Here's my email to the mayor and my city councillor:
I was shocked to read in today's Globe and Mail that Toronto is thinking of banning biodegradable plastic bags.
As I'm sure you know, most plastic bags end up in the landfill because people use them as garbage bags, to line their trash cans or wrap their green bin waste or clean up after their pets. And, as I'm sure you know, environmentally optimal behaviour would be to use biodegradable garbage bags for this purpose.
Every time a retailer bags a consumer's purchase in a biodegradable plastic bag, they are making environmentally optimal behaviour literally effortless for the consumer. The consumer makes their purchase, gets it bagged as usual, uses the bag for garbage as usual, and that's one less plastic bag in the landfill. The consumer would have to go out of their way to be less environmentally friendly.
By banning biodegradable plastic bags, you would not only be making environmentally optimal behaviour more difficult by requiring consumers to a) purchase biodegradable garbage bags and b) carry reusable bags with them all day every time they might want to pick up a couple of things at the store after work, but you would also be making it ILLEGAL for retailers to show good corporate citizenship by simplifying environmentally optimal behaviour for their customers.
Please do not allow this ridiculous proposal to pass. The last thing you want to do is make environmentally friendly behaviour more difficult.
You know, I'm starting to get really frustrated with having to write to politicians about things that are so bloody obvious.
4 comments:
It's my understanding that there are 2 main concerns with biodegradable plastics.
1. Biodegrable plastics aren't recyclable. If it is accidently put into the recycling bin it will contaminate all the other plastics forcing them to be trown out.
2. The CO2 and other chemicals released during biodegration is worse than the environmental impact of the plastic going in the garbage.
If that's the case, why do they encourage us to use biodegradable garbage bags for our landfill garbage?
The following comes directly from the City's release concerning the new policies:
Why are biodegradable bags not accepted in the City’s recycling program?
Biodegradable plastic bags look the same as other types of traditional plastic bags, but they are made out of different material than the plastic bags we take for recycling. Biodegradable plastic bags would contaminate our sorting, processing and the material we supply to our end markets. Products made out of recycled plastic bags, such as benches, chairs, tables, would be structurally weakened if they contained biodegradable content that is designed to break down over time.
Source
These people don't seem to know their subject very well. First of all biodegradable and compostable are two totally different things. The Toronto officials are referring to PLA type bags, which are only compostable in an industrial facility. They do not degrade in a landfill. The only thing they got right was that PLA bags will screw up the recycling process but most bags don't get recycled anyway.Crazy confusion and mis information.OXO-degradable will do the same and is also very ineffective in landfills. The only answer can be found at www.ena-eu.com
Regards
Malcolm Brown www.ena-eu.com
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