Canada - Quebec's Bill 390 to ban plastic bags "a step backward for the environment"

The bag debate is an open one, here we can find an anti-biodegradable bag views:

Quebec. A private member's bill introduced in the Quebec National Assembly is an intervention in search of a 'problem'. Bill 390 would prohibit plastic shopping bags that are non-biodegradable. What is the rationale? Is it a concern over litter? The amount of residential waste going to landfill?

Here are the facts:

Independent audit studies have shown that plastic shopping bags account for less than half of one per cent of litter - Plastic shopping bags account for less than 1% of residential solid waste in landfill sites

More than half of all plastic shopping bags are re-used

The domestic plastics industry was the first in the world to work with government to implement curbside collection programs for plastic shopping bags, and Quebec has been a major supporter of these recycling programs. More importantly, Bill 390 likely would have negative consequences for the environment. If only biodegradable plastic shopping bags are permitted, those bags that do go to landfill will decompose - releasing leachates into the groundwater and methane gas into the atmosphere. That's why countries around the world are moving to reduce biodegradable materials in landfill. For example, the European Union has set out statutory diversion targets to reduce the amount of biodegradables in landfill by 65% over the next 15 years. Bill 390 flies in the face of modern landfill management practices, and would move Quebec backward - not forward - in protecting the environment. This bill could also create other problems. Some municipalities in the province have already publicly expressed their concerns about the potential negative impact of biodegradable plastic shopping bags on their recycling programs - for example, contaminating the recycling stream, causing sorting problems, and increasing costs.

Plastic bag manufacturers take seriously their commitment to product stewardship. The industry works with retailers to promote the proper packing and use of bags. It works with municipalities to expand curbside recycling. It helps to develop viable markets for recycled plastic bags. It provides consumer information about re-use and recycling."Our goal is to keep as many plastic shopping bags as possible out of landfill," said Denis Cloutier, Chair of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA). "But for those bags that do go to landfill, biodegradability is not the answer. Bill 390 would do more harm than good. It would hamper efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet our Kyoto commitments. It could disrupt existing recycling efforts.""The bill shows a lack of understanding of the facts," Cloutier added. "For all of these reasons, we expect it will be defeated."The Canadian Plastics Industry Association represents the broad plastics sector, including resin suppliers, mold and machinery equipment manufacturers, processors, reprocessors, brokers and recyclers.

In Canada, plastic bag manufacturers employ more than 3,000 people.

Well, my opinion, plastic bags wont desintegrate easily, but when do they after many years or even centuries, it will decompose into harmful chemicals, which end up in the water streams. How many people does the biodegrabable bag manufactures employ? and the recycling sector?

We need more credit, less rubbish.

South Korea - rubbish bag prices to rise 40%

The government of South Korea has decided to raise the prices of plastic garbage bags by some 40% over the next three years to encourage businesses and households to generate less waste.The Korea Times reports that the Ministry of Environment said on that the price of a 20-litre plastic garbage bag for household use would increase to an average of 540 won (55 cents) by 2008 from the current 384 won. Korean households and businesses are required to purchase and use specific garbage bags issued by their respective municipal governments when disposing waste. They also need to separate recyclable items from conventional waste that are put into the garbage bags and buried in landfills.

Local governments set their own prices for garbage bags whose colors and designs are different from one municipality to another. The bags issued by a certain municipal government cannot be used in other cities and provinces. Meanwhile, the ministry said South Korea has saved a total of 7.7 trillion won on waste disposal costs over the past decade when the government introduced the current volume-rate garbage disposal system. The country has also earned 311 billion won from recycling various items over the same period, according to the ministry. It said Korea's daily per-capita waste generation decreased 23 percent to 1.03 kilograms in 2004 from 1.33 kilograms in 1994, while the amount of recycling rose 175 percent.The per-capita figure is less than the average of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member nations as citizens in 30 countries generated a daily average of 1.56 kilograms of waste per person. The ministry says the majority of Koreans are satisfied with the effectiveness of the volume-rate garbage disposal system in reducing the amount of waste. In a survey of 700 respondents nationwide, about 85 percent gave positive responses on the system, while 10 percent disapproved of it.The ministry says a substantial number of households, particularly in rural areas, still illegally incinerate and dump garbage to avoid paying for the garbage bags. It plans to improve the current reward system for those who report illegal activities regarding waste disposal, and encourage municipal governments to computerize garbage collection and disposal procedures.

From ResourceNotWaste

Waste Implementation Programme: Waste Minimisation

The U.K. Government set out its vision for sustainable waste management in Waste Strategy 2000, the national waste strategy. They are also committed to reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal waste landfilled, in accordance with European Directives.

The Waste Implementation Programme responds to measures recommended by the Strategy Unit report "Waste Not, Want Not" on local authority support; R&D; and waste minimisation, awareness and kerbside collection.

The Waste Minimisation programme began in 2003 and will work to stem the growth of household waste, as a vital part of the package of measures needed to enable the UK to meet the requirements of the Landfill Directive and move towards sustainable waste management

Their objective aims to support the UK’s objectives by achieving household waste reduction equivalent to deflecting the annual rate of waste increase from 3% to 2% by fiscal end 2006

A major retailers initiative, seeking to work with the top five supermarket chains - both challenging them and supporting them to play their part in the key objective set for reduction of growth of household waste. These are the three key programmes:

• The WRAP Home Composting Scheme (Compost)
• Retailer Initiative & Innovation Fund (Supermarket packaging)
• The WRAP Real Nappy programme (Washable or Real Nappies)

Very interesting document!

International waste minimisation initiatives - Defra commissioned Enviros Consulting to look at the waste minimisation initiatives in other countries. Enviros published its report International waste prevention and reduction practice in October 2004. Please note that although this report was produced for Defra, it is only for information and does not reflect Government policy. N.B. The copyright in this report belongs to Enviros Consulting Ltd.

International waste prevention and reduction practice: final report (358 KB)

Mr Paper - Reuse scrap paper in the office

I started a Mr Paper scheme within the office. Reuse scrap paper and print less.

Follow these points:

*First of all make sure what you printing is really necessary, don’t just print to make yourself feel better, remember this is a resource that comes from trees, in our case recycled paper.
*If you DO print, check out some simple printing steps:

o Double sided: Print double sided if you have got a large document. (Ask me if you don’t know how to)
o For small number of pages

* Reduce the font
* Delete spaces so that there isn’t a single sentence on just one page
* “2 sheets per paper”: Go to “Print” check the Zoom section, click sheets per paper and choose “2 sheets per paper”
* Keep sheets with a blank side and put it in the Scrap Paper tray next to the printer
* The printer should have scrap paper as default. If you need to print in plain paper, load it yourself, remember to take any left plain paper out of the tray when you finish.

It is vital staff know about it, so if they dont know go one by one and show them what you mean by the above instructions

Results

Mr Paper was first launched in April 2005. It took several weeks for the office to get used to the scheme. Once everyone was aware the team has saved an estimated minimum of 1 ream of 500 sheets a month = 4,500 sheets in 9 months, therefore saving around £115.

April-Nov’05

Plain Paper: 25 reams (13,000 sheets)
Scrap paper: 9 ream* (4,500 sh.)
Money Saved: ~£115
Money Spent: ~£315
Total paper used: 34 reams (17,500 sh)
Total money saved: 35%

Notes:
*Minimum one ream a month
Our paper is sometimes used for the photocopier as well

Summary

* Scrap paper amounts to a quarter of current printing/copying practices. Mr paper believes scrap paper amounts to at least half of our current printing within the recycling team. Most of the plain paper goes to the copy machine used by others in the same floor
* We have saved £115 in 9 months
* The green champion rescues scrap paper from the internal recycling bins when emptying them for the weekly collection. Needs more scrap paper to come from the officers
* Envirowise stated that the average office worker consumes 3 reams (1,500 sheets) a month. We use around 4 reams per month between 6 staff
* Fax machine: This can not be loaded with scrap paper as for unknown reasons it keeps jamming. Unwanted fax prints are still deposited in the scrap tray. Try anyway first

Welcome to 2006 - Less Rubbish as a new resolution

Hi to all,

What will this year bring in terms of new schemes, ideas, events or actual policies taking place?

Let's see!

UK - seven new waste reduction projects launched

Seven new and innovative projects which aim to reduce household packaging and food waste are the latest to have received funding from WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) and its £8 million Waste Minimisation Innovation Fund.

Launched in November 2004, the Innovation Fund aims to reduce the amount of household food and packaging waste originating from the retail sector that ends up in the household bin. The new contracts take the number of projects funded by the Innovation Fund to seventeen, with a combined investment of over £2 million and potential tonnage savings of around 311,000 tonnes if the projects are successful and their results are replicated across the retail sector.


1.- H J Heinz has secured £250,000 from WRAP's Innovation Fund to trial light weight food cans which, if successful, could reduce household waste by 28,000 tonnes per year. WRAP's support enables key research and development trials to take place that, if successful, will lead to a significant investment in can lightweighting by HJ Heinz.

2.- Marks & Spencer has received £38,400 of support from WRAP's Innovation Fund to develop a reduced weight ready meal pack and to carry out consumer and market research into its commercial and technical feasibility. The project commenced on 7th November 2005 and also involves Northern Foods, who have a long-standing relationship with Marks & Spencer to manufacture their ready meals. Should the trials prove successful and all Marks & Spencer suppliers move to the new design, the estimated reduction in material used in ready meal packaging will be in excess of 1,900 tonnes per year.

3.- Outpace Limited has secured £26,000 in WRAP funding to trial reusable 'Carrierpacs' for the home delivery of B&Q kitchen worktops. If successful, the reusable system could reduce household waste generated by kitchen worktop packaging by 7,000 tonnes per year.

4.- Geest Mariner Foods has been awarded £25,000 in funding to explore the options available in producing lighter weight packaging for Waitrose soups & sauces. If successful, the principle has the potential to be adopted by retailers, manufacturers, packers and fillers, and could generate a tonnage savings of 644 tonnes per year.

5.- Kite Packaging has successfully secured WRAP funding of £38,354 towards a project which aims to cut the amount of waste stemming from corrugated cardboard boxes. In a large majority of cases, these boxes act as transit packaging and enter the household through mail order, internet shopping and home delivery systems. The challenge is to replace heavy weight double wall cartons with cartons made from a more advanced paper and flute combination without compromising on structural integrity. Funding from WRAP will allow the necessary testing to provide the technical evidence to demonstrate the cartons' ability to match or outperform the existing format. It is anticipated that savings in the region of 5,800 tonnes per year could be achieved if the new cartons are taken on as an industry standard.

6.- WRAP's Innovation Fund has awarded £183,468 to trial and refine a unique concept in sealing technology, jointly developed by International Food Partners Ltd (IFP) and Ceetak Ltd, with a potential for reducing household waste by over 22,000 tonnes annually across the grocery retail sector. The aim of this project is to develop a sealing method which both saves on the amount of packaging material used when sealing flexible packaging materials and increases shelf life by creating a hermetic seal. This, in turn, should help to reduce household food waste and reduce the amount of flexible packaging disposed of in the home.

7.- Biopac has secured almost £32,000 in WRAP funding to undertake a feasibility study into the potential reduction in household food waste that might be achieved by the adoption of advanced packaging technologies to extend the life of fresh produce. Initial indications of the impact of the innovation, if successfully replicated throughout the industry, suggest the project could provide potential savings of 15,000 tonnes of household waste per year.

Mike Robey, WRAP's Innovation Fund Manager, said:

"WRAP is pleased to be funding these important and innovative trials. The growing portfolio of research projects demonstrates the opportunities for innovative solutions within a wide range of packaging materials and systems.

"The projects address many of the leading product categories that contribute to household food and packaging waste as well as the technical and commercial feasibility and consumer acceptability of the innovations. If they are successful, we are confident that the retail supply chain will want to replicate the findings of this research, which could lead to significant reductions in household waste and cost-savings for the sector."