There’s been a lot made of the incredible wastefulness of single-use plastics all over the world, not just here in Canada or in North America. Plastic is utilized for packaging of all sorts. But the problem is that it can’t be easily degraded in the way a cardboard box can be, for example. Plastic is hardy and durable stuff, and that’s why it’s hard to handle it properly when it’s disposed of as waste. Much of it can be recycled, but despite improvements in that regard it’s an area where we are still coming up well short. Very little recyclable plastic if any goes into the roll-off bins we deliver to customers as part of our dumpster rentals for Trenton and Colborne areas of Ontario, but when it does we do make an effort to see to it that it’s channeled properly.
Doing that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be processed properly though, and reducing plastic waste as well as handling it are two areas where our country – like many – just aren’t getting it done to the extent they need to be. Our expertise is in disposal bin rentals, but the nature of what we do creates an intrinsic interest in better waste management approaches and technologies, and sometimes it is good to share relevant information about the progress that is being made to curb the ever-increasing amount of plastic waste produced in Canada.
There is always going to be some blame to place on producers, but at the same time there is the need for reliable and durable packaging for products and using plastic for it is also a means of cost-control and keeping these products affordable for people. But with environmental concerns becoming as big as they are these days there is a real need to start looking at this reliance more critically and a lot of people will say that Canada is coming up short with that.
Folks can call us for disposal bin rentals in Thomasburg or Garden Hill in Ontario, but making personal household changes to reduce plastic waste production is only ever going to be a drop in the bucket of making real change with this stuff. The bulk of it needs to occur at the Provincial and Federal levels, and if you believe the experts there’s a lot of room for improvement there.
Let’s crunch a bit of what they are saying, and that will make up this month’s blog entry here at Load-n-Lift.
5 To Go
The federal government has committed to eliminating plastic waste by 2030. 95% cent of all manufactured products contain plastic, from single-use items like bags and straws, to everyday items like clothing and toothbrushes. The problem is that plastic has an environmental impact across its entire lifecycle – the extraction and processing of fossil fuels to make plastic emits greenhouse gasses and other pollutants and destroy habitats and products also shed plastic particles as we use them.
Far and away the largest issue though is the way consumers dispose of their plastic, and then how waste management authorities deal with it. Estimates are that 91% of it ends up in landfills, incinerators or our environment. Whereas when you rent dumpsters in Colborne and Trenton here you can know that ALL waste collected will be properly disposed of in accordance with Ontario Provincial guidelines.
Barring improvements to regulation and policy it is predicted that Canada will dispose of more than 2 million tonnes of plastic waste from packaging alone in the years leading up to 2030. Meaning 88% of plastic packaging will continue to end up in landfills, incinerators or the natural environment.
And we are definitely on track to miss our targets. Even in a best-case scenario 39% of the plastics packaging generated – about 1 million tonnes of it – will continue to end up in landfills, incinerators or the natural environment. We should point out too that Quebec is the only province that plans to require businesses to reduce and recycle their waste by 2030. Only British Columbia, Québec, and Ontario have solid plans in place to measure their recycling systems and determine the amount of material that is collected, sorted, and sent to a re-processor for recycling.
The industry consensus is that there is a real lack of meaningful ’recycling targets’ that can measure the amount of materials that are actually being used to make new goods in a circular economy. No province or territory has set targets to require reuse of containers.
What to Do
Those same industry experts tend to also have the same consensus about what changes need to made to reduce the amount of plastic waste going into landfills in Canada. We’ll stick to providing our Ontario rubbish removal service, but here’s what this big players in waste management and recycling policy at the federal level need to be doing. According to industry experts who are pressing for more impactful waste reduction initiatives and especially for products like plastic that aren’t biodegradable at all.
- Eliminate non-recyclable plastics and require convenient and affordable reuse of packaging and containers.
- Set up a consistent Canada-wide network of deposit-return systems for all beverage containers and expand to other types of packaging by 2030.
- Provide accurate and comprehensive data to policymakers detailing the amount and type of plastic put on the market and its end-fate.
- Establish, expand, and improve existing legislated extended producer responsibility and stewardship systems as soon as possible, with an aim to having the industry be more responsible for the full range of plastic packaging and products.
- Immediately ban the export of plastic-containing waste, including unsorted and contaminated recyclables, to non-OECD countries and monitor plastic waste exported to the US.
At any time there’s more than a few properties or job sites in this area of Ontario where builds, renovations, or other major jobs have created plenty of waste that needs to go. So often it’s much more than any individual can handle on their own, and so in any such instance where there’s a need to rent a dumpster in Trenton or Colborne then you’re in the right place here at Load n’ Lift’s website. You can get in touch with us with a phone call or our website contact form and we will get you set up with what you need to load all the waste and then we take care of everything from removing it from the site to disposing of it in the right way.
