Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2018-04-05, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018. PAGE 5. Other Views We're suffocating from cheap goods The upcoming closure of the Mid -Huron Landfill at Holmesville has caused headaches for local municipalities that depended on the site and highlighted again just how much waste we create. This local issue is part of a much wider problem, the fact that our prosperous western societies are burying themselves in too much "stuff' Thanks to abundance of inexpensive consumer goods, made possible by imports from countries where people work for pennies an hour, Canadians have never had so many goodies – to the point our possessions are threatening to overwhelm us. Take the problem of cheap clothing which has been featured by both the CBC's series Wasted and Newsweek magazine recently. More and more clothing chains are doing what seems to be a good thing by putting recycling bins right in their stores, but author and environmentalist Elizabeth Cline says less than one per cent of clothing is recycled to make new clothing. Many of our clothes are made of blended fibres, so they don't break down easily. Despite all the recycling bins, about 85 per cent of unwanted textiles in North America end up in landfills – which amounts to more than 11 billion kilograms a year. The lack of actual recycling is made worse by what Cline calls fast fashion – "inexpensive, trendy clothing designed and priced to be bought, worn, then quickly discarded." We've felt good about recycling but increasingly that's becoming a problem. CBC's Wasted series noted that there are many materials that can't be recycled here in Canada. In some municipalities, up to 80 per cent of the recyclables collected have been Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk sold and shipped to China. It seems only fair since a lot of this stuff came from there in the first place, but beginning Jan. 1, China began banning imports of 24 categories of recyclables. It has a vast recycling industry but with growing wealth, it's generating plenty of recycling materials itself. Adam Minter, author of Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion -Dollar Trash Trade and a columnist for Bloomberg View, has travelled China documenting its recycling efforts. "One thing I always tell folks is that recycling is not good for the environment — it's a less -worse thing to do for the environment. It uses energy, it uses raw materials; but even so, the worst recycling is still better for the environment than the best virgin -materials processing," he says. Meanwhile recycling materials that used to go to China are piling up in Canada and other countries that don't know what to do with them. And then there are the problems of things people throw in their recycling boxes, thinking they're doing something virtuous, when there's no market for it. As Citizen editor Shawn Loughlin wrote a couple of weeks ago, people don't want to think beyond throwing something in the garbage or recycling bin and having it disappear. I learned a lot about plastic recycling a few years ago when I did a story on a New Hamburg company that recycles bale -wrap, that plastic covering hay bales that makes them look like long white caterpillars. Company officials explained that plastic isn't just plastic, as many people think when they figure anything that's plastic can be recycled. Each type of plastic has its own chemical composition and if you're trying to make something from recycled plastic, and you get some of the wrong plastic, the whole product is ruined. That's why that company chose to recycle bale -wrap, because it could get large quantities of plastic that was all of a uniform chemical composition. That was the issue that made news in Toronto last week when the problem of black plastic, used in fast food containers and coffee cup lids, was revealed. There's no market for that type of plastic, but people keep throwing it in the recycling bin anyway. It can't be sorted out of the plastic stream so it ends up contaminating the plastic that could otherwise be sold. "I think it really is time for folks to ... get over this notion that by putting something in their bin, they've done something good," Minter told the CBC series Wasted. "If you want to do something good for the environment, the best thing you can do is consume less." People are accumulating so much these days that there's a growth industry in companies offering those storage rental units, the CBC show On the Money reported recently. Huge new complexes of storage spaces are being build around Toronto. Maybe we should hope U.S. President Donald Trump does kill globalization with his "America first" agenda. He might rescue us from our compulsion to buy more cheap stuff before we bury ourselves. Love the enemy, don't convert them While the after-dinner conversations at some family events undoubtedly focus on how to make all things right with the world, my family dinners more revolve around rehashing family foibles. I've always felt just a little cheated because, as those who read my column weekly know, I've got a lot of ideas about how to solve the world's problems. Take, for example, my recent realization that it isn't differences of opinion that cause disagreements in the world. The real problem is attempts at conversion. While sitting around laughing about gaffs of the past with family, I realized we're all very different people. Sure, both my mother and I pursued post- secondary education revolving around the written word, and my brother and I have both been soccer referees for years and my sisters and I have some similar traits, but the reality of it is we're all very different. My eldest sister pursued a career in finance, my brother in plumbing and my youngest sister in personal care. My father, now retired, had a more hands-on job like my brother and my mother probably more like my sisters. None of us, however, are very alike. It was in that realization that I stumbled upon a great truth: trying to solve the world's problems at that table would likely not go very well. The reason being, we're all very different. Of my parents' four children, one lives on a farm, one owns a rural home, one lives with one of our parents and one has an apartment in the city. Again, of the four of us, one drives a seven - seater family SUV, one a sedan, one a pickup truck and another a smaller, more rugged SUV. When it comes to hockey, we cheer for several different teams. When it comes to entertainment, we all have different favourites. Denny Scott Denny's Den About the only thing we all have in common is our parentage and our lineage. In recognizing our differences, I realized that, by not trying to solve the world's problem at our family dinner tables, we were showing the world exactly how to solve many of its problems: quit with the conversion. It's a pretty simple solution that I'd bet covers many major struggles. I realize how unlikely that sounds but, think about the major disagreements in the world – don't they usually revolve around religion, politics or culture? Sometimes, someone is wrong. Mutilation as a form of punishment? Wrong. Genocide? Wrong. Occupation of a foreign country? You guessed it, wrong. But for the issues where two sides of equal standing exist, we don't need to convert the person with the view opposite ours.The notion is pretty universal, applying to things as simple as cable lineups to slightly -more - complex issues like snow removal to religion. Take Tuckersmith Communications' recent cable channel shuffle. The change, which saw Blyth's channel numbers change drastically, was done to make the lineup the same across their service area. I don't know about your house, but for me, it has become impossible for me to find my daughter's favourite shows quickly. To me, it was a needless change because we don't need matching cable channel lineups. Next up, North Huron: We don't need every ward to be the same. Snow removal can be different in Blyth than it is in Wingham and it doesn't need to result in area -rated charges. Considering that the recreation offerings are different in Wingham with the pool and fitness centre than they are in Blyth, and the fact that we all pay taxes to fund that department, there is already proof wards don't need to be identically serviced. And lastly, take religion. Religious zealots are the worst for trying to convert people. If, however, we could all just respect that most religions seem to have, at their core, the rules of loving thy neighbour and being a decent person and then follow our own paths without trying to alter others', there could be a lot less strife. The sooner people realize that the differences in life are what make things interesting and stop trying to "correct" those around them, the sooner we can all start moving forward together. You can have a different opinion from me without needing me to agree with you. We can simply respect the fact that any issue, no matter how simple or complex, will have people on either side of it. I won't think less of you for disagreeing with me (with the exception of the punishment, genocide, occupation, etc. noted above) but I will think less of you if you don't respect me enough to let me have my own opinion. Different viewpoints are essential in growing as a people. If you still need convincing, turn to the world of food. Imagine visiting a buffet and finding the chef has stocked it entirely with his favourite food: spaghetti. It's his favourite, so it must be yours, right? No. You have your own tastes and while spaghetti may be among your favourite foods, you wouldn't want to eat only that. Remember, variety is the spice of life. 'aliN Shawn Loughlin AlimbShawn's Sense So sorry about that One of the running jokes (that's also true) about Canadians is that we're tremendously polite. And with that comes saying that you're sorry quite often. You all know what I'm talking about. We've all been bumped into (i.e. it was the other person's fault) and immediately apologized to the bumper, completely disregarding the fact that you were, in fact, the bumpee. I'm sorry for veering off track here, but... see, I'm doing it again. Sorry about that. I'll get this train back on the tracks right away. Saying sorry can often represent a psychological barrier for some. They will apologize for offending, they will say they're upset by what happened, but to truly apologize can often be a bridge too far. Being raised in our apologetic culture, it should come as no surprise that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asked someone who's done wrong to say that he's sorry. (Say what you will about Trudeau, but the guy knows what it means to be Canadian; he wore a jean jacket and blue jeans, also known as the Canadian Tuxedo, to the final Tragically Hip concert – that, my friends, is as Canadian as it gets.) Trudeau's call for an apology, however, didn't originate with him. It was recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015, which reprimanded the "cultural genocide" in the residential school system. Among its over 90 recommendations, it called for an apology from the Pope. Then -Prime Minister Stephen Harper not only ordered the commission, but then apologized on behalf of the Government of Canada. Trudeau has also apologized for the atrocities since being elected. But not Pope Francis. He stated last week that he would not be apologizing for the Catholic Church's role in what happened. In an open letter written by Bishop Lionel Gendron, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said, "The Holy Father is aware of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he takes seriously." Gendron added, "after carefully considering the request and extensive dialogue with the Bishops of Canada, he felt that he could not personally respond" Being "aware" of findings and taking them "seriously" but stopping short of taking responsibility and apologizing is most certainly language that we've heard before. For decades, we've heard high-ups in the Catholic Church take allegations "seriously" and be "aware" of "upsetting" findings only to then recycle serial sexual abusers and rapists through the system. Not only has the abuse of minors been rampant worldwide throughout the Catholic Church, but, as was discovered by a dogged team of Boston journalists in the early 2000s, the organization not only harboured these criminals, but silenced and discredited their victims. Being aware of situations and being upset by them is not unique. We, as citizens, are aware of a lot and upset by plenty, but often lack the position in life or power to affect change. This is no different than the ongoing battle in the U.S. over gun control. Republicans continuously offer their thoughts and prayers to shooting victims while facilitating the purchase of killing machines thanks to the lobbying of the National Rifle Association, from which all of these politicians all benefit. If you have the power to affect change and you want that change to happen, you can do it. If you say you can't, you're lying to us and to yourself. Apology is possible, unless, that is, you allow pride to stand in the way.