ONTARIO ENVIRONMENT MINISTER DEMANDS "SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING" FROM BUSINESS
Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen would like to see all Canadian businesses begin practicing what he calls "sustained packaging" of consumer goods and has found support amongst his federal and provincial counterparts on the matter.
Gerretsen would like to see a national set of packaging guidelines put into effect that would reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills across the country and province. "There is an overall view that the amount of packaging being produced in Canada in which products are being marketed is excessive and so we want to see specific guidelines adopted nationwide so the amount of packaging will be lessened".
And my opinion on this matter?
Frankly, this is about one of the smartest things that we could be doing to combat the growing issue of mountains of packing garbage and it would be a perfect opportunity to see this instituted as recycling has become sort of a non-option with the fall of recycled materials prices during this current global recession.
Making manufacturers more responsible for the garbage they create is a perfect fit for a world driven by consumerism.
It's just more noise. Here's your clue. "like to see all Canadian businesses begin practicing" and "the amount of packaging being produced in Canada.."
ReplyDeleteThey are focusing on domestic packaging. In case you haven't noticed the vast bulk of the stuff going to landfill was NOT made in Canada. It's all imported. We stopped manufacturing our own consumer goods a long time ago.
What are they going to do? Are they going to slap import tariffs on foreign packaging? Maybe they could gather it all up and ship it back to China? If they do anything they will probably penalize the few remaining Canadian manufacturers and drive them to move their operations out of the country as well.
It's nonsense. Just a press release to appease the environmental lobby. Nothing will come of it, unless of course they find a way to put a tax on imported packaging. That will increase government revenues and as we all know, increasing government revenues at the expense of the taxpayer is always good for the environment.
Well, they have to start somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThis may not be perfect, and I can understand that focusing on only domestic garbage is an issue. The plan should cover all forms of garbage, imported or not.
The only way they can do it is through a tax. We'll pay the tax one way or the other. If they tax the manufacturer they'll raise the price and we'll pay. If they tax at point of sale we'll pay. And the garbage will still be there. We'll just have paid for it twice.
ReplyDeleteThe blame for excess packaging in landfill falls directly on the consumer. You want less packaging in landfill. Buy less shit.
Buy less is a good personal motto.
ReplyDeleteBut, but, the government wants you to buy more! Spend! Spend! Spend!
ReplyDeleteConsumers are going to shop us out of the recession! Let's re-inflate that credit bubble!
Don't you know nothin' about economics?