War on Plastic

“Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true, but

many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence.” - Thomas Sowell

While it is a noble goal for people wanting to propel forward in their vision to reduce our environmental impacts, we have to be careful when considering policies that may end up delivering more harm than good; overall making our noble goal, not so noble after all. This is especially true with the ban on single-use plastics. Many environmentalists and alike will source studies on the terrible environmental impacts of plastic pollution and of course, let’s not forget, the negative effects on human health.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that pollution is bad for the environment and we must develop sustainable solutions to the problem. However, the latter is controversial at best; According to the science assessment of plastic pollution by Environment and Climate Change Canada [ECCC] (2020), they have determined that macroplastic and microplastics pose no concernable harm to human health and more studies are needed to properly assess the risk posed to humans. This is highly contradictory, because one of the proponents of this policy is to reduce microplastics, but if there is no evidence of concern to human health, then it reduces the validity of this policy. Even so, the debate is not whether plastic pollution causes negative effects, because that is obviously true, but whether or not the policies proposed and enacted by the Canadian government have any real benefit versus the costs of such policies.

The evidence to support the ban on single use plastics is very weak, considering that 99% of plastics from packaging, which represents the highest category of plastic waste at 47%, are not released to the environment (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2019). Of the 99%, a total of 9% is recycled completely, 4% is incinerated, and a total of 86% are disposed of in landfills. This means that only 1% can be accounted for unaccounted dumps or leaks. Moreover, according to Hannah Ritchie (2021), Canada only represents 0.02% of the share of global plastic waste emitted into oceans; in fact, Canada isn’t even in the top 50 countries of contributors It may come to some as a surprise, but in actuality, 80.99% of plastic emitted into oceans are from Asia, then Africa, South America, and North America, representing 7.99%, 5.51%, and 4.5% respectively.

Therefore, a ban on single-use plastics in Canada would essentially have a nearly zero impact on global ocean plastic pollution. According to Kenneth Green (2022), a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, if the Canadian government's Zero Plastic Waste 2030 policy were to be successful in eliminating all plastic waste, it would have a total of 0.02% - 0.03% reduction of global plastic waste; three-thousandths of a percent difference. Now, some may argue that any type of reduction is worth pursuing to get the ball rolling, but fail to consider the environmental impacts of alternatives in replacement to single-use plastics.

Elmira Aliakbari and Julio Mejia (2023) noted that in the federal government's own report, Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations: SOR/2022-138, banning single-use plastics will decrease 1.5 million tonnes of plastics, but double in the alternatives in replacement of the plastics. Moreover, the authors determined that according to the Strategic Environmental Assessment, the alternatives used have higher climate change impacts, more energy and water demand, higher GHG emissions, and the potentiality of ozone depletion.

Furthermore, the cost of the proposed ban on single-use plastics is roughly $1.3 billion, while the benefits of the policy would reap in $619 million, a net loss of $681 million over the length of the policy from 2023 to 2032 (Green, 2022). Moreover, according to the ECCC (2019), in their own report, to successfully implement the Zero Plastic Waste 2030, they would have to invest in an additional 167 facilities, totalling $4.6 billion to $8.3 billion, which would exceed the estimated benefits by $300 million.

Additionally, the ban on single use plastics could devastate Albertans, as it would affect $100 to $500 million in sales, representing roughly 500 to 2,000 jobs (Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, 2022). On a nationwide scale, single-use plastics represents $5.5 to $7.7 billion dollars in sales, 13,000 to 20,000 jobs directly, and 20,000 to 40,000 jobs indirectly. Moreover, this is even more egregious because the cost of this policy would not be borne out of government, but by Canadian citizens with their hard earned money through their taxes, but also will have to pay more at the grocers because of increased prices due to the alternatives being more costly than cheap single-use plastics.

So in actuality, the ban on single-use plastics would create more environmental concerns than the relief of it, and it would increase costs to consumers for a policy that creates no benefits environmentally or economically. Sounds like a solid investment by our Canadian government. I am glad that we as a nation support baseless policies and ignore the empirical evidence, but take pride in visions that ultimately do more harm than good.

References

Aliakbari, E., Mejia, J. (2023). Ottawa’s plastics ban is bad for the environment. Retrieved June 22, 2023, from fraserinstitute.org/article/ottawas-plastics-ban-is-bad-for-the-environment

Environment and Climate Change Canada. (2020). Science assessment of plastic pollution. Retrieved June 22, 2023, from https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/evaluating-existing-substances/science-assessment-plastic-pollution.html

Environment and Climate Change Canada. (2019). Economic Study of the Canadian Plastic Industry, Markets and Waste: Summary Report to Environment and Climate Change Canada [by Deloitte and Cheminfo Services Inc.]. Retrieved June 22, 2023, from https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-pollution/publications/plast-waste-report.html

Green, K., P. (2022). Canada’s Wasteful Plan to Regulate Plastic Waste. Retrieved June 22, 2023, from fraserinstitute.org/studies/canadas-wasteful-plan-to-regulate-plastic-waste

Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. (2022, April). The impact of a ban on certain single-use plastic items on industry, human health, and the environment in Canada. https://www.ourcommmons.ca/content/committee/441/envi/reports/RP11670470/envirp02/envirp02-e.pdf

Ritchie, H. (2021) where does the plastic in our oceans come from?. Retrieved June 22, 2023, from ourworldindata.org/ocean-plastics