Dear Editor:
Banning just plastic bags and straws (the Federal Government is immobilized weakly incapable of pleasing all lobbyists, particularly oil) is a pathetic feel-good token response.
Plastic production will double the amount in the next 10 years that has ever been produced in the last 60 years, so in 15 years, maybe quadruple, etc. We won’t stop a charging elephant with only a paper straw pea shooter.
Canada recycles a pathetic less than 10 per cent with downloaded costs to the public. Plastic manufacturers and business users unrealistically and knowingly promote recycling to divert attention from their polluting. It’s more lucrative to produce new plastic, so they don’t actually want to recycle. Germany makes plastic producers responsible for the after-use plastic they produce.
Plastic never disappears, even when recycled. Some of it, such as plastic bottles, takes 1000+ years to become small particles, which are still damaging. Please stop buying groceries, drinks, packages of screws, etc., packaged in single-use plastics.
Ecosystem concerns cannot wait for the slow pace of the majority of politicians at any level who are lobbyist controlled and incapable of making the strict decisions necessary now. Despite individual interests, we need to prioritize Nature. We are either an aid in this, or not.
B. Ark, Invermere
