Yesterday, Toronto city council overwhelmingly approved two measures aimed at helping the city reach its goal of diverting 70 per cent of its waste from landfills by the end of 2010.
According to today’s Canada Globe and Mail, the council voted for an immediate ban on the sale of bottled water at city hall. The ban will extend to other city facilities over the next two years.
The city also is requiring retailers to charge five cents per plastic bag starting June 1, 2009. By June 1, 2010, all plastic bags that are incompatible with Toronto’s recycling program — including those with metal grommets, rope handles, and those that are biodegradable or compostable — will be banned.
By February, 2011, plastic take-out food containers that cannot be recycled by the city — such as those made of clear hard plastic — will be banned.
Fast-food industry and city officials are being asked to report by April on options to recycle coffee cups and lids.
According to Canada’s Polaris Institute, which has a campaign against bottled water, bans are spreading throughout the country. So far:
-16 municipalities from 5 provinces have banned the bottle.
-45 municipalities are planning restrictions on bottled water.
-Canada’s Parliament is currently considering a ban on bottled water at the Parliament Buildings.
USA needs to do the same. Since when did we become a society who can't walk outside our door without a bottle of water in our hand? And most of it just comes out of the tap, anyway. But people think because it's in a bottle there's something special about it. And at public functions it's ridiculous they charge 1.50 to 3.00 for one bottle. Plastic bags are all over the place. You see them on streets, along highways, in tree and bushes, etc. Where did reusable cloth bags and market baskets go? Fast food containers made from clear plastic and styrofoam have pretty much been replaced with paper. We need to take a serious look at all the packaging that is used for fast food, retail, etc., because we are quickly running out of space for landfills. Soon we'll be burning in our backyards again, causing the dreaded air pollution!— Toot44
How can Canada, for it's size, matter so little in the world? Because their all about nonsense.— jmc- Plastic is not recyclable, it is re-usable. Once you form a plastic, the polimer chain can not grow to form a better plastic. Everytime you melt it, the chain deteriorates to a lower grade until you have trash. If you want a true recyclable container, you need to use glass or metal. they can be melted down to form glass or new metal everyday from now til judgement day without changing their properties. The majority of "recycled " plastics are used 2 to 3 times before they are landfilled or burned. Sorry tree huggers, but that is the truth. The problem is things like this don't work, but look great. Plastics represent at most 10% of land fill materials.— dutchman
- jmc, thanks for being the steroetypical ignorant American. How could you read this article and call it nonsense?— duffers
- What common sense from our northern neighbors. Pennsy doesn't even have a glass bottle deposit system in place.— KYN1643
- I think this great that Toronto is taking a stand. To do my part I took the think outside the bottle pledge and I bought a couple of reusable water bottles from www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org for my kids who always have to have a water bottle in their hands.— phaino
GreenSpace - her column about how to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life - appears every other Monday in Health & Science.
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