I’ve been volunteering at the Oak Bay Soft Plastics Depot for over a year, and I have to say that every time I walk away having learned something. This last Saturday was no exception.
I was helping an older couple with sorting their plastics. They handed me a large black garbage bag. When I asked what it contained, the woman ripped a hole in the side of the bag that revealed some plastic lids from Tim Horton’s coffee cups. I asked her if she had thought about putting them in her blue box for curbside recycling. We have to pay for every bag of plastic we give to Pacific Mobile Depots, so we don’t want anything that can go through the Municipal recycling program instead. She said, “No, this is Number 6, and it can’t go in the boxes.” I took the bag from her, and said I’d take care of it.
What I didn’t realize until they had walked away, was that the whole bag was FULL of these plastic lids from take out coffee cups! There were hundreds of them! If only I had a photo of those lids, you’d see just how bad this was. I was so discouraged. How could they go to such an effort to save each of these lids for recycling and not realize that they need to get a personal go cup for take out coffee? How could they continue to get these lids? Heck, at this point, I was ready to take them out and BUY these people their own Go Mugs.
A fellow volunteer at the Depot made the point that this couple was taking the first step by learning to recycle. At least those lids aren’t going into the landfill, right? Well, having just seen this amazing documentary, Forever Plastics, on CBC, I had trouble with that argument. I am not so sure that we want people to comfort themselves with recycling, so they can continue to consume without thinking.
February 10th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
That is brutal.. Something Timmy’s could do is to push and promote the use of a Go Mug for a discount at the till on their coffee. Many coffee shops offer discounts if you bring in your own mug - but I have yet to find one that advertises this.
The failure not only resides in our thoughtless consuming of goods, but the ones selling us those goods are not exactly helping the issue either! Has a grocery store ever suggested you buy a re-usable bag? Thrifty’s even gives you $0.03 rebate per re-suable bag you bring in at the till, but they don’t even advertise that either.
There is one exception, Superstore. They ARE the superstore, they do not give out plastic bags or anything. You must bring in your own transport. Not only have these guys taken the lead on this particular bag problem, but they’ve absolutely crushed it! When will others follow?