Reduce, reuse, refuse: Recycling is not enough, advocates say

Vancouver couple Dan and Patty Rogers are committedto reducing plastic waste in their lives and hope others will take up the challenge, especially as cracks in recycling systems continue to surface.

Part of the lifestyle change for the couple came after seeing thatdespite their best efforts to recycle, some of the wastestill gets incinerated or buried in a landfill.

"I'm appalled by how much waste there is," said Dan at Vancouver's NADAgrocery store on Friday."[We]wanted to find ways to cut down on our household waste."

The Rogers, wholive in the city's West End, have been shopping at the zero-packagingstoresince it opened almost a year ago.They bringtheir own containers to fill up with staples such as steel-cut oats andmaple syrup, andthey also buy itemslike wooden toothbrushes.

Nothing at the storecomes wrapped in plastic, which is being found all over the planet, including waterways, oceans and in the stomachs of animals.

'The problem with the 3 Rs'

Imperfections inthe recycling industry grabbed international headlines in May when a six-year garbage spat between the Phillipines and Canada came to a head, with Canada agreeing to takeback dozens of cargo containers filled withcontaminated recyclable materials.

Dan Rogers saystoo many people rely on recycling alone.

"The problem with the three Rs ... is we put all our focus on 'recycle' and people forgot the 'reduce' and 'reuse' and now the 'refuse.' The fourth R should be 'refuse,'" Dan said about finding ways to not accept plastic.

For example, the Rogers havetheir meat counter wrap meat or fish in paper rather than plastic, and their favourite deliwill fill a reusable containerwith hummus.

It's these types of small behavioural life changes that stores like Vancouver's Soap Dispensary and NADA are trying to foster. They argue thatrecycling is not enoughto make meaningful change around plastic pollution.

"I think it's something that's going to need to happen in the future and it also needs to happen today and people aren't necessarily taking it seriously enough," said NADA'sLaurenCzura, whose title is food enjoyment officer. She says she jumped at the chance to join NADA after working as an accountant at arestaurant chain.

"I really want to make [reducing waste]more accessible, make it possible for people to do this in their daily lives."

Garbage audit

Tara Moreau,associate director for sustainability and community programs at the UBC Botanical Gardens, hopes the dramatic images of Canadian garbage abroad will spur more people to change their habits.

"These images ... I think help us feel emotional about these issues, which I think is a really important opportunity for usto then think about our role in this larger system," she said.

Two years ago Moreau won a City of Vancouver award of excellencefor her work on how to engage people to change their habits around sustainability,among other things.

She doesn't want people to be overwhelmed by trying to change all their habits at once. She suggests taking a week to audit your garbage and see where you can make changes.

"When you see your waste sort of splayed out through all your little bits and bobs of toothpaste tubes and Q-tipsand all of these various things ...you could probably sort of then be like, 'Huh, maybe I don't need this or maybe I could reduce this,'" she said.

That said, Moreau also wants people to keep up with recycling becauseB.C.is particularly good at it, with contamination rates at about six per cent.

How B.C. Recycles

5 years ago

Duration 2:23

Everything you need to know about recycling in B.C.