Canada will ban single-use plastics from 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday, declaring it a "global challenge" to phase out the plastic bags, straws and cutlery clogging the world's oceans.

"I am very pleased to announce that as early as 2021, Canada will ban harmful, single-use plastics from coast to coast," Trudeau said, arguing Canada has a unique chance to lead the fight against plastic pollution as the country with the world's longest coastlines.

Less than 10 percent of plastics used in Canada are currently recycled, he said.

Each year, a million birds and more than 100,000 marine mammals worldwide are injured or killed by becoming entangled in plastic or ingesting it through the food chain.

Single-use items represent about 70 percent of the plastic waste littering the marine environment.

Straws, plastic bags, cutlery, plates and stir sticks would be among the items banned, a government statement said. The list will be refined based on further scientific research between now and 2021.

Trudeau said it is "tough" trying to explain the problem to his own children.

"How do you explain dead whales washing up on beaches around the world, their stomachs jam-packed with plastic bags?" he said.

The environmental group Greenpeace called the government's announcement "the first step" but said ultimately Canada needs to move towards phasing out a wider array of "all non-essential plastics."

It called for quick action "so this announcement isn't a single-use election promise."

The environment is shaping up as an issue in Canadian legislative elections set for October.

Trudeau's chief rival, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, dismissed the government measure as "another gesture without a plan, without any kind of specifics on how this would be implemented, or any kind of study on the impact on prices for consumers, on jobs, on how this would affect the small businesses."

If he wins the election, Scheer vows to roll back environmental protections, including a federal carbon tax and a tanker traffic ban along a pristine part of the Pacific coast.

– 'The entire life-cycle' –

In Canada's largest city, Toronto, many residents endorsed the government's move.

"I think it's stupid to have a straw for five minutes for a latte or whatever and then it goes in the ocean. I mean come on, give me a break. This is not necessary," a man who gave his name as John said.

"If it is banned, we are going to learn" how to deal with it, "for future generations," said Evelyn, another resident.

Trudeau said producers of other plastics — such as bottles or food packaging — will be held responsible for "the entire life-cycle" of their products.

Both plastic manufacturers and the companies using their products, as in packing materials, will have to provide recycling plans.

Canada, France, Germany, Britain and Italy, along with the European Union, subscribed at last year's G7 summit in Quebec to a new charter against pollution in the world's oceans.

The United States and Japan did not join the pact.

The non-binding Ocean Plastics Charter called on participating countries and the EU to commit to making all plastics reusable, recyclable or recovered by 2030.

A total of 21 governments have by now taken that pledge, Trudeau said. In addition, the EU earlier this year passed legislation to ban single-use plastic products starting in 2021.

– 'A national solution' –

Several Canadian cities already ban the use of plastic bags and some provinces have banned other products.

But Trudeau said a "national solution" was needed.

"Every year, Canadians throw away over three million tons of plastic waste," he said in a statement. "This represents up to $8 billion per year in lost value and wastes valuable resources and energy."

Recycling would not only cut down on pollution but would help produce 42,000 jobs in the recycling and recovery businesses, the prime minister said.

While Trudeau has declared it a top priority, a recent parliamentary report concluded Canada is doing too little to combat climate change, even as government scientists warned the country was warming at twice the global rate.

Victims of Formosa spill in Vietnam seek compensation
Taipei (AFP) June 11, 2019 –

Lawyers in Taiwan launched a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the industrial conglomerate Formosa on Tuesday, on behalf of thousands of Vietnamese whose livelihoods were ruined by a toxic spill that devastated fish stocks.

Formosa's huge steel plant in Ha Tinh province was fined $500 million by the Vietnamese government in 2016 for pouring chemicals — including cyanide — into the ocean, sparking one of the country's worst environmental catastrophes.

The spill devastated fishing communities along swathes of coastline and prompted months of rare protests in the one-party state.

Dozens of local and Vietnamese activists rallied outside the district court in Taipei this week as lawyers lodged their claim.

"I saw with my own eyes dead fish floating in the sea. There are no fish in the ocean to catch now… we are forced to leave our home to go to other countries to find work," said Nguyen, a former fisherman who asked to be identified only by his family name.

"I hope Taiwan's independent judiciary will seriously handle the case to return justice to the victims and I hope Formosa will give Vietnam back a clean ocean so the fish will return," he added.

Some 7,875 people from the affected areas have joined the group lawsuit initially seeking at least Tw$140 million ($4.46 million) in compensation, according to Taiwan's Environmental Rights Foundation which is assisting the victims.

They also hope that the lawsuit will help shed some light into how the $500 million fine has been used to clean up the environment, due to a lack of information in authoritarian Vietnam.

Activists said even though the pollution occurred in Vietnam, Taiwan's court has the jurisdiction because the defendants — board members and major shareholders of Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation — are mostly Taiwanese.

"This is the first case filed against a Taiwanese company for causing massive environmental impact abroad. We hope the court will take the challenge to handle the case and set a good precedent," said Tu Yu-wen, head of the foundation.

The company said in a statement it paid $500 million to compensate fishermen in August 2016, to be distributed by the Vietnamese government.

But activists said only "some people" got around Tw$20,000 in compensation and that the Vietnamese government has jailed people who demanded greater compensation.

The toxic spill set off angry demonstrations against the company and several activists were arrested and convicted for their involvement in the protests.

Formosa's $11-billion steel plant, which was under construction at the time of the disaster, was given the green light to resume operations in April 2017 after officials found it had addressed dozens of violations.

However, the company was fined for a second time — an additional $25,000 — in December 2017 for illegally burying "harmful" solid waste in the ground the year before.