P.E.I. not so green any more
- May 9, 2008 4:45 PM |
- By Quirks
By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.
After more than 30 years of refilling beverage bottles, Prince Edward Island is removing its "ban on cans" and moving towards aluminum and disposable plastic. It’s an environmental step backwards for the land of Green Gables.
The government of P.E.I. says it’s an environmentally friendly move because they will introduce a blue box recycling program. The problem is, recycling doesn’t re-capture all the material and it takes more energy to produce and recycle cans than it does refilling glass bottles.
This is a complete about-face for P.E.I., which has been boasting about its refilling program for decades and still praises it on its own website.
Our smallest province introduced a ban on disposable containers in the 1970s, in an effort to control litter and save jobs at a local bottling plant. Once introduced, it worked. People got used to returning bottles to the same place they bought them, for a refund. Later, the ban on cans was extended to plastic bottles, giving P.E.I. the highest level of reuse in the country at 98 per cent.
Check out recycling in other provinces.
The capture rate on aluminum cans can be as low as 31 per cent in Manitoba, with an average across the country of about 75 per cent. That means at least a quarter of those cans don’t get returned. They’re still out there somewhere littering roadsides, campgrounds or getting dumped in landfill sites.
Here’s the deal. Glass is made of silicon, basically sand, which is one of the most common elements on the planet. It does take heat to melt the sand into glass but the bottles can be reused more than a dozen times, and then completely recycled into more glass. It’s a very benign material. Even if it’s left in the ground, it doesn’t rust or leave any metals behind. In P.E.I., filling bottles, refilling them and recycling them are all local industries.
Aluminum, on the other hand, takes much more energy and a lot of water to produce. First, it needs to be mined as bauxite, then shipped to a processing plant where it is turned into aluminum metal, lacquered and rolled into cans. After one use, they must be collected and sent out of the province for recycling into more cans or car parts.
Beverage companies prefer cans and plastic bottles because they are lighter and don’t break, which saves on transportation costs. Party animals and picnic people like them for the same reason. But convenience aside, from an environmental point of view, refilling glass bottles has the lowest impact and P.E.I. was the best in the business.
Now the local government is going to spend more money to handle the recycling of more energy-intensive aluminum cans.
What’s wrong with this picture?
— Bob McDonald
Categories
All News blogs
Most Commented
Most Recommended
Quirks and Quarks
Most Commented
Most Recommended
Recent Entries
- Chris Hadfield's fall from space
- The final segment of Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield's mission, the return to Earth on Monday evening, will be the most difficult of all. As he plunges into the atmosphere, he will transform from a free floating body to a heavy prisoner of gravity. Continue reading this post
- Glimmer of hope even as planet hits CO2 climate milestone
- A new record level of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has been recorded at the Mauna Loa observatory on the island of Hawaii, the world's premier atmospheric monitoring station. Continue reading this post
- Celebrating 60 years of DNA
- A ceremony at Cambridge University in England this week unveiled a memorial to Dr. Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule. His co-author, Dr. James Watson, now 85, attended the ceremony for a discovery many consider to be as important as Darwin's theory of evolution and Einstein's theory of relativity. Continue reading this post
Comments (14)
The issue of recycling isn't true of the broken bottles found in ditches and along roads. Broken glass becomes a hazard for both people and animals. Given the choice, many Islanders who clean out ditches and walk along roads would mos gladly be confronted with a can or plastic bottle vs. yet another broken glass bottle.
Prince Edward island is still ahead of the game as far as their recycling program goes. This includes their compost and waste systems. The rest of Canada could certainly take a lesson from what little PEI has done for the environment so far!
I wish that the residents of P.E.I would oppose the provincial and local government with the implementation of bottles and cans. The people of P.E.I should refuse this new policy. I certainly can not understand that a government proposes this type of environmentally damaging policy after it is proven that the present process is so efficient and environmentally friendly. Refilling of glass bottles is done in other countries with great success as well. It is the smartest and most efficient way to reuse a liquid drinking container. The rest of Canada should implement glass bottles for refilling.
How controversial, the same government talks about Kyoto and the many green initiatives they put in place. It seems that this is only talk !! We do not have the right leadership in this country as this really proves it again. Shame on them.
Lets just hope that the good people of PEI continue doing the right thing and continue buying glass bottles in spite of the cheap and easy vote buying antics of the politicians.
Its good to hear this said to a national audience. That said, it wasn't the 1970s, it was 1984 that the ban came into effect.
I think it's pretty obvious that drinking out of a glass bottle is healthier compared to using a plastic bottle or plastic lined aluminum can but what about the energy life cycle of the two processes? I try to avoid plastic...but it's hard.
How much energy does it take to re-use glass bottles, wash them and transport them compared to recycling aluminum and plastic (and that's assuming the raw materials stay in Canada and are not transported to Asia)? Is there actually a reputable study that compares the two?
We've visited P.E.I. twice in the last three years and had good holidays. I don't expect to be going back anytime soon.
First hearing about the horrible effects of all the poison being sprayed on their potato fields with the elevated cancer risks. Now back sliding on bottle returns added to that means we are looking to Gaspe this time.
I just got back from Europe. While there, I went to Corsica. On our 1 day tour, my partner and I stopped for a drink at a local restaurant. Like PEI, our Colas were served in glass bottles. This was so nostalgic that my partner wanted to take the bottle home with us. I refused on general principle.
Now, I don't know if the Corsicans have the same law, or if you can get a can of Cola on the island or not, but having a few hold-outs from the global economy is refreshing. Too bad that PEI bent to the law or conformity. (Whenever people are free to do what they wish; they will most likely conform to the group.)
I think the move to lift the can ban is a bad decision. What was wrong with the way it was, I will never be voting for the liberals anymore. This is a very bad move for Islander, we have the highest cases of ashmah and now diebites, thanks robert ghiz and george webster
Who is going to benefit economically?
It takes 4 ounces of oil to make a 12 ounce plastic bottle.
Plastic is a persistant toxin that never goes away.
The stupid people throwing glass from their cars, will continue throwing plastic and cans.
Perhaps a $1,000.00 fine for littering needs to be considered.
Why would anyone with a brain choose to produce or import pla$tic?
I am moving back to PEI this summer after 30 years in the Military, during which I lived for 8 years overseas. All that to say that I was home last week only a few days after the ban was lifted and already I have seen pop/beer cans on the side for the road. I was always telling people how great the program on PEI was and how far ahead PEI was compared to many Provinces and Countries. I think this was the wrong move for the Government, and a true step backwards.
Bob...you need to talk about Tetra Paks and their environmental impact. They're sold as "environmentally friendly" and yet Vancouver's Tetra Paks are now sent to China for recycling. The recycling process itself starts with "hydropulping" which uses enormous amounts of water and energy.
Someone with a platform needs to debunk the "tetra paks are friendly" myth. Kids are trucking billions of these things to school every day, and I don't even want to think about the recycling rate on those.
Its alot cheaper then bottle a 355 ml pop with bottles was 1.60 and now a 355 ml pop canned is about a dollar you do the math
From Environment Canada Website:
Program History: In 1973 the provincial government banned the sale of non-refillable beer, aluminium can containers in 1977, and the sale of all non-refillable soft drink containers in 1984. In 1984, deposit-return legislation was applied to beer and soft drinks.
What is scary to me is the last comment from Bob: cheaper means more people will buy it and TaDA: soda pop is a chief cause of the horrifying obesity epidemic in the United States, which is now also engulfing CANADA!
Look Out PEI, you are going to join the rest of us on the big Fat road to OBESITY and obesity related health conditions and a shorter life expectancy!
Not only should we be thinking about the Environment and Costs, but it's also about Your Health!
PEI could be setting an example to the rest of Canada, but it looks like it too is getting sucked into the same big mess we're all now in!