City: Zero-waste by 2030?
The city’s having a public consultation about going zero-waste by 2030, with a stop at making sure 70% is recycled by 2025. A bylaw banning single-use plastic is coming next year.
Montreal should be able to do it, but only if the rest of the world is on track with products redesigned to work this way. No city is an island – wait a sec… Even when a city is an island, it still imports food and other goods from everywhere else on the planet, and people can’t stop buying things they need (and largely won’t stop buying things they want) because they come in bottles, jars or plastic packaging.
Meezly 16:47 on 2019-11-28 Permalink
It seems at least parts of the world are on track. A number of countries have banned plastic bags, with the next step including other single use plastics. The EU recently approved a law to ban single-use items like straws, cotton balls, and cutlery which will go into effect in 2021. You’re right in that it’s a systemic problem where society has grown used to a disposable culture. But we have to start somewhere, even if it’s gradual steps towards a more zero waste society and a more circular economy. Local businesses should prepare themselves for the new bylaw, so hopefully it will have a ripple effect. A pet peeve of mine is the packaging of produces. My hope is that supermarkets will ban plastic wrap, then local producers will have to stop wrapping with plastic and/or use compostable options.