{"id":216921,"date":"2019-06-01T03:38:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T07:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=216921"},"modified":"2019-06-01T03:38:34","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T07:38:34","slug":"experts-call-for-ban-on-waste-exports-after-philippine-garbage-embarrassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/01\/experts-call-for-ban-on-waste-exports-after-philippine-garbage-embarrassment\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts call for ban on waste exports after Philippine garbage embarrassment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
There is no treasure in Canada’s trash and we need to stop heaping it onto the rest of the world, environment advocates say. (File Photo: Bas Emmen\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 There is no treasure in\u00a0Canada’s trash and we need to stop heaping it onto the rest of the world, environment advocates say.<\/p>\n

The spotlight on the global shipping of garbage grew bright in recent weeks as the diplomatic fight over garbage between\u00a0Canada\u00a0and the Philippines gained international attention. That garbage is now on a ship headed back for\u00a0Canada, but environment advocates hope the result will be more than just a rebuilding of our relationship with the Philippines.<\/p>\n

They want\u00a0Canada\u00a0to stop allowing the export of waste and to cut the production and consumption of most plastic packaging.<\/p>\n

Myra Hird, a Queen’s University environmental-studies professor who runs a research group looking at the impact of\u00a0Canada’s waste and how waste is managed, said the only way\u00a0Canada\u00a0can prevent another embarrassment like the Philippines garbage shipments, is to simply ban the export of waste altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not sure what the rationale for transporting our waste around the globe is because it’s certainly not good for the environment,\u201d said Hird.<\/p>\n

More than 85 per cent of plastic waste produced in\u00a0Canada\u00a0ends up in landfills, and about nine per cent is destined for recycling facilities. Hird says even recycling plastics comes with a significant environmental cost, with the distances they are shipped and the pollution produced in melting them down.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecycling has become sort of emblematic of being a good environmental citizen,\u201d she said. \u201cThe problem is it doesn’t do what people think it does. It’s not a solution to the generation of waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadians are among the biggest producers of waste in the world, churning out as much as two kilograms per person every day. It is one of the highest per-capita rates among developed countries. Almost half the plastic waste produced in\u00a0Canada\u00a0is from packaging, everything from water bottles and take-out containers to plastic wrap and clamshells for cheap electronics.<\/p>\n

Jamie Kaminski, a board member at Zero Waste\u00a0Canada, said\u00a0Canada\u00a0needs to make a massive shift away from single-use packaging to refillables.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we’re doing has to be shifted to reusable packaging,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said it won’t be a simple change, since our supply chains are so dominated by single-use plastic containers, but it’s doable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put a man on the moon,\u201d said Kaminski.<\/p>\n

B.C. NDP MP Gord Johns said\u00a0Canada\u00a0needs to simply stop shipping waste, \u201cfull stop,\u201d and also ban single-use plastics in\u00a0Canada\u00a0so these products are not produced and used in the first place. Plastic waste is considered hazardous because of the pollutants it creates, particularly if it is burned.<\/p>\n

Sarah King, head of the oceans and plastics program at Greenpeace\u00a0Canada, said\u00a0Canada’s hand on plastics is going to be forced because more Asian nations are slamming the door shut on plastic-waste imports. China did so in 2018, which saw countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia inundated with waste. Many of them are following China’s lead and saying no to more legal imports, though the illicit trade remains a problem.<\/p>\n

As a result, Canadian municipalities are finding fewer legitimate buyers for the waste and it’s now ending up in Canadian landfills too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we see more doors close it’s going to be even more key for us to focus on actually stopping this problem at the source,\u201d said King. \u201cAnd that’s what we haven’t seen enough discussion about from the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenpeace has compiled a list of 63 municipalities in\u00a0Canada\u00a0that have some form of ban or limitation on plastics, but King said leadership has to come from Ottawa and provincial governments to force a shift away from single-use disposable packaging to versions that can be reused.<\/p>\n

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is planning to unveil a national strategy to curb plastic use next month but earlier this year her office indicated a reluctance to enact any limits on exports of plastic waste.<\/p>\n

Cracking down on plastic production is not without its critics. Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu said in question period Friday that the government attacked the oil industry and \u201cnow they are threatening a war on plastics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, half the jobs in my riding of Sarnia-Lambton depend on Canadian energy, pipelines and plastics,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy are the Liberals attacking the hard-working people of Sarnia-Lambton?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 There is no treasure in\u00a0Canada’s trash and we need to stop heaping it onto the rest of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":215659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-mia-rabson","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216922,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216921\/revisions\/216922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}