Recycling plastics

Re: Plastics recycling policy has been sham all along, Raymond J. de Souza, Oct. 17; and Left holding the bag, Letter to the editor, Oct. 21

In 2021 the Liberal government will be banning certain plastics (i.e. straws, bags, cups), the idea being we will be cutting down on pollution and extending the life of our landfills. On first glance this appears to be a noble idea, however, at the present time, paper products appear to be the only candidate to fill the vacancy of these plastic products. To make paper we need pulp, and to make pulp we need cellulose, which mainly comes from trees.

Therefore, to make up for this additional demand for pulp we will need to cut down more trees. Trees are carbon sinks; by cutting down more trees we decrease the carbon dioxide absorption of our forests, thereby increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Are we sacrificing the environment for pollution? Perhaps the government had better do a rethink on banning plastics or hurry up and plant those two billion trees it has been promising for the past year.

George Ferrall, Orleans, Ont.

One couldn't miss the irony in letter writer Bruce Antonello's observation that “... paper bags hold groceries as well as plastic bags, but seldom seem to be employed ... ” How long ago was it that the environmental lobby was decrying the raping of our forests and degradation of natural habitat in order to produce paper for, among other things, grocery bags? To his second point, municipalities exist in part to dispose of “non-decomposable packaging” in the form of regular garbage collection; the real issue is that they promote their programs of recycling that aren't doing what we are told they are doing, and therein lies the real problem.

Brad Davidson, Waterloo, Ont.