In my experience, anything that is fast, cheap and easy to make is generally bad for human health, bad for the Earth’s health, and most likely both.

Styrofoam is one of the first modern pollutants (invented in 1938) that is considered a necessity of everyday commerce and agriculture. Yet at the same time, it pollutes us and the earth while these effects are not perceptible unless you visit a landfill or a polluted riverfront or beachfront. It is convenient that the inconvenient truth of plastics pollution is kept far away from the public eye.

This story in the Montreal Gazette hints at the nefarious affects of styrofoam but treads lightly. Most likely because major advertisers like Loblaws and Metro run ads in the Gazette. Alternatives are not really discussed which is strange. When I was a boy, 35 years ago, my mother would receive meat from the butcher wrapped in white paper.

The leading solution is an outright ban on the stuff. About 30 municipalities in California have done so to date. Recycling it is just a feel-good solution that shifts the problem to someone else, somewhere else. It currently costs about $3,000 per ton to recycle it – not exactly good business.

The story is quite long. You can read it here.

It’s time for Montreal and Quebec to develop it’s own local market for recyclables and not rely upon foreign, Asian countries to take our wastes.

Via: Hour.ca

Recycling will get dumped or have to be buried, quite literally, unless a solution is found to revamp the practice in Quebec.

The global economic crisis has drastically cut into what recycling companies earn for their recycled materials, and the resulting loss could end in our recycling being buried.

In order to avoid a backlog in the 38 recycling centres in the province, the Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, Line Beauchamp, has called on Recyc-Québec and Collecte sélective Québec to come up with an action plan in the next 15 days to help Quebec’s sorting centres deal with the crisis.

“The real question is ‘Can we afford to close our recycling centres?’ The answer is ‘no,’” says Karel Ménard from Front commun québécois pour une gestion écologique des déchets (FCQGED).

Last Friday, Beauchamp told Le Devoir that she has been aware of the difficulties facing Quebec’s recycling centres for the past three weeks – ever since China and India stopped their demands for recycled material to manufacture into new goods.

Mixed paper, metal, plastic and glass have gone from $150 to $40 a metric ton since September and in some cases processors are refusing to accept certain materials altogether. There is little money left to cover spending in equipment, workers and additional storage.

Groupe TIRU, the multinational that operates the integrated treatment and sorting of urban waste materials in Montreal is also in the mess. Owned by EDF (an energy company controlled by the

French government), they landed their contracts with both Montreal and Laval for a grand total of “zero dollars” per metric ton, says Ménard, expecting to generate revenues with the sale of the recyclables, often to developing nations.

Standards for Quebec companies are much higher than those in China. Most Quebec companies actually import used paper because recycled materials coming from Quebec don’t actually meet their standards, says Ménard.

Ménard and Beauchamp also agree we need to treat more of our own recyclables and improve the quality of recuperated materials, as well as our sorting practices, in order to make recycled materials conform to the norms of our own industries, which in turn must meet standards for export to the U.S.

“We must also admit that properly managing our waste materials has a real cost. [...] We can’t permit ourselves to backtrack 20 years after all this effort has been made to get every Quebec household recycling.”

In the next week, Beauchamp’s committee will recommend ways to improve the sorting and quality control of recuperated recycled materials in municipal sorting centres. Meanwhile, Ménard and the FCQGED have laid out the following recommendations for Quebec’s recycling industry in order to meet trying economic, and ecological, times.

POLLUTERS PAY

Implement an elimination tax of between $10 and $40 a metric ton, paid by everyone, which is returned to the municipalities so they can run their recycling plants. Up the tax further for industries that pollute, so they contribute their fair share to the municipal collection of recycling. This would reduce the general quantity of material for recycling and provide municipalities with the necessary funds to support their recycling centres in tough economic times, says Ménard. (At present, municipalities have no rights over the nature or quality of the products put in circulation by industry, but are responsible for their collection and treatment.)

QUALITY JUNK

Enact a unified province-wide collection and sorting practice and execute a national campaign to sensitize citizens about recyclables. Remove certain irritants from the system, like plastic bags and wine bottles, items that contaminate other recyclables and reduce resale value (SAQ could institute a deposit return policy for their own empties).

WASTE NOT

Develop a viable recycling industry at home. Currently companies aren’t required to include the percentage of recycled materials in the goods they distribute or produce – whether papers, plastics or bottles. But we already have laws on environmental quality that could be used to create such standards.

To view the full set of FCQGED recommendations, go to www.fcqged.org.