\u00a0By Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Six Indigenous-led projects have been approved for nearly $2.4 million in new federal research funding to study the social, cultural and economic impacts of plastic pollution on Indigenous communities. Only eight per cent of Canada’s four million tonnes of annual plastic waste is currently recycled, reads a report on the Oceana website. Indigenous communities have identified increasing plastic contamination concerns in local waterways, on shorelines and in food systems of remote northern areas where waste management and transportation challenges increase environmental pressures, said Nathan Pritula, Environment and Climate Change Canada’s manager of science policy. \u201cAdvancing research partnering with Indigenous groups helps to improve our understanding of how plastics and microplastics move through the environment and food webs,\u201d he said, asserting that community-driven… <\/p>\n
\u00a0By Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Six Indigenous-led projects have been approved for nearly $2.4 million in new federal research funding to study the social, cultural and economic impacts of plastic pollution on Indigenous communities. Only eight per cent of Canada’s four million tonnes of annual plastic waste is currently recycled, reads a report on the Oceana website. Indigenous communities have identified increasing plastic contamination concerns in local waterways, on shorelines and in food systems of remote northern areas where waste management and transportation challenges increase environmental pressures, said Nathan Pritula, Environment and Climate Change Canada’s manager of science policy. \u201cAdvancing research partnering with Indigenous groups helps to improve our understanding of how plastics and microplastics move through the environment and food webs,\u201d he said, asserting that community-driven... <\/p>\n