We all need to be activists to solve plastic problem
If you look at a graph of the increase of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere — often called a “hockey stick” graph because of the shape — you’ll see the same shape in the same period since 1950 for plastic production. Big Oil and Big Plastic are synonymous.
We knew we had a global plastics problem before COVID-19. Now we have an even bigger one because of the surge in single-use plastics.
From personal protection equipment to plastic bags in stores, we’re awash in plastic waste. I don’t even want to think about the extra volume of takeout food containers and the disposable masks and gloves littering our streets.
There is no question that health-care providers and everyone who deals with the public in any capacity need personal protection equipment.
We are all grateful to the people and companies that have stepped up to provide it. But we also have to realize that our short-term solutions for these immediate needs are taking us closer to the brink.
The entire life cycle of 99 per cent of plastics is fossil-fuel dependent and a significant source of greenhouse gases. That includes the extraction and transportation of the oil plastic is made from, the manufacturing process and the end point as waste in our landfills, incinerators, oceans and in our own bodies.
Waterloo Region council agreed in principle that a “waste to energy” incinerator is the next step after the landfill fills; we have to make sure that never happens.
Recycling post-consumer plastic waste is expensive, labour-intensive and complex; not every plastic type has a second life. The largest market share is from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), followed by high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene and PVC, according to a 2019-2027 market evaluation from Coherent Market Insights in Plastics Today.
While we’ve been divesting our investments away from fossil fuels to help keep the oil in the ground, “petrochemicals are rapidly becoming the largest driver of global oil consumption.” The 2018 International Energy Agency report continues, “They are set to account for more than a third of the growth in oil demand to 2030, and nearly half to 2050 …(and will) consume an additional 56 billion cubic metres of natural gas by 2030, equivalent to about half of Canada’s total gas consumption today.”
The same report shows Canadians have a rapacious annual diet for plastics, sitting at nearly 100 kilograms per person. Compare that to Africa at 5 kg/ person or even China at 55 kg/person.
How do we break our plastic addiction? Educate yourself and take action.
You can start by watching “The Story of Plastic,” produced by the same people as “The Story of Stuff” project. A global initiative, www.breakfreefromplastic.org, figures prominently in this feature-length documentary.
Environmental Defence recently hosted an online viewing as part of their campaign to hold our Canadian government accountable to the promise to ban single-use plastics by 2021. They are now calling on your support through their online petition.
Not unexpectedly, the Chemical Industry Association of Canada is lobbying the government to not include plastics as toxic materials under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act because that would be “bad for business.” They are, and it would be, but aren’t our health and environment more important than their bottom line?
In 2019, The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) released a report titled “Plastic and Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet.” I would highly recommend watching this interview with CIEL president and chief executive officer Carroll Muffett for the main points https://vimeo.com/336448363 and, at the very least, reading the executive summary in the report.
The CIEL report concludes that it will take a multitude of different actions during the entire life cycle of plastic. We need transparency. Corporations should not be able to hide their use of toxic chemicals as “proprietary business information.”
Plastics are not, as the industry claims, just a waste issue, but are a threat to human and environmental health.
If this pandemic teaches us anything, it should be the difference between what we need and what we can live without.
The only way we’ll put an end to our plastic problem is if everything we produce can be reused, repaired, repurposed or composted. That starts with you, as a consumer, but must make activists of us all to hold our politicians accountable to their commitments for better regulations.