The world is struggling with plastic pollution Canada is no exception [Video]

As thousands of delegates meet in Ottawa this week to work toward a global treaty on curbing plastic waste, the experts say the world may never get a better opportunity to confront the problem.

In a series of interviews with CBC’s The House airing Saturday, participants at this week’s United Nations conference said the problem of plastic waste goes far beyond questions about whether a particular item can go in the blue bin, or what happened to plastic straws.

The Ottawa negotiations are the second-to-last meeting before 176 countries are expected to finalize a treaty to tackle plastic waste by addressing plastics throughout their lifecycle, from production to use and disposal.

“Ottawa really needs to be a turning point,” Graham Forbes, the global plastics project leader at Greenpeace, told CBC News ahead of the meetings. “We’re in a make-or-break moment for the global plastics treaty negotiations.”

<p>As more than 4,000 people descend on Ottawa for UN negotiations aimed at …