The latest in a series of international meetings to hammer out a deal to develop a legally-binding agreement on plastic pollution by the end of the year takes place in Ottawa later this month.

One hundred and seventy-five countries agreed in 2022 to develop a legally-binding agreement to end plastic pollution by the end of 2024.

The fourth session of the UN Environmental Programme’s intergovernmental negotiating committee meets in Ottawa April 23 to April 29.

Anthony Merante of Oceana Canada, which has been advocating for a plastics ban for years, says plastics stay in the environment for hundreds of years, breaking down into microplastics that we ingest and breathe in.

“When all those chemicals in those microplastics break down they get into our food, they get into our water, and we’re finding them now in our blood, in our lungs, and they’re starting to be related to a lot of human diseases. We’re seeing them tied to different types of cancers, inflammation, we’re seeing them tied to things like Alzheimer’s (and) respiratory illnesses, so working on these issues now is when we need to do this, because it should have been done yesterday.”