Environment
Toronto's Dependency On Plastic
We've heard the grumblings, but a ban on plastic bags just "isn't possible". The plastic bag has been successfully outlawed in some cities in North America, and recently China announced a committed effort to all together getting rid of these convenient little buggers. A year ago, Toronto city council expressed a desire to cut back on plastic bag use, too, and major grocery stores agreed. A tax imposed on stores who provide bags was suggested. Making it possible for the city to recycle plastic bags was mentioned. Reusable cloth bags are now offered for a small fee. But a ban in Toronto? Never!
Ontarians use 2.5 billion plastic grocery bags a year. That's 7 million bags each week. Four bags, per person, per week. My house, especially right now after the holidays, has been infiltrated. My Ikea Rationell plastic bag dispenser is no longer sufficient. My street, after the big melt this week, is now littered with them. They're in the trees, stuck in the mud, blowing in the wind (and not in the poetic American Beauty way). It's disgusting.
In May, we were urged to participate in a "voluntary program", with incentives like Air Miles points for opting out of plastic bag use, as well as re-training cashiers to double-bag less often and to put more items in each bag. We were informed that if these suggestions didn't produce the desired results (the goal is to cut the use of plastic bags in half by 2012), tougher measures would have to be taken. I'm shaking in my boots, but with anticipation, not fear.
I'm a single gal, living on her own, and I grocery shop roughly once every two weeks. Besides the reusable cloth bags that can be purchased for a buck, I've haven't seen any of these other measures put into place. Sometimes, it's the exact opposite. Once, I specifically asked not to receive a bag, twice, and the robot cashier still placed my items in a polystyrene beast. She apologized, saying it's hard to break the habit. But really, how hard can it be?
The buzz today is China's decision to ban plastic bags completely as of June 1st. China has been fairly vocal about their recent environmental reforms, and I'm assuming it's got everything to do with the fact that they're hosting the Summer Olympics this year. Whatever their motivation, at least they've taken a stand on this seemingly (to me) no-brainer issue. If given the choice, most people will go for the more convenient option. So, ban the bags, dammit!
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http://www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/prog_bags.php#wrong
Annual cost? Not a big deal. Long time to break down in a landfill? Don't care, because they are in a landfill. I'm not happy they kill marine life, but then I don't go throwing mine into the lake (I use mine for doggy duty). I'm certainly open to being convinced, though.
As for not caring about landfills, that's incredibly stupid when we don't have enough space for all of the garbage we're creating and we end up trucking our waste into America.
"My street, after the big melt this week, is now littered with them" <<< This however is very true and very sad .. all types of garbage are left over after the melt. I was enraged by the no. of cigarette buts on the street today during my walk. Perhaps this calls for a whole new post on the issue ?
The bags are bad enough because they require oil in their production.
If you're going to ban plastic bags for their adverse effect on the environment, how about banning smoking first? Plastic bags, at the very least are extremely useful in carrying goods and are recyclable. Smoking, of any kind, has a nasty habit of not only polluting the environment but killing thousands of smokers and non-smokers alike every year.
I think it's less about the supposed "evilness" of the bags, and more that (aside from pet doodie) their use seems entirely avoidable.
The underlying idea here being that while no single act alone will make us "greener" as a city, consciously making small choices will ultimately compound their effect...
Perhaps these new, biodegradable bags are the answer.
I don't see any reason why we can't abandon plastic bags entirely and follow suit with China. There's no reason to have these things be so hostile for the environment for the very limited usage we give them.
Personally, whenever I shop anywhere, I'll request that they don't give me a bag, and I'll just throw it into my shoulder bag I have with me 95% of the time.
I love Lululemon's reuseable bags that they give out - they're well designed, stylish, and can take a hell of lot of punishment. I see a ton of people using them around the city as well. Great advertising for the company, reuse by the customer, and no waste going into the environment.
Anyways, I decline plastic bags close to 90% of the time and still get strange looks from the cashiers. I still seem to have a ton of bags under my sink, mostly from the LCBO. I only use these bags for my organic compost and kitty litter that goes into the green bin. I'm sure they recycle these bags at the sorting facility?
I always tell them it is not necessary, let's save the planet, but it seems like they just don't listen.
I love the PC bags, they look small but can pack so much crap into them.
Personally, I try and take reusable bags with me as often as I can when I shop and I make sure to acknowledge when customers have their own. It even grates me when a family of 10 asks for individual bags for each child to carry off their own purchase but when 99% of the people who shop at your store need bags. A robot or dumbass I'm not, just doing my job.
Probably not for a few reasons, main one being that these things are made of corn starch, and let's be clear here, corn starch is evil, you can make it a little less evil if you use non-GMO corn but there are still huge environmental problems with the way corn is farmed, never mind the impact on global poverty via US agricultural subsidies.
The best bag is no bag, the next best bag is something frequently reused. The solution to the problem is education and social pressure to convince people to not take bags they don't really need, and a stick of a financial penalty. I like the Irish model here, or the Swiss one (in the Irish model the bags are government taxed, in the Swiss one bags are sold, not for a couple cents or a nickel but a decent chunk of change, someone in the range of 50 cents a bag) in both cases bag use is extremely low.
Because in Toronto, there is almost nowhere to biodegrade them. If they get into the trash stream, they go to landfill where they are "forever", if they get into the green bin with Toronto's system they get striped out during the hydropulping along with the non-biodegradable plastic and then off to the landfill. Unless you plan on putting them in your own backyard composter, or sending them to someone on York or Durham region, they're bound for Green Lane anyway.
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I always tell them it is not necessary, let's save the planet, but it seems like they just don't listen."
I've had that happen many times. But more often, when I tell the cashier that I have my own bags and place them on the conveyor, they leave me to bag my own groceries.
And I'm not talking No Frills, but grocery stores that are supposed to bag your items for you. Want to use a plastic bag? Then you get full service. Use a reusable one? Then the cashier pushes it to the end of the counter for you to deal with.
And Chester, I think the heat and moisture of the landfill would certainly cause the bioplastics to degrade.
While no bag or reusable bags are the ideal solution, I'd still prefer the bio bag to the poly bag. I don't think they should be dismissed so easily. As the technology improves, I wouldn't be surprised to see the corn based plastics growing on store shelves.
Yes, corn is an industry with high levels of pollution. Nitrate fertilizers, the lack of bio diversity, etc, etc. But as a society we adapt to changes in our environment. For years and years and years we talked about alternative fuels, but nothing was ever done about it. Only recently, as gas prices raised to record highs have people looked into (almost) alternatives, such as hybrid technology.
As the market demands it, we will reduce our dependency on oil. We will find cleaner ways to fuel the tractors farming the lands and earth friendly ways to fertilize the crops.
Don't worry, we'll all be fine.
There's no reason why we can't do it now beyond being used to the way that things are which, I might add, has been in place for less than a lifetime.
As far as running out of space to put garbage is concerned, I find that hard to believe. Ontario is huge, surely there's somewhere to bury all this stuff.
I want to see that heaping swirling Texas-size island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean get bigger than Cal-i-fornee!!
Besides, does this planet really need fish and fowl? I mean, come on, they're fish and fowl!!! Those nut-jobs concerned about the environment are just Nazis anyway,
We don't need to do anything, let our kids or grandkids deal with it.
And you think wrong, modern landfills are carefully engineered to all but stop degradation using a system called encapsulation, the trash is spread in thin layers between impervious layers of clay. No water gets in, and an anerobic environment quickly develops stopping most bacterial activity. The reason to do this is mainly to keep the stuff in th landfill where it is, if water doesn't get in and out then the stuff in the landfill can't leach into the ground water.
They did core samples on a 40 year old encapsulated landfill east of Toronto a few years ago and among the stuff they found was a 40 year old newspaper, still legible and a recognizable hot dog and bun.
Anything that goes into a properly run, encapsulated landfill is going to be there for a very long time.
"mmmmmm, 40 yr. old hot dog"
As for the litter problem, I'd estimate I see a couple hundred cigarette butts, ten Tim Hortons cups, and ten candy wrappers, for every one grocery bag I see on the ground.
Agree completely with the previous commenter: It's more like the "every little bit helps" mentality taken to an absurd extreme. Who is counting the environmental cost of all these sturdy bags that we now have to create, purchase, and carry around? One reusable bag is easily one hundred times the environmental cost of one thin-film bag. (Those bags are ludicrously thin...) If you tote the reusable bag around for a couple of years, you'll come out ahead environmentally, probably, but.... what if you don't? What if the handle breaks after a month? Now you're way, way behind environmentally.
And the reality is, the "cost" issue is mostly spouted by conservatives who don't want to have to recycle at all. Most recycling and environmental practices are not cost effective (as of yet) only because they are not as widespread and easily accessible as the non-environmentally friendly practices. Once they are, we may see much more of a parity (although perhaps not on the consumer end, since many people who care about buying environmentally friendly products are already accustomed to paying more- there'll just be a better profit margin on the part of the manufacturer).
I am FOR landfills. Being a graduate in Chemistry, I think it is the best way. They don't take up too much space, don't create air pollution (incineration, I'm looking in your direction) and are the closest thing to a natural process. Also .. yes, plastic and alternative bags DO decompose. The main thing is to have proper landfill monitoring .. to prevent leachate and gas from escaping.
I have no interest in carrying a cloth bag on me at all times. When I do buy groceries it is usually six or seven bags, and I simply can't be bothered to go to the trouble of carting cloth bags around to make a fraction of a tiny difference on my environmental impact.
I'm lazy.
That being said, it was just a year ago when my university class did that "carbon footprint" test that's floating around and I was found to have the lowest footprint of my entire class.
Why? I cook my own food from scratch (or relative scratch) most of the time, simply because it's cheaper and tastes better. I work from home. I don't drive (my boyfriend does). I take public transportation, or walk whenever unnecessary, just because I like it and it's good for me, and I hadn't been on a plane in 2 years because I was too gosh-darn poor for plane tickets. The little things do matter, and it's actually incredibly easy to change things.
And for the record, I use re-usable shopping bags not because I'm smug about my environmental record, but because they're stronger and hold more stuff (3 of them hold the same as about 6 or 7 plastic ones), and my little under-sink cupboard was becoming overwhelmingly stuffed with the plastic ones and it was getting on my nerves. They make my life easier, the environmental payoff was just an added bonus.
Yes, corn is an industry with high levels of pollution. Nitrate fertilizers, the lack of bio diversity, etc, etc. But as a society we adapt to changes in our environment. For years and years and years we talked about alternative fuels, but nothing was ever done about it. Only recently, as gas prices raised to record highs have people looked into (almost) alternatives, such as hybrid technology."
Sorry to rant on here but this entire line of logic is popular, and dangerous. "Technology will save us" which you will observe is the Plan B approach for the global warming denial crowd. Einstein's axiom that the same thinking that created a problem cannot be used to solve it.
I'm not anti-technology but one has to work to assure that technology is used as an enabler to changing the way we do things, not as an end unto itself. You've cited the perfect example, Hybrid drive cars, which really weren't possible much before they started to become available because they are dependent on fairly recent advancements in battery technology and reliable embedded electronics. Hybrid technology has some benefits where it is used to improve the mechnical efficieny of a car, but that's not the way it's mostly being used, with few exceptions most of the hybrids on the road the technology is being used to BOOST THE HORSEPOWER not improve the milage, or rather just improve the milage enough that the manufacturers can show fleet wide incremental efficiency gains.
Bio bags are a solution in search of a problem, being foisted on well meaning but naive public by the most evil conglomerate since big tobacco, the US corn lobby, they don't change the carbon density of the product, they replace pollution problems with other pollution problems and they don't actually save any oil, since just as much oil gets used to grow the corn in the first place. As has been pointed out, 4G thin film plastic bags, used once or twice then converted to a trash container and landfilled are really not that bad. Pollution Probe fought a hard fight to keep paper sacks and first generation biobags out of the stores 20 years ago, too bad they aren't on the file now.
As far as being "ignorant litter whores" who can't think ahead, well, that's an interesting way of putting it. Doesn't it bother anyone that the amount of waste a person generates is suddenly a pressing political issue, and a determinant of their moral correctness?
According to the City of Toronto plastic, aluminum, glass, metal and fibres cannot be recycled. Nor can they be composted or flushed down the toilet (except for kleenex and toilet paper)
I don't see how it's possible to live in the modern world without using the aforementioned materials and having no other choice but to throw them away.
http://nomoregarbage.wordpress.com/about/
After several attempts over a couple years they finally were able to achieve 31 days of no garbage production.
One telling quote:
"We found being completely garbage free in todays society wasn?t always the best choice ecologically"
- AH, you are so right. These smug enviro-nazis want to ruin all of our fun, and for what, trying to make the planet a little more cleaner and livable for everyone. Punks! See, guys like you and me, we get it...I wanna eat fast food and shit and piss out styro-foam, I wanna drive my Escalade on a 90 degree day with my windows rolled up and my A/C on full blast with a 64oz. Mountain Dew and a Big Mac on my dash...that's how we roll. I see you commie-punks, riding your bikes to work, acting all high and mighty, like you're making a difference...Not me baby, this planet is here for MY CONVENIENCE and I intend to take full advantage of it...let my kids and grandkids fend for themselves. You smug bastards trying to help the environment...it don't need no help. Plastic is all natural...fish, birds and animals love the stuff. And if they don't, well then, that's just fricken tough, thin out the herd. Man, I am so juiced right now!!! I swear to God the next backpack I see I am gonna go medieval!!!YEAH!!!