The recent response by industry and business groups to the legislation reducing packaging is backward.
There is a dire need for industry to take leadership to reduce and remove unnecessary plastics and packaging. It has been proven that recycling plastics is largely a farce. Plastic particles are now present in every ecosystem and in every food stream across the globe. The plastic particle problem has now been linked to a large decline in human male sperm counts worldwide.
If you walk into any grocery store you will see rows of short-shelf-life products in clear plastic boxes that all get thrown out. Corn is taken out of its natural husk packaging, put on Styrofoam and wrapped in plastic. Buy a box of nails and it comes in plastic. Try to buy a gift for a child and it will come in layers of plastic packaging impossible to break into.
All this packaging costs the businesses up front and then costs us extra money in landfill fees on top of the environmental damages. And, in response to an effort to fix this waste issue, the best industry can come up with is “it will cost you more.”
If industry proactively solved this problem, there would be no legislation to consider. It is time business step up to basic social responsibility.
Paul Williamson
Scarborough
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