 Too
Much Garbage: Buried in Product Packaging
Larry Pynn
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Much of what the public throws away that could be reused or recycled,
including furniture, ends up going into the landfills.
Frustrated at having to battle the wads of cardboard and piles of
Styrofoam packaging on retail purchases? Fearful of having to resort
to a steak knife to slice into rock-hard plastic wrapping? Desperate
to know where to turn for help?
Louise McKnight suggests quite simply that you start with the face
in the mirror.
"Change can happen," says the mother of two children who
participated in a Vancouver Sun experiment to save her packaging through
the month of February. "Responsibility falls on the shoulders
of the consumer. Until they put on pressure, manufacturers won't change."
Brock Macdonald, executive director of the Recycling Council of B.C.,
agrees that consumers have to take a stronger stand against excessive
packaging, especially when products not easily recycled are involved,
while also making changes in their own lifestyle to reduce packaging.
That would include taking your own permanent bags or plastic baskets
to the supermarket and your own mugs to coffee shops, thereby cutting
down drastically on the number of plastic bags and paper cups that
wind up in the waste stream.
Packaging is indeed a two-headed monster: one is the need to reduce
the amount used in the first place, the second is to find ways to keep
what is used out of landfills.
"I have real intelligent friends and I'm shocked at how they
don't recycle," says McKnight. "It's sad, really."
New statistics show that Vancouver consumers are not as progressive
as we might think when it comes to one of st because of the inherent
dangers .
"It was impossible to open by hand, and the plastic was too thick
for scissors," the story reads. "He switched to a box cutter,
which worked well, though cutting around corners was tricky and the
blade slipped. Neither brute force nor a screwdriver would pry apart
the rivets.
"He used a razor blade to bypass them and cut around each item,
but he sliced the instruction manual and nearly cut the battery wires."
The relative role of consumer, industry, and government in the common
goal of reducing packaging keenly interests Vancouver NPA Coun. Suzanne
Anton. "I ran on a garbage platform," she says with a smile. "I've
always been a waste maniac."
Anton proposed a motion last month that was passed unanimously urging
engineering staff to provide an update on issues such as recycling
and producer responsibility, including activities of the various government
levels and how they can work together.
Her personal goal is to drastically reduce the amount of organics
entering the waste stream. One GVRD report estimates that 45.37 per
cent of landfill waste by weight, or 481,311 tonnes annually, is organic,
including grass, branches, leaves, furniture, food waste, wood, textiles
and leather.
Anton believes consumers are ready to take sustainably to the next
level and just need a gentle nudge.
"We're a little slow in this area. I can't stand the thought
of throwing away potato peels."
Of course, sometimes a little perspective can also be revealing on
this issue.
Robin Thorneycroft grew up in Richmond, and most recently worked in
Penticton as a reporter at the Penticton Western News. Two years ago,
she moved to the bustling metropolis of Osaka, Japan, to work as a
freelance writer and photographer and teach English.
Her experience shows B.C. is not doing so bad after all compared to
the wanton waste of Japanese consumerism. "This is a country obsessed
with packaging. The waste is unreal.
"A takeout cinnamon bun: wrapped in paper, wrapped in a small
plastic bag, put into a larger paper bag and then a larger plastic
bag. At McDonald's each takeout meal item is individually wrapped in
a paper bag, including the drink. If you buy a bag of cookies at the
grocery store, each is individually wrapped. Produce comes prepackaged
in plastic, then is double wrapped by the cashier. Plus all those disposable
Styrofoam containers for instant noodles, and the throw-away chopsticks.
"B.C. is on the right track, we just have to have the motivation
to keep working," Thorneycroft concludes. "I've seen the
opposite point of view. It isn't pretty, it isn't green and the air's
not clean."
lpynn@png.canwest.com
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© The Vancouver Sun 2006
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