Recycling… When should RDCO join the fight.

I believe that we should have been in this recycling fight and in particular the battle against single use plastics from the start of this Board term. I brought it up during Budget discussions and feel that I was completely blown off by the Chair and CAO. I did however feel support from fellow Board Members, but to no avail.

The excuse for inaction was predicated on existing RDCO Solid Waste Management Plan that is totally inadequate for the crisis we face today.

To join this fight against single use plastics is the right thing to do regardless of jurisdiction, we’re being buried in this stuff with no plan to address or mitigate. We should join the Local Governments that have implemented their own plan to address the vacuum of legislation from the senior levels of government. Let the Plastics Industry and Lobbyists sue us all, hang together or hang separately is the reality we face. Shame on us as a local government authority if we stand and do nothing.

Here are some interesting links that show how broken the system is. I started this as a single Post but find that the subject deserves its own Page so I will be putting everything of relevance that I can find on that Recycling Page.

Marketplace: Tracking your plastic: Exposing recycling myths

Marketplace: Why buying plastic-free groceries is so hard

Marketplace: Are these the most over-packaged products? 

Tracking your plastic: Exposing recycling myths

Canada to ban single-use plastics: government source

The Weekly with Wendy Mesley: The dirty truth about recycling

Inside the Lab That Could Solve the World’s Plastics Problem

BBC News: Can plastic roads help save the planet?