GINTA – Yes, we can do without (most) single-use plastics
(Image: Cariboo Regional District)
I CANNOT TELL YOU how many times I wished that Styrofoam food containers would disappear. Call it a pet peeve but it goes beyond that.
They leach harmful (albeit slow-acting and invisible) endocrine disruptors in the food stored in them, they are non-recyclable and indestructible, and one too many can be seen lying around parks or washing on river shores once the humans that emptied them have long left the scene.
The recent announcement by the federal government to ban many single-use plastics could not be timelier. Just about every week, if not daily, there is some more news about the ever-growing ocean garbage patches; marine life is chocking on plastics (this is not a figure of speech,) or feeding on it, as they mistake it for food.
Daniela Ginta is a mother, scientist, writer and blogger. She can be reached at daniela.ginta@gmail.com, or through her blog at http://www.danielaginta.com.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Is it a politically correct thing that nobody mentions the use of disposable diapers? It takes a diaper 500 years to break down according to experts, not to mention the environmental implications of methane gas released by the billions of diapers in our landfills.