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Reduce first before recycling

Plastic bags clog waterways and landfills. They choke wildlife and ocean life, and while they break apart into ever-smaller pieces, they do not bio-degrade, contaminating soil, waterways and oceans and entering the food system when eaten by animals.

Plastic bags clog waterways and landfills. They choke wildlife and ocean life, and while they break apart into ever-smaller pieces, they do not bio-degrade, contaminating soil, waterways and oceans and entering the food system when eaten by animals. While they are recyclable, plastics of varying grades have proved difficult to recycle and have limited use when recycled.

On the other hand, these plastic bags are readily available, cheap to manufacture and use, potentially more hygienic than reusable bags that are not regularly cleaned, and useful and convenient for a number of reasons, whether it’s lining smaller trash cans or scooping dog or kitty litter.

Clearly, the issue of banning plastic bags is not 100 per cent straightforward. So it was little wonder that when Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski mused aloud at the May 24 council meeting about the Town of St. Paul asking citizens what they thought about the plastic bag ban, it elicited a wide range of responses, from people in favour, people who were torn, and people who thought it would be a better option for the town to look at doing a better job of recycling.

To its credit, the Town of St. Paul has spent considerable time looking into recycling options and diverting waste from its landfills; unfortunately, as it stands, recycling is only possible when a market exists to pick up and recycle those materials. The discussion on banning plastic bags is a necessary one to think of how to do business better, in a green-friendly way.

There’s no doubt that people respond to incentives – positive and negative. If we want to discourage littering, introduce a fine for it. If we want to encourage use of cloth or reusable bags, perhaps there should be a small tax or levy on plastic bag options, rather than outright banning them.

While recycling is great, people’s mindsets need to be focused on reducing first, before recycling second, which needs to be applied in most areas of our life – whether it’s bringing a thermos to be filled up at the fast food restaurant, instead of getting a disposable cup, or passing on purchasing cheap plastic items that will be used for a minute before being added to the ever growing landfill.

A small step is better than no steps at all, and the responsibility for making those small steps lies with each individual and citizen.




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