Plastic producers will be required to detail the quantity and type of plastic they put into the Canadian market under new rules announced Monday.
The categories covered by the federal government’s new registry are wide-ranging, including packaging for single-use and disposable products, construction, electronics and transportation.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said the registry “will require plastic producers to take more responsibility for the plastic they put on the market.”
“Twenty five per cent (of plastics) are known to be harmful,” said Tony Walker, professor of resource and environmental studies at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. “We don’t have data on the other 75 per cent.”
Producers and retailers should be held responsible for taking back all packagings and products that reach their end of life. This should then be recycled by the manufacturer and producers.
We should really take more issue with manufactures charging us for products, and the then us also having to pay in our taxes for the disposal of those products when they reach end of life.
I want to be able to return the plastics and packagings back to the store once I don’t need them anymore, same as I want to be able to bring my TV and appliances back to the same store and get a small credit back for the materials of those items.
I don’t want manufactures taking advantage of the garbage collection services that I pay for in my taxes. Or at the very least I want them to pay the full cost of those services in terms of social and environmental costs.