plastic teabags?????

Day One of Vancouver's new food scraps composting program:

Bev Ramey of Nature Vancouver & BC Nature writes that she has found ghosts of past teabags all over her garden.

Turns out some company has switched from biodegradable to nylon teabags. Bev put them in her compost bin all last year. Can someone find out who that company is, so we can start sending them emails?

Pic: piansuo.com

No free ride in the Blue Box

Our province was the first in North America to require beverage producers to take back their empties for cash refunds. It's a great system that has been getting containers off the roadsides and into recycling for almost 40 years.

Ten years ago we expanded the system so that more beverage containers would be worth money-back at a store or depot. All beverages except milk have refundable containers. That put literally billions of nickels into the hands of entrepreneurial recyclers.

But in between, we introduced "Blue Box" recycling.

It's a little-known fact that this recycling system was proposed by the Ontario soft drink industry. It was a successful ploy to get out of paying out deposits on their empties in Canada's largest province (Ontario and neighbouring Manitoba are the only Canadian provinces without deposits on beverage containers).

Under the Blue Box recycling system, empties are collected at significant cost to the public. Containers are the only thing that loses money in our recycling system. Not only are the container materials of very little value ~ they break and leak and ruin the other materials.

But here in BC we have two recycling systems in competition to one another.

The Blue Box trucks are competing against the Little League teams and entrepreneurial binners for the deposit money that was paid out on the containers. And more often than not, they're winning.

The beverage industry is laughing all the way to the bank as refundable containers are smashed in recycling trucks, and the unclaimed nickels and dimes remain with the industry instead of helping with the recycling.

Brazenly, the company the industry established to manage the bottle return program is now encouraging consumers to use their Blue Boxes instead of returning empties for refunds. Write them a note telling them to stop asking for a free ride in a Blue Box.

As long as they keep this up, your taxes go up and recycling goes down.

pic www.unmailable.com

OK, so they punted it to Metro Vancouver...

... but the ball is still moving forward!

Vancouver City Council added some finesse to the strategy by clarifying that it's not just plastic bags that are the problem, but all "free" carry-out grocery bags. The fact that these are free masks the hidden cost, which is of course passed on to Mother Nature and our grandchildren, not to mention rate-payers here in the community.

When the bag issue goes to Metro Vancouver, we'll be talking about strategies to eliminate "free" bags of any sort.

This issue will not go away, even though the folks who have been enjoying the "free" ride (grocers and their bag suppliers) downplay its importance. To their credit, more and more retailers see the handwriting on the wall and are showing how easy it is to change. Whole Foods/Capers will eliminate plastic bags by Earth Day of this year. Ikea Canada has been "taxing" carry-out bags since last October. Overwaitea/Sav-On have been taking back plastic bags for years.

But that doesn't stop an estimated 12,000 tonnes of carry out bags from ending up in the region's disposal facilities each year, to say nothing of the uncounted ones in the gutters, parks and roadsides.

This week's buzz is about great coverage in the New York Times of Ireland's now legendary plastax, which a correspondent called "one of the most astounding examples of tax policy shifting consumer behavior I have ever seen!"

The NYTimes reported: "...the environment minister told shopkeepers that if they changed from plastic to paper, he would tax those bags, too.....While paper bags, which degrade, are in some ways better for the environment, studies suggest that more greenhouse gases are released in their manufacture and transportation than in the production of plastic bags."

(pic: New York Times)

Council to decide on plastic bag action

Today Zero Waste Vancouver will be on the speaker's list, along with many other organizations and concerned individual citizens, as City Council considers a motion to "phase out" plastic bags.

Will our city join the growing number of communities that are taking tough action to curb plastic bag use?

This blog has taken note of recent landmark legislation in places as diverse as China and Ireland, London UK and Leaf Rapids MB. Even Uganda has a law banning plastic bags.

The sanctions range from taxes (Ireland) to outright bans (Leaf Rapids) to retailer take-back requirements (New York City) to requirements that retailers use only biodegradable bags (San Francisco).

Politicians are safe in taking strong action on this issue, because they are responding to a deep public concern. The plastic bag has become an object of revulsion all over the world.

Photo documentation of the impacts on wildlife has put the plastics industry and the retail industry on notice: do something to clean up your act or lose the privilege of doing business.

Name-brand retailers like Ikea and Whole Foods are scrambling to claim the high ground, while their industry associations still insist that public education will solve the problem (plastic bags don't litter, people litter...).

The Retail Council's proposed fixes for Vancouver do not include retailer take-back. They haven't grasped the principle of cradle-to-cradle recycling, where producers are expected to provide take-back and recycling, rather than counting on public garbage services.

If you can handle it, here are some great online sources of ghastly photos of plastic's impact on marine life:

Planet Ark still photos

Message in the Waves videos

pic: http://www.answers.com/topic/vancouver-city-hall

Bagged again! New York City this time...

A New Yorker visiting our blog just sent this bulletin:

"The [New York] City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill requiring large stores and retail chains to collect and recycle plastic bags they give to shoppers...."

Under the new law "The Department of Sanitation, which picks up plastic bottles, cans and newspapers, will not collect the bags. Stores will have to contract to have them removed, most likely by companies that will recycle them into new plastic bags or buy them to make into other products, such as weatherproof decking."

Congratulations, Big Apple. Now keep an eye on where the bags go for recycling. Require retailers to show that your bags won't become problems in someone else's backyard. Who ever said it would be easy being green...

Image: urbansprout

Plastic bags targeted again

What do South Africa, San Francisco, Leaf Rapids (Manitoba) and China have in common? They all cracked down on stores handing out free plastic bags.

The Australian government stopped short of a legal ban, instead challenging retailers to cut back on bag use voluntarily, achieving mixed results. The Irish government imposed a punitive tax on bags and consumption quickly dropped by over 90% ~ prompting the government to ratchet up the tax even higher.

These tough actions have been popular with the public and the plastics industry is going to have to act fast to stem the rising tide of public revulsion against the ubiquitous eyesore, dubbed South Africa's "national flower" because it was littered so profusely along roadsides.

Local politicians here in the Lower Mainland are sensing which way this wind is blowing. Will we be next?

But here's something to think about: the bags are only popular because our local governments obligingly collect them from our homes and dispose of them for us.

Isn't it about time our communities stopped enabling our addiction to waste by making it so irresistably easy to get rid of all our useless throw-aways?

Are we ready to tell our politicians to put a ban on disposing of plastic bags in the city garbage? That would sure make consumers would think twice about accepting a free bag.

CONTEST: how big is a pound of styrofoam?

You could be the lucky winner if you guess the correct answer to this question. Here are some clues:

"Styrofoam" (Expanded Polystyrene/EPS) is:

• 98% air




• 1/10th as dense as water (density ranges from 1.0 to 4.0 pcf)

While you work out the math, have a look at this great video of a styrofoam recycling machine!

How much styrofoam did Santa bring you this year?

If your post-holiday garbage is packed solid with "styrofoam" (aka expanded polystyrene, or EPS), you'll be encouraged by the following notes that crossed my desk today.

The Wisconsin State Journal ran a story about a retailer who figured 80% of his waste was styrofoam. He purchased a simple machine that cuts the big blocks of foam into chips that can be reused as loose-fill styrofoam "peanuts."

In September, New Scientist published a story about a patent application from some Chinese scientists who have developed a new way of making styrofoam so it melts away in water when you're done with it.

Will these be the breakthroughs that solve our styrofoam problem? Probably not. Solutions have come and gone for years.

The fact is, the companies that use styrofoam packaging are not looking for a breakthrough ~ because THEY don't have a problem.

From the electronic manufacturers' point of view, that styrofoam is a solution, not a problem ~ it protects their products from breakage during shipment.

It's only after the products are sold to the consumer that styrofoam morphs into a problem, filling your garbage can and your community's landfill.

And the electronics companies are not likely to give you any help dealing with your styrofoam ~ unless they have to. Which is what "Extended Producer Responsibility" is all about.

This is the new paradigm: if you sell a product, you're responsible for recycling it, cradle-to-cradle. That includes both the product and the packaging.

Once the producers have to deal with their waste, solutions happen.

Instead, what do we do? We put THEIR styrofoam in the garbage where it costs US money. Metro Vancouver is looking at half a billion dollars in capital costs over the next few years to build all those fancy waste incinerators that will vaporize plastics into the atmosphere.

It's our choice: build incinerators, or use the law to compel producers to design products and packaing responsibly so there will be no hidden social or environmental costs.

This is going to be an exciting year!

The Story of Stuff!

Here's a catchy 20 minute film just released by a well-known American anti-incineration activist Annie Leonard. The movie is a simple animated backgrounder on the "materials economy" - extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal.

Enjoy!

Islands of plastic in the mid-Pacific

If you haven't heard about the floating plastic in the mid-Pacific, here are some interesting links. Not recent, but still current. Our casual conveniences can make waves far away...

Trashing the Oceans, US News & World Report:

Most plastic bags end up in landfills, part of the millions of tons of plastic garbage Americans dump each year. But whether jettisoned illegally by ships at sea, washed out from land during storms, or, as in the case of the chalupa bags, accidentally lost overboard from containerships, countless tons of plastic refuse end up drifting on the high seas....

Moby-Duck, or the synthetic wilderness of childhood, Harper's Jan 07:

The correspondent who forwarded this link to me commented: Donovan Hohn is one of the really great writers that no one knows about.

Let's have a public conversation about plastic bags

Once again, civic leaders in the Lower Mainland are sending a strong signal to retailers about their practice of handing out free plastic bags which become a public nuisance. An unimaginable 4 - 5 trillion of the flimsy bags were dispensed in Europe and North America in 2002, making them a visible target for public concern.

Last year North Vancouver District Council and Coquitlam City Council called for a hefty tax on plastic bags to discourage their use. Next week Vancouver City Council will consider a motion calling for a staff report on options on "phasing out" plastic bags within the city.

Both proposals have legs because they have been successfully implemented elsewhere. Ireland imposed a 25 cent PlasTax in 2002 that almost immediately reduced bag use by 90%. San Francisco considered a tax and then opted for an outright ban last March -- the first in North America.

Most importantly, these tough measures have been popular with the public, despite the plastic and retail industry doing their best to shoot them down.

It's all very well for the retailers to tout the benefits of the bags, but they don't pay the cost for the waste. It's local politicians who have to tax their communities to provide disposal services. No wonder they are turning to harsh measures! The industry has a lot to answer for.

Zero Waste Vancouver supports the motion to look at options to deal with the plastic bag problem. We would like to see Vancouver City Council convene a Waste Advisory Committee to look at this and other priority issues identified by the public and civic leaders. The committee could work with staff to explore the options, evaluate them, and come back with recommendations that would work for Vancouver.

Just say no to throw away water bottles

If you insist on drinking water from bottles, you won't have the option of a home dispenser using non-refillable bottles if Metro Vancouver politicians have anything to say about it.

They took a hard stand on this issue after a local distributor who uses refillable bottles like the one in this photo complained that his competition is introducing a single-use alternative made of thin PET plastic rather than reusable polycarbonate.

When politicians saw two of the single-use bottles fill a large blue recycling container and learned that they would be worth only a 20 cent deposit, they put their foot down: tell the province to simply ban them! BC's beverage container regulation is too weak and the delay to prove that the system needed change would simply cause problems in the industry, said politicians on both the Environment and Waste Management Committees, who called for an outright ban on non-refillable bottles. (image http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/)

Of course, with new information emerging about chemical additives in plastics, the market for water bottled in plastic may dry up anyway... anyone see the CBC segment last night? I can't find a link on their website.)

Take burnt-out compact bulbs to IKEA

Did you know you can take your burnt-out compact fluorescent bulbs to IKEA for recycling?

IKEA Canada just posted a release to Canadian News Wire reminding us that they have been taking back both CFLs and batteries since 2001.

Does anyone know who their recycler is? Here's what the release says: IKEA Canada works closely with Raw Materials Company (RMC, A division of International Marine Salvage Inc.) who specializes in battery recycling,hazardous waste hauling and processing, and have been actively recycling formore than 25 years. The bulb goes through a separation process into glass,powder and mercury. Separated mercury goes through a triple distillation whichtakes away all contamination.

I will check with folks who know the marine salvage industry for background on this company.

Batteries not included ~ CBC Marketplace

Did anyone catch the investigation of throw-away batteries on CBC Marketplace (aired on Halloween)? It really skewered the harried director of the rechargeable battery recycling program (did YOU know there was a rechargeable battery recycling program?) but the entire industry that produces the half-billion batteries sold in Canada each year didn't escape derision. You can watch the segment here. The only puzzling moment was at the end when they offered viewers advice on what to do about the battery problem. "Contact your municipality!" they said ~ but the Mayor of Port Perry had been saying all through the show that the producers should provide convenient service, say, through stores...

For another great riff on battery waste see the brilliant photo work of Chris Jordan.