Time To Trash The Plastics Ban

Time To Trash The Plastics Ban

Last year, the Trudeau government announced a plan to ban "single-use plastics”.

The ban includes six categories of items - checkout bags, cutlery, food service ware, ring carriers, stir sticks, and straws.

We’re used to awful decisions by the federal government.

But this anti-plastic crusade is absurd in so many ways that it’s hard to know where to begin.

According to the federal government, banning plastics will reduce waste and litter and mitigate climate change by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions needed to produce these items.

Wrong on both counts.

Reducing the amount of waste, especially in the ocean and on shorelines, is a pretty common reason for wanting to ban plastics.

We’ve all seen the terrible videos of marine wildlife caught in litter, and wanting to improve our oceans is a noble cause. 

But will banning plastics in Canada actually achieve that aim?

No, it will not.

First, less than 1% of global plastic waste in the ocean comes directly from Canada. 

And the government’s own report finds that the plastic ban will increase total waste!

The report finds the ban will prevent “an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of plastics from entering the waste stream,” but will also “add an estimated 2.9 million tonnes of other materials to the waste stream from the use of substitutes".

Classic government.

Next, when it comes to emissions, studies that show that non-plastic bags are better are always based on underestimating how often plastic bags are actually reused and overestimating how often non-plastic bags are reused. 

But as everyone (other than academics, it seems) knows, single-use plastic bags almost always aren't, in fact, single-use.

Most people reuse them a second time, or more, for storing things, for trash, for pet waste, etc.

So, plastic bags are already twice as good, if not more, for the environment than is normally claimed by so-called "experts".

Finally, the various alternatives to shopping bags all take far more energy to produce.

They’re also heavier to transport, so even getting them to their destination uses up more fuel.

Theoretically, if you use a reusable bag enough times, the extra energy to produce them would be worthwhile, and make them more environmentally friendly.

But you would need to use them hundreds and hundreds of times each.

And people don't.

In fact, if you're anything like us, you know that shoppers often forget to bring their reusable bags with them to the store, or are heading to the store form somewhere other than at home where their bags are.

So, what happens then?

Well, you’ll have to buy another one.

Suddenly, you've got as many reusable bags in your cupboard as you used to have plastic bags, and your reusable bags have become single-use!

As usual, when theory meets reality, that’s when things start to break down.

Add up all the above, and "reusable" bags are actually worse for the environment than plastic bags!

If you agree that this plastics ban is complete nonsense, please sign our petition telling the federal government it's Time To Trash The Plastics Ban.