Earlier this summer, I invited people to participate in the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Strategy consultation and engagement on plastic waste and recycling. British Columbians are good recyclers but we need to do better and the Ministry is working to that end.
I’ve discussed recycling, packaging and plastic waste a few times in the pages of this blog, always with the perspective that the absolute best recycling we can do is none at all. By that I mean: first reduce consumption, then reuse items, and only after all that, recycle.
Unfortunately, our recycling system has been designed and marketed to have us all believing that we do not need to reduce consumption because you can just recycle the product. This is reinforced by the next product you buy proclaiming in bold print that it was made with X% of recycled material. Congratulations! Well done! We have all contributed to creating a more circular economy rather than the previous generation whose single use plastics are filling our landfills.
Not so quick! The other day, I watched the episode of CBC Marketplace where David Common goes undercover to look at the plastic recycling industry. It’s not good! It was a stark reminder of the personal work I need to do reducing my consumption and the work the provincial government needs to do regulating industry, not just the recyclers, but also the producers.
Reducing consumption and plastic pollution
According to Common, British Columbians go to great lengths to recycle only to learn that so much of the work is just landfilled or chipped and burned in a waste-to-energy facility. Clearly regulation is not enough. When Common’s team sent plastic material off with three BC recyclers, only a third was actually recycled. That is not good enough.
I hear from rural communities at the Union of BC Municipalities that the recycling program the BC Liberals set up is leaving them behind because the system can achieve the targeted percentage of diversion in the urban centres alone. This is classic BC Liberal politics: talk up support for rural B.C. and then under deliver. This is yet another one of their broken systems that needs reformation, including better oversight and proper enforcement.
The Marketplace episode paints a devastating picture of the recycling industry. Containers of Canadian plastic polluting the land, water and air of cities and towns in Southeast Asia, creating a spike in cancer there, is shameful.
It starts with each one of us. Admittedly, I have a lot of work to reform my own habits and behaviours. I consume way more than I need to! And, we also need to lean in to the process currently underway by the Ministry. This is the perfect time to reform a system that is letting British Columbians down. I don’t think any of us want to contribute to creating “cancer towns” in other parts of the world. However, that is exactly what is happening.
Image by Ben Kerckx from Pixabay
I think, Adam, that we, the government, has to take responsibility for this issue. We, the public, cannot leave this to the market ( industry ) to deal with. They’re, and rightly so, mostly interested in profit, making money, and if they’re having a tough time with money margins, then corners have to be cut. Let’s set up a government corporation, such as BC Hydro/BC Ferries, that takes responsibility for recycling plastic. taking it out of the hands of private industry, who’s mostly concerned with making money. As you’ve said, it’s our responsibility. We’re creating the mess.