Reader responses to: “Approximately only 8% of plastics are recycled in Ontario. The remaining plastic waste inevitably ends up in landfills or in the natural environment. Who should be responsible for tackling plastic pollution, consumers, the government, or corporations?”
Corporations – that made plastic products and reaped the profits – should be held responsible for cleaning plastic waste and phasing out production. The plastic industry has pushed back against legislation that addressed plastic pollution and created public relations campaigns that shifted the blame onto consumers. Our purchasing power is miniscule compared to the industry’s lobbying and advertising. We should focus our efforts on pressuring the government to mandate corporations clean up their mess.
– Emily Posteraro, Oshawa
Don’t buy products packaged in plastic and tell stores you’re not buying from them because they sell items packaged in plastic. The best way to solve a problem is to cut off the $$$. Vote with your dollars.
– Lisa Ciolfi
Definitely corporations that produce the plastic in the first place need to be responsible. They lobby governments as plastics are made from petroleum (hello oil lobby). Plus they play on the consumers need for convenience and simplicity where we are sometimes forced to purchase something packaged in plastic because looking for alternative takes more effort.
– Maria Bazilevskaya
It would be great if the government and/or a governing body came up with better regulations, standardization and transparency for how plastic is produced, marked and sorted. That would allow the consumer to easily discern what is recyclable and what is not. Most people I talk to say they don’t trust that their recycling is ending up in the right place, so they’ve given up on the system and say why bother??
– Andrew Interisano
We need government mandated extended producer responsibility.
– Sandra, Toronto
EVERYONE should be responsible. It’s for the future of our children and their children and so on. I recycle as much as I can and spread the word constantly. Towns around and north of me in Muskoka who don’t recycle. North Bay is one of them.
– Joseph Bennetts