Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow with two Canadian public policy think tanks. His specialty is education, but he writes about a variety of topics and has had a weekly newspaper column since 2009.
Paper straws suck. Photo licensed to Brian Zinchuk via Storyblocks
Plastic straws suck.
Actually, they don’t. That’s the problem.
By now, you’ve likely had the misfortune of using a paper straw at your favourite restaurant. Not only do these straws disintegrate if you don’t finish your drink quickly enough, but they also leave a paper taste in your mouth. And don’t get me started on how frustrating it is to try drinking a milkshake through a paper straw.
You can thank the Liberal government for the lack of plastic straws. Several years ago, the Liberals designated plastic as a toxic substance and banned the manufacture, import, and sale of single-use plastics. Not only did this outlaw plastic straws, but grocery stores could no longer provide customers with plastic bags to carry out their groceries.
That’s why customers are stuck bringing reusable cloth bags when they go shopping. Forgot to bring your cloth bag with you? No problem, the store will be happy to sell you some extras at $3 each. You can add these extra bags to the growing collection of cloth bags sitting in your house, which you will eventually toss into the garbage when you need some extra space.
Liberals tell us that the single-use plastics ban is necessary to save the environment. However, the energy and resources needed to manufacture a cloth bag is considerably higher than what is necessary to create a plastic bag. In other words, you’d typically need to reuse a cloth bag hundreds of times before their environmental footprint becomes smaller than that of plastic bags.
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To remind yourself how foolish this single-use plastics ban is, all you need to do is drive across the border. In the United States, restaurant servers are happy to provide you with plastic straws and grocery stores have no problem giving you as many plastic bags as you need to carry out your groceries. Simply put, our government is inconveniencing Canadians for the sake of environmental optics—nothing more.
Lest you doubt me on this, the Liberal government is poised to reverse its ban on the manufacture and sale of single-use plastics, but only for exports. Yes, you read that correctly. After coming to the realization that banning the export of single-use plastics will seriously damage the Canadian economy, the Liberals have drafted new regulations that will allow Canadian companies to manufacture single-use plastics for the sole purpose of export.
Part of the government’s rationale for cancelling the export ban is that other countries would simply find other suppliers for their single-use plastics. Its own briefing note explains that the export ban “will not fulfill an environmental objective commensurate to its economic impact.” This is a bureaucratic way of saying that banning single-use plastics won’t help the environment, but it will damage the economy.
Nevertheless, the Liberal government plans to keep the domestic ban of single-use plastics in place. That’s because the Liberals care about optics, and they certainly don’t want to admit to Canadians that they have been engaged in an elaborate game of environmental theatre over the last decade.
To recap, if the Liberals go ahead with their plan to reverse the export ban on single-use plastics, Canadians will once again be able to purchase Canadian-made plastic straws and plastic bags. We’ll just need to drive to Grand Forks to pick them up.
Think about this the next time your plastic straw disintegrates in your cup, or you forget to bring extra reusable cloth bags to the grocery store. These inconveniences are about optics, not about helping the environment.
Plastic straws may not suck, but the Liberal government’s single-use plastics ban certainly does.
Michael Zwaagstra is a teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.
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- 0100 Turnbull Project Manager0100 Turnbull Project Manager
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- 0022 Grimes winter hiring
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