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garbage

Wednesday March 10, 2021

March 17, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 10, 2021

Humans are using around 129 billion masks per month

We know that personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and face shields is important in protecting people against COVID-19.

April 22, 2020

But who’s protecting Mother Earth?

According to a study by the Environmental Science & Technology journal, humans around the globe are using approximately 129 billion disposable face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves every month.

And many of those masks have become litter in streets, beaches and oceans.

That waste is cause for concern for environmentalists like Rebecca Prince-Ruiz.

“There’s been an extraordinary rise in single-use plastics used in PPE,” said Prince-Ruiz, founder and executive director of Plastic Free Foundation, an organization aimed at limiting single-use plastics across the world.

“It’s the issue on top of everyone’s mind.”

Disposable masks are extremely important for front-line workers such as doctors and nurses.

Stopping their use isn’t an option.

But there are small things everyone can do to reduce waste, Prince-Ruiz said, such as wearing reusable masks.

Kids can also encourage adults to reduce their use of plastic gloves.

There are also companies finding creative solutions to this environmental issue. (Continued: CBC Kids) 

 

Posted in: Lifestyle Tagged: 2021-09, Canada, covid-19, face masks, garbage, pandemic, Pandemic Times, penny, pollution, Spring, trash, Winter

Friday June 7, 2019

June 13, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 7, 2019

Study sheds light on human consumption of microplastics

A study from the University of Victoria has for the first time compiled research on microplastics to try to estimate just how much people are consuming.

June 1, 2019

Microplastics are pieces of plastic that are just under five millimetres in diameter — or smaller than the size of a sesame seed — that come from the degradation of larger plastic products or the shedding of particles from water bottles, plastic packaging and synthetic clothes.

Garth Covernton, a PhD candidate at University of Victoria’s department of biology, said his team looked at 26 papers assessing the amount of microplastics found in individual food items.

May 2, 2018

The study found that a person’s average microplastic consumption — based on those food items previously analyzed — would likely be somewhere between 70,000 and 121,000 particles per year. While younger girls were at the lower end of the spectrum, adult men were at the high end.

People who consume a lot of bottled water could see that number jump by up to 100,000 particles per year.

The study analyzed the amount of microplastics found in fish, shellfish, sugars, salts, alcohol, water and air, which account for 15 per cent of Americans’ caloric intake.

But the other 85 per cent of what people consume, like beef, poultry, dairy and grains, has still not been examined.

March 6, 2015

Covernton compared the study to early understandings of cigarettes and tobacco: While the numbers they came up with did seem large, they don’t yet know exactly what level of consumption is dangerous.

“We’re at the point where we know microplastics at some dose could be harmful, but we’re not at the point where we can say whether what the average person is encountering is the equivalent of one cigarette in a lifetime, or that chronic exposure, like a pack a day.”

Covernton said the findings demonstrate more work needs to be done to understand how the tiny particles might affect human health. (CBC) 

 

Posted in: International, Lifestyle Tagged: 2019-21, Canada, garbage, International, microplastics, packaging, plastics, pollution, single use, water

Saturday June 1, 2019

June 8, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 1, 2019

It’s time we finally started to ‘get it’ on garbage and plastics

Let’s play a little weekend game of “What if …?”

April 29, 2019

This week, Malaysia became the second country in recent months to demand Canada take back garbage shipped under the pretense of it being recycling. This at the same time as the Government of the Philippines, dissatisfied with the pace of negotiations to return tonnes of garbage in that country, hired a ship to return the rotting trash to Canada.

Sensing a theme? Canada has an earned reputation as a bad actor on garbage. Our country leads the developed world in per-capita production of garbage. Successive governments at all levels have chosen not to deal with that reality, preferring to let the private sector manage our waste — including what happens to recyclables after we toss them in the blue box.

The private sector has done that in the way it always does: optimize earnings and profit. Most often that has meant paying someone to take our trash and recyclables. We have paid to dump garbage in the U.S. and developing world. We have sold recyclables to the highest bidder. And yes, private players have sold our garbage as recyclables.

January 16, 2019

The complaining countries don’t occupy any moral high ground here. In years past, they didn’t care much about what was being dumped on their shores as long as there was money to be made. It wasn’t uncommon for waste to be sorted into things that could be recycled and sold again, and trash that was simply dumped, often into the ocean.

That has changed. China, historically one of the biggest buyers, toughened regulations and disallowed much of what would previously have been welcome. Other countries, especially developing ones, became more concerned about environmental management and, therefore, less willing to sacrifice their national environments for profit.

April 24, 2018

The root of this problem is simple. Canada made the wrong choices on trash and recycling. Instead of investing in developing national infrastructure to deal with the challenges, we sold them to the highest offshore bidder. Now those bidders have shut down, and we need to retroactively build the infrastructure.

What if the international garbage boondoggle leads federal and provincial leaders to finally recognize this and develop policies that facilitate dealing holistically with our own trash? We can no longer dump our problems on other countries. It’s time Canada grew up and owned its own problems with waste. 

March 12, 2019

And speaking of growing up, what if the garbage scandal and the growing mountain of evidence about the threat of plastics pollution is a tipping point for us starting to take meaningful action on reducing single-use plastics?

We are taking baby steps. Plastic drinking straws are being replaced with paper ones. That and a handful of other modest measures are progress, but we’re barely scratching the surface. Check the supermarket or home store. We’re drowning in packaging.

What if public policy-makers finally started to put the onus on manufacturers to reduce plastics in packaging? What if there were incentives to do so or penalties for not doing so? What if consumers demanded change by doing things like buying the goods and leaving the packaging with the retailer?

Harsh, maybe even impolite? Maybe, but we really need to make significant headway on the plastics crisis. Right now, we’re just nibbling at the edges. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Posted in: Canada, Lifestyle Tagged: 2019-20, cargo ship, garbage, green bin, Malaysia, Philippines, recycling, trash

Monday April 29, 2019

May 6, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday April 29, 2019

Canada working with Philippines for ‘timely resolution’ of waste issue

Canada on Wednesday expressed its commitment in collaborating with the Philippines to address the dumping of waste in the country.

The Canadian Embassy in Manila released a statement a day after President Rodrigo Duterte warned the North American country that he would be sailing to Canada to dump their trash back.

“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail, there in Canada, I will dump their trash there,” Duterte said in Pampanga on Tuesday.

The Canadian Embassy said a joint technical working group composed of officials from both Canada and the Philippines has been looking into the issues surrounding the removal of the waste in the country “with a view to a timely resolution.”

“In 2016, Canada amended its regulations around hazardous waste shipments to prevent such events from happening again,” the Canadian Embassy said in a statement.

Canada vowed to work with the Philippines in ensuring that the waste shipment will be “processed in an environmentally responsible way.”

In 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was committed to addressing the issue of waste from Canada that was shipped to the Philippines.

More than 100 container vans of garbage arrived in the Philippines between 2013 to 2014.

“I committed to him (Duterte) as much as I am committing to you that Canada is working hard to resolve the issue,” Trudeau said on the sidelines of the 2017 ASEAN Summit in Manila. (Source: PhilStar)

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2019-15, beaver, Canada, environment, gallery, garbage, map, maps, Philippines, pollution, recycle, Roll up the rim, rubbish, sanctimony, trash

Tuesday March 12, 2019

March 19, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 12, 2019

Ontario government ponders ban on single-use plastics

Ontario is weighing a ban on single-use plastics, which include bags, water bottles and straws.

April 24, 2018

Nearly a tonne of waste per person in Ontario is generated each year, and the rate at which that waste is diverted away from landfills — through recycling and composting, for example — has stalled around 30 per cent for the past 15 years.

The government recently released a discussion paper on reducing litter and waste,  and is asking the public and stakeholders for input on how to best address the problem. One question it asks is if a ban on single-use plastics would be effective in reducing plastic waste.

Environment Minister Rod Phillips said it’s an area in which the government is very open.

January 16, 2019

“We are essentially saying, ‘How would those work and how have they worked in other jurisdictions effectively?”‘ Phillips said in an interview. “Plastics is a priority from our government’s point of view, particularly as we talk about plastics in our waterways.”

It is estimated that almost 10,000 tonnes of plastic debris enter the Great Lakes each year, the discussion paper says. Ontario’s Blue Box recycling program recovers only about 28 per cent of all plastic packaging in the province.

Ontario is also mulling a deposit return system for plastic bottles and other containers, as is used in some other provinces.

March 6, 2015

Keith Brooks, programs director at Environmental Defence, said a lot of single-use plastics are unnecessary, pointing to straws and cutlery.

“I think that a ban on some single-use plastics makes a lot of sense,” he said. “I think it’s a good conversation to have.”

But by asking such a broad question, the answer may be no, Brooks cautioned, saying he didn’t think any jurisdiction has banned all single-use plastics.

“There’s some single-use plastics that are probably going to continue to be used…for food safety reasons and things like that,” he said, though he would push for them to be standardized and recyclable. (Source: CBC) 

 

Posted in: Canada, International Tagged: 2019-10, aliens, climate change, convenience, Earth, garbage, Ontario, planet, plastic, recycling, single use, trash
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