FEATURED COMMENT – Local recycling program good, but not good enough
(Image: Mel Rothenburger)
Re: David Suzuki column, ‘Oil and plastic are choking the planet’:
Everyone has the power to change their habits, but the alternatives are not always readily available. We are big fans of the three R’s at our house. We do our best to do all three as much as we can – but many things come in packaging that I can’t put into our recycling – and soft plastics are a big one.
We obviously don’t discard them in our waterways, but how many years have cities been dumping garbage in the oceans? Maybe that’s a place to start? Eliminate the barges dropping the garbage into the oceans – letting the soft plastics and other plastics float away creating this problem.
Our local recycling program is good, but it’s not good enough – did eliminating soft plastics save us money? I get to recycle my pizza boxes now, something that would decompose more readily than glass or plastics – not sure it was a good trade off, when I read articles like this.
CORRINE GIESBRECHT
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Most of the comments here are spot on. Kamloops though has a program that is quite good as a start. Not only is packaging dealing with regulations about safety and theft resistance in retailing, we are also dealing with where to put the waste products of our consumptions. The lady who used the plastic bags to make sleeping mats, or reusing the bags as a fibre for crafting items, great, but the level of supply of these items is the problem. When it is decaying into micropellets in the gullets of ocean life, we have a problem bigger than us; we are killing off life and will eventually kill ourselves off. Reusing is something we can do. And, in Europe, campaigns organized to put consumer pressure on companies worked. Refuse to buy with the packaging. That’s part of what created those changes. Some changes become larger ones over time. We would need to lead by example. It takes the time to change the way we live, and it starts by not making excuses but looking for ways to make action happen. Small things do work. But more of us need to be committed to doing it. Not just a few.
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Somebody should create bio-degradable containers that quickly dissolve.These containers could take the place of all plastics.
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I would like to see the City try a pilot project, like Oak Bay has going, to divert organics from landfill by having residents compost at home and at work.
There are insulated, bear proof Composters available. They are Canadian made as well
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“Recycling” will not really make any difference on the plight of the planet.
The consumption paradigm has to change radically if we really want to make a tangible difference. For example, junk food has to go completely, including franchise pizza and locally grown food needs to became the centerpiece of our diet.
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