"Shoppers at East West Market in central Vancouver who decide to pay for a plastic bag are given a bag with an embarrassing logo emblazoned on it like "Into the Weird Adult Video Emporium," "Dr. Toews Wart Ointment Wholesale" or "The Colon Care Co-Op.""
Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
121–130 of 197 posts
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#122I see comments pointing out that the majority of plastic pollution in oceans come from Asia/Africa. This is true, but there are two points worth considering: 1) Whenever you pay cheaply for anything made in any third world country, you're externalizing the societal cost of pollution to that country (and if it gets into the oceans, to everyone). In other words, you're not paying the true cost of that item--economicall…
1. How do we know if we paid extra it doesn't go into the pocket of a middleman? We may pay $150 for Nike shoes but at the end the person who stitches the shoes might get $0.25. This will only work if there is accountability with consequences along the entire chain.
2. I've certainly disappointed by this one but I put the blame on our city and county politicians who allowed this to happen while charging us extra on the claims that they will be properly recycled.
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#123"Shoppers at East West Market in central Vancouver who decide to pay for a plastic bag are given a bag with an embarrassing logo emblazoned on it like "Into the Weird Adult Video Emporium," "Dr. Toews Wart Ointment Wholesale" or "The Colon Care Co-Op.""
I'd pay extra for those
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#124For decades I have meticulously washed and sorted my blue bin recyclables. Now they are banning plastics because people on the other side of the world treat their rivers as garbage dumps. I don’t litter. Don’t punish me. I see this as a cynical re-election strategy. The election is in four months and the polls are not looking good for Trudeau. Awash in scandal and forseeing a strong Conservative turnout, he’s trying…
The problem is, it seems like much of the careful recycling didn't really work. It was never a circular system, just one in which a couple extra uses could be rinsed out due to some extra shipping capacity on container ships making it cheap to get it overseas. How would it be for you if instead of a ban, a heavy disposal fee was added at the time of purchase to fund extensive waste sorting and recycling locally? How…
"How would it be for you if instead of a ban, a heavy disposal fee was added at the time of purchase to fund extensive waste sorting and recycling locally?"
how about the recycling companies pay us instead? we provide them with the raw materials, they profit. see plastic bottles' recycling all across europe. or the (ancient) glass bottles.
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
>That's true maybe when it comes to atmospheric pollution, but not with plastic waste in rivers and the ocean. A large amount of that is waste exported to those third world countries, especially plastics for recycling.
I've seen this tossed around a lot the last few months, but I've yet to see any evidence of its truth. Do you have a link to a study or some other source for this?
"China has been a major destination for Australia's recycled waste, with around 1.3 million tonnes exported in 2016–17. This accounted for 4 per cent of Australia's total recyclable waste, but included significant amounts of recyclable plastics and recyclable paper (35 per cent and 30 per cent of Australia's totals)."
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Sen...
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#126Will the production of plastic waste reduce when the outlawing of thin plastics is replaced by thicker plastics? Your politician who benefits from passing feel-good legislation says yes. Reality might surprise you: "In particular, my results showed that bag bans caused sales of small (4 gallon), medium (8 gallon) and large (13 gallon) trash bags to increase by 120 percent, 64 percent and 6 percent respectively." http…
And the bottom line - "30 percent of the plastic eliminated by the ban was coming back in the form of trash bags". So, the policy was 70 percent successful. Why then all the hand-wringing?
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#127Cool So lets trade plastic for aluminum or paper boxes lined with wax. Trading one trash of another trash!
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
>That's true maybe when it comes to atmospheric pollution, but not with plastic waste in rivers and the ocean. A large amount of that is waste exported to those third world countries, especially plastics for recycling.
I've seen this tossed around a lot the last few months, but I've yet to see any evidence of its truth. Do you have a link to a study or some other source for this?
There was a Dutch journalist who went to Poland and saw those recycling centers just burn the plastics in open pits.
This is why countries need to clean up their own mess and not sell their waste to a foreign company to be recycled offshore. But out of sight out of mind I guess.
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is, it seems like much of the careful recycling didn't really work. It was never a circular system, just one in which a couple extra uses could be rinsed out due to some extra shipping capacity on container ships making it cheap to get it overseas. How would it be for you if instead of a ban, a heavy disposal fee was added at the time of purchase to fund extensive waste sorting and recycling locally? How…
"How would it be for you if instead of a ban, a heavy disposal fee was added at the time of purchase to fund extensive waste sorting and recycling locally?" how about the recycling companies pay us instead? we provide them with the raw materials, they profit. see plastic bottles' recycling all across europe. or the (ancient) glass bottles.
Recycled material isn't worth enough to pay you, due to:
* cost of sorting * contamination, which can cause huge batches to be thrown out * decreasing quality and decreasing possibilities for use - what was once food safe plastic, can become bleach bottle plastic, which then becomes insulation or paving slabs. There is insufficient demand for paving slabs compared to the amount of plastic going into the recycling stream.
The only exception is aluminium cans, as it is much cheaper than smelting new aluminium, and just as useful.
The recycling industry is subsidised because trash is an externality.
Re: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
IKEA sells in Germany straws from paper. Kids love them. Very light.
...and they'll also get soggy and dissolve in your drinks.
I tried paper straws a couple of times at A&W and it wasn't that bad. Granted, it was a cold drink, which could perhaps be problematic with hot drinks, but beside a texture difference, I found the paper straw to be an acceptable replacement.