HRM and 2019

[OldDartmouthMark]

And...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot...n-what-to-do-with-all-our-junk-1.4496435

Some interesting points:

B.C. producers must do own recycling

A second solution could be laws compelling the companies that produce the bags to ultimately dispose of them. "So if you're going to be a manufacturer of plastics or plastic bags, then you should also build into your business model the cost of end-of-life," Walker said.

Allen Langdon of Recycle B.C. told CBC's Information Morning: Cape Breton that the producers of all packaging and printed paper are responsible for recycling the material in his province.

"On behalf of the producers, we contract local governments, private operators, and sometimes non-profits to collect printed paper and packaging across the province," he said. "We pay for the collection; those collectors drop it off at our processor and we pay that processor and are responsible for managing that material ourselves."

He said it adds less than a cent per item. It's all done within B.C. Ontario has taken a similar approach.

If the federal government doesn't step up, Jason Clyburne thinks Nova Scotia should, and it should work with New Brunswick and P.E.I. for a Maritime-wide policy.

Clyburne, a Saint Mary's University professor and the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Studies and Materials, said a unified policy would carry weight.

"We do generate waste and it's full of carbon. Rather than letting it rot or putting it into a disposal, I have been re-looking at new technologies that can be used for combustion and get energy from the waste," he said Friday.

A few years ago, he would have dismissed out of hand the idea of burning plastics to create energy. But Norway, Sweden and Denmark — famed for their green policies — have changed the equation lately. The Nordic nations, and much of the European Union, have embraced cleaner technologies to turn trash into energy.

A European Commission research unit says there is "enough waste energy produced in the EU to heat the EU's entire building stock."

"It opened my eyes to new technologies. I think it's something that we as Nova Scotians should reconsider," Clyburne said. "When you have waste streams that are relatively pure, it looks to me that combustion is now a possibility."

Clyburne said grocery bags are likely a "pretty small" part of the overall plastics problem, but they are literally in the public's hands and so can act as a tool to increase our consciousness about the bigger issue.

It strikes me that there are some really intelligent people in Halifax who are putting a lot of thought into the problem and considering some good solutions, and it appears that HRM is not consulting with any of them...