SHUTTERSTOCK

Rethinking the idea of packaging

Torontonians use an estimated 700 million plastic bags and 365 million coffee cups each year, many of which are tossed into trash cans and shipped off to sit in landfills.

Cutting back on non-recyclable in-store packaging – such as takeout containers, coffee cups, bottled water and the much maligned plastic bag – could account for a little less than one per cent of the city's overall goal of diverting 70 per cent of waste from the dump by 2010, says Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker.

The self-proclaimed "green freak" says it cost Toronto nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to purchase a dump and "that's very precious space, very expensive space. We don't want to fill it up with coffee cups and plastic bags."

These one-time-use, throwaway packaging items are also a drain on natural resources, he says, noting that we're "ripping down thousand-year-old trees in British Columbia to use once in a bag or telephone book and then throwing it in the garbage" and using natural gas to make plastic bags.

The city would like to see this waste reduced by 10,000 tonnes, equivalent to 312 garbage trucks.

To help achieve this, De Baeremaeker says the city report on waste reduction, due in November, looks at bans or taxes on items that aren't recyclable as well as return deposits. He cites Ireland as a success story, where a plastic bag tax introduced in 2002 has reduced use by about 95 per cent.

The onus should fall on manufacturers to provide recyclable and safe products, he adds.

"The people that make and sell packaging should be responsible for recycling," he explains, adding that citizens shouldn't be expected to know whether their takeout containers are recyclable.

But, he says, "we need to tell politicians and manufacturers, `We don't want your garbage. We don't want products that harm us or harm the environment'."

One way to convey that message is changing consumer habits where possible, for example, by opting for reusable bags, which are popping up at checkouts in grocery and clothing stores, home retailers and the LCBO, for as little as $1 a bag.

These bags may make a green statement, but come up short on fashion. That's where eco-friendly retailers like Vancouver-based Bring Your Own Bag, step in, providing totes with style and cheeky slogans such as "F*@k plastic."

Co-founder Jenny Hughes says the company, which donates part of its proceeds to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, has sold thousands of bags since its 2005 launch.

She says in an email that each bag "will prevent hundreds of plastic bags from ending up in our oceans, in our trees, or buried in our Earth." The bags retail for $33.99 to $37.99, plus shipping.

There's also a growing movement for refilling and reusing spray bottles and containers. For example, natural living store Grassroots, which has two Toronto locations, offers a refill station where customers can fill up their own containers with eco-friendly cleaners.

Quebec-based Bio Spectra plans to introduce refill stations at select retailers for its Attitude cleaning line, with the launch slated for mid-November.

As for the slew of coffee cups and water bottles littering landfills from consumers hydrating on the go, increasingly attractive – and safe – reusable stainless steel options are available.