Editor: Upon a recent trip to Hawaii, I was pleased to find the state has banned the use of plastic bags.
Hawaiian grocery stores sell cloth reusable bags for only 15 cents.
While we try to recycle, the truth is less than 20 per cent of plastic is recycled. China has recently closed its doors to the world’s recycled plastic, resulting in more Canadian plastic going into land fills and the ocean.
Canada now sends a lot of its plastic to Malaysia where they are not as effective at recycling it.
Did you know there are a limited number of times plastic can be recycled? Micro-plastic is now in some of the food we eat. Mother birds kill their babies by inadvertently feeding them bits of plastic. Why do we continue to use plastic bags in Canmore when the evidence of their damage to our planet is so obvious?
We live in one of Canada’s most beautiful locations and our waste management system keeps it so, but each time we use a plastic bag we are harming our planet and its inhabitants somewhere, and that is a heart breaker.
Greta Thunberg says “we should panic” in regard to human induced climate change.
Plastic use is another big problem. We do need to cry about the harm being done - and then take action even when that action may not provide immediate results, as I have encountered with Canmore’s two big grocery stores.
Sadly, Safeway has refused to respond to my numerous attempts to initiate a conversation to reduce and eventually eliminate their use of plastic bags.
Save-On-Foods respectfully honoured a conversation with me. I asked if they would help citizens increase awareness of plastic bag use by posting monthly plastic bag consumption metrics at their entryways. They said such transparency is against their policy.
To their credit, I have noticed that they now display their bacteria resistant reusable bags for sale, near the check out and I am pleased that they charge us for using plastic bags.
What can we do? Will it be: 1) a decision to stop using plastic bags for your produce and at the check out counter; 2) ask Canada’s grocery stores to create policy outlining their plan to end the use of plastic in all packaging; 3) happily giving a customer at the check out counter one of your spare reusable bags when you see they don’t have one; 4) a letter to our mayor asking for policy creation that ends the use of plastic bags in Canmore.
I am pleased to see the action that is occurring locally and around the world to help make the planet sustainable.
Let’s be pleased, just not satisfied.
Steven Locke,
Canmore
