Canada Updating Strategy On Waste, Packaging

Within six years of launching the voluntary National Packaging Protocol in 1990, the weight of packaging waste sent for disposal was reduced by half four years ahead of the target date, said Sarah Van Exan, a senior policy adviser with Ontario's Ministry of the Environment. Yet Canada remains among the world's largest producers of solid waste per capita; the most recent data from Statistics Canada suggests about 32.4 million tonnes of waste was tossed out in 2002, while only 25 per cent of the material was recycled or reused. A report commissioned by the council suggests consumer interest in sustainability issues is at an all-time high, and results of an international survey ranked Canadian shoppers as some of the most environmentally conscious in the world. But environmentalists predict the growing support for tougher packaging standards will be ignored, and the council - which they say deserves kudos for its efforts - will instead deliver more voluntary suggestions that won't put much pressure on manufacturers. "At the end of the day, probably all the effort will be largely wasted because voluntary guidelines have proven ineffective in controlling damage to the environment, pollution, emissions and the volume of packaging in our stores," said Pierre Sadik, senior policy adviser for the David Suzuki Foundation. "The far simpler thing to do is to simply have governments, who are representing the people, take a leadership role and simply set a minimum standard for reducing packaging." ... http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=b022408A

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