the most complex insolvency proceedings in Canadian history.”

The companies sought creditor protection in Ontario in 2019 after Quebec’s top court upheld a landmark ruling ordering them to pay about $15 billion to plaintiffs in two class-action lawsuits.

All legal proceedings against the companies, including lawsuits filed by provincial governments, have been paused during the negotiations. That order has now been extended until the end of January 2025.

In total, the companies faced claims of more than $1 trillion, court documents show.

In October of last year, the court instructed the mediator in the case, former Chief Justice of Ontario Warren Winkler, and the monitors appointed to each company to develop a proposed plan for a global settlement, with input from the companies and creditors.

A year later, they proposed a plan that would involve upfront payments as well as annual ones based on the companies’ net after-tax income and any tax refunds, court documents show.

The monitors estimate it would take the companies about 20 years to pay the entire amount, the documents show.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

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Potato wart: Appeal Court rejects P.E.I. Potato Board’s bid to overturn ruling

Published

39 mins ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by the Prince Edward Island Potato Board to overturn a 2021 decision by the federal agriculture minister to declare the entire province as “a place infested with potato wart.”

That order prohibited the export of seed potatoes from the Island to prevent the spread of the soil-borne fungus, which deforms potatoes and makes them impossible to sell.

The board had argued in Federal Court that the decision was unreasonable because there was insufficient evidence to establish that P.E.I. was infested with the fungus.

In April 2023, the Federal Court dismissed the board’s application for a judicial review, saying the order was reasonable because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said regulatory measures had failed to prevent the transmission of potato wart to unregulated fields.

On Tuesday, the Appeal Court dismissed the board’s appeal, saying the lower court had selected the correct reasonableness standard to review the minister’s order.

As well, it found the lower court was correct in accepting the minister’s view that the province was “infested” because the department had detected potato wart on 35 occasions in P.E.I.’s three counties since 2000.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

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