FELDSTED: Plastic thingies are not the problem – it is the material they are made from. If a plastic fork or spoon is made of recyclable or biodegradable material, single use is not an issue
Government to ban single-use plastic straws, cotton swabs, drink
stirrers, plates, cutlery, some plastic bags all on the list
Hannah Thibedeau ~~ CBC News ~~ Jun 09, 2019
The Trudeau government will ban single-use plastics as early
as 2021, CBC News has learned from a government source ... this is part of
a larger strategy to tackle the plastic pollution problem that the government
is expected to announce Monday.
... according to the source, the full list of plastics to be banned by
the federal government will follow the model chosen by the European Union ... fast-food
containers and cups made of expanded polystyrene, which is similar to white
styrofoam, will also be banned.
... all of those countries have moved to curb plastic pollution, some of
them with laws to reduce the consumption of plastics.
The
originality of thinking by Trudeau and McKenna is staggering. Parroting the EU
which is vastly different from Canada in almost every aspect – geography, size,
population density, traffic infrastructure and climate for starters, is silly.
The
regulation of local sales and services is a provincial**,
not a federal jurisdiction. There is nothing to give the federal jurisdiction
over local issues. The Trudeau Liberals are trolling for votes and ignoring the
constitution – again.
Managing
local services, including waste removal and disposal is a provincial subject
and responsibility. Trudeau is trying to cherry pick an emotional issue out of
a larger subject. Is he really ready to take on waste removal and disposal as a
federal
responsibility?
Plastic
thingies are not the problem – it is the material they are made from. If a
plastic fork or spoon is made of recyclable or biodegradable material, single
use is not an issue.
Incinerator
technology has made great strides in reducing landfill problems, but
we are not even in the picture. Governments tend to deal with
symptoms while ignoring the underlying illness. Environmentalists bemoan public
refusal to sort recyclables from their trash. So much trash is not recyclable
that the household is left with a large mound of trash that hardly makes
sorting worthwhile.
The Trudeau solution, which is to make life difficult for consumers, is
inane. His government should look at banning the manufacture and import of
plastics that are not either biodegradable or recyclable.
Manufacturers
will find ways to create products that are less harmful to the environment, however
they have no incentive to do so at present. Give them a tax allowance for
research and development of environmentally friendly plastic materials. After
that, specialty plastics used in manufacturing, machinery parts, equipment and
vehicles can be dealt with separately.
Recycle
programs are bogged down in having to sort out useful plastic from heaps of
plastic that is not.
The
key is to reduce the plastics that can’t be recycled.
Recycle
programs don’t want various materials including magazines and or flyers on
glossy paper or saturated with inks and dozens of types of plastic. That trash
should be collected for incineration in modern, energy producing facilities. Incineration reduces trash to about 10% of
the mass incinerated.
Banning
plastic thingies does not address the problem of developing an integrated
recycling system.
We
need people working on robotic sorting of household trash.
We
need to develop a recycling system on a scale that warrants separate recycle
pickups and allows a profit for recyclers.
We
need to take a deep breath and develop a plan of attack that will ensure over
60% of household waste can be recycled.
If we
can accomplish that, people will support and use a recycling program. Brow-beating
people into supporting half-vast recycling efforts that are seeing landfills
grow faster each year and exporting our waste to foreign nations is ridiculous.
We
don’t need federal interference unless the federal government is going to stop
production and imports of plastics that cannot be recycled or are
biodegradable. This, is an opportunity for McKenna to finally do something
useful.
John
Feldsted
Political
Consultant & Strategist
Winnipeg,
Manitoba
** George Heyman, Minister of Environment and
Climate Change Strategy, has issued the
following statement with respect to the Government of Canada’s announcement
to ban single-use plastics as early as 2021:
British Columbia welcomes news that the federal
government is moving toward a strategy to reduce, better recycle and ban
certain plastics. Reducing plastic waste must be a joint effort by all
Canadians and all levels of government. I look forward to working with my
federal, provincial and territorial counterparts to reduce plastic waste and to
profile some of the good work already underway in our province ....
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