Zurich Citizens News, 1974-07-17, Page 16AY, JULY 17, 1974
Jottings
by
Jack
from
?rl
On June 27, the report of the
Beverage Packaging Group of
the Environment Ministry's
Solid Waste Task Force was
tabled in the Legislature by
Environment Minister William
Newman. The main subject of
the detailed report which was
received by the Ministry oa
March 15, but had not yet been
released, is just how much
waste is caused by throwaway
bottles and cans. The Commit-
tee calculated that the various
beverage industries were resp-
onsible for 241, 846 tons of waste
in 1972 of which the soft drink
industry was the chief culprit.
They further estimated that it
cost Ontario $3. 9 million to
dispose of the waste from bever-
ages in 1972.
The Task Force group's mem-
bership, including seven memb-
ers drawn from beverage -related
industries and three from cons-
umer groups, made it all but
impossible to arrive at any
concrete solutions. Thus while
the report gives the Ontario
Members of Parliament their
first comprehensive look at the
environmental effect of throw-
away bottles and cans, it does
not go far enough in providing
any solutions to the problem.
While the group agrees in
general that refillable bottles
are better than single used
bottles or cans to reduce garbage
and save energy and resources,
it admits at the end that "if a
major reduction in the use of
non -refillable containers or
their elimination is to be achiev-
ed, however, additional meas-
ure to the ones recommended
in this report, have to be
adopted."
While a ban on non -return-
able bottles was rejected as was
the suggestion that an "environ-
ment surcharge" or tax be add-
ed to their cost; the group did
suggest that the government
establish a mandatory refund-
able deposit for refillable soft
drinks --five cents for bottles
up to 16 ounces and 10 cents
for larger bottles --an an incent-
ive to consumers to return ref-
illable bottles. Moreover, it
proposed a ban on pop cans
with pull -tab openers. However,
no specific date for this ban
was suggested in order to allow
development of an alternative
opening device. The commit-
tee further suggested that the
soft drink industry follow the
brewing industry's lead in est-
ablishing standard container
sizes and selling the product
in carriers that can be used to
return empties.
Action on the working group's
recommendations on the still
outstanding question of a ban
rests with Environment Minist-
er Newman. While Mr. Newmat
has accepted the report as a
guideline he feels that there is
a need for more direct action in
a number of areas. However,
he has no target date for legis-
lation and refuses to hint at
what form of action he will
take.
The Ministry of Environment
has been under constant press-
ure for three years from Oppos-
ition Members and environmen-
talists to ban the throwaways or
at least to take some action.
It was back in January 1973,
that James Auld, the former .
Minister of the Enviroment was
saying that he would have legis-
lation regulating soft drink bot-
tles and cans in effect by Sept-
ember. Mr. Newman, who took
over the Ministry last February,
said that he would bring in new
legislation or regulations to
deal with pop -containers before
the end of the year but added
that no guarantee of action,
by this date could be given.
Environment Minister Will-
iam Newman has stated that he
plans to introduce legislation
in the fall of 1974 for Ontario's
first program of environmental
impact studies. Since the future
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holds a continual series of
public and private enterprises
requiring investigation of their
environmental effect, the aim
of an impact program is to learn
the enviromental consequences
of these projects in advance,
so that damage may be avoided
through planned changes rather
than having to face it when it
happens.
The Green Paper on Environ-
mental assessment published
in September, 1973, puts forth
several possible approaches for
subjecting major development
projects to environmental
impact reviews. While the
Green Paper is intended to prov-
ide a basis for public input,
have been attacked by environ-
mentalists. It has been argued
that while the government is
the sole receiver of all submis-
sions, it is impossible to know,
therefore, what weight public
input has had into the legislatioi
that Government is likely to
produce.
Mr. Newman has stated that
there have been 179 submissions
to the Green Paper on Environ-
mental Assessment which has
Ministry is still in the process
of evaluation. However, the
Minister of the Environment
has opposed suggestions by
Liberal Opposition Members to
make these submissions public
or publicize the major concerns
common to most briefs in order
that they could become part of
public discussion before legisl-
ation is introduced.
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PAGE 17
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