4 - Wednesday, April 4, 1990 - North Shore News Bos HUNTER ° Eco-Logic ¢ WITHIN 10 years, 60 per cent of B.C.’s landfill sites will be full. If there was no other problem to cope with on the environmental front, that alone should be enough to invite a major reordering of our priorities. Given the seriousness of the sit- uation, every attempt to cut down an waste, every effort at recycling, deserves the utmost consideration. What ust be avoided in the rush to ecological redemption, however, are silly solutions. Down the road, faise starts now will be costly. Perhaps more than the cost in dollars and cents, it is the cost in lost time that we have to worry about. Accordingly, it behooves us green-thinking types to pick our targets with care. Which brings me to this issue of plastics, whose presumed techno- demonic qualities are one of the underpinnings of ecological at- titudes. ee “* according te Rathje, the volume of waste generated by fast-food packaging at landfill sites is a mere one- quarter of one per cent.’’ i Yet what if plastic was to be totally eliminated tomorrow? The astonishing truth seems to be that the elimination of plastic would lead to a 404 per cent in- crease in the tonnage of waste, and a 256 per cent increase in the vol- ume of waste. In terms of energy consumption to provide an equivalent alter- native amount if packaging, there would be a 201 per cent increase. Incidentally, the cost of packaging would increase by 212 percent. These figures are provided by the Society of the Plastics Industry of Canada, so I suppose you could say they are suspect — but I don’t believe so, since they are based on data accumulated by federal gov- ernments in the U.S,, Canada, West Germany and Japan. Moreover, they are supported by William Rathje, the respected pro- fessor of archaeology at the Uni- versity of Arizona, who has spent the last 20 years digging through garbage dumps in America to get at the truth about what ends up in our landfill sites. Rathje is a myth debunker, rather than being a front man for the plastics indust'y. That his fin- dings confirm what the industry says about itself is something he can’t control. Having read his stuff and listened to him being in- terviewed several times, | don’t buy the argument that he is any- body's lapdog. Besides, he states categorically that the solution to the waste prob- lem is for everybody to reject overpackaging, to use shopping bags over and over again, to recy- cle, and cut back drastically on unnecessary consumerism — hard- ly the stuff any industry, let alone the plastic industry, wants to hear. He makes several interesting points. First, we DO have a gar- bage crisis, but we have had one for two million years. As far back as the time of Bronze Age Troy, people were throwing their garbage on the floor. When it got too bad, they threw a layer of dirt on top. Of course, after several layers had been ap- plied, they couldn’t stand up straight in their rooms, so they'd punch out the ceiling and build a higher one. Accordingly, the ancient cities of the Middle East rise high above the landscape on huge mounds, called “‘tells.”” Today, Rathje observes, we handle our garbage somewhat more efficiently. While we may ac- tually consume more (there being so much more to consume), we do not generate a correspondingly greater amount of package waste. Opponents of fast-food chains are not going to like to hear this, but, according to Rathje, the vol- ume of waste generated by fast- food packaging at landfill sites is a mere one-quarter of one per cent. Most people, if asked, would guess that fast-food packaging takes up between 2: and 30 per cent of landfill sites, but it is real- ly nearly 80 times less than people think. The reason people come up with such a high estimate is because fast-food packaging winds up as litter along roads and at stadiums. That’s what we see. In the landfiil sites themselves, the reality is far different. In terms of energy required for manufacturing, unbleached kraft paper requires nearly twice as much electricity as polyethylene. So far as waste water pollution in the manufacturing process is in- volved, paper generates nearly 24 times as much as polyethylene, and at the same time organic chlorine compounds are released. When it comes to air pollution, the manufacturing of paper again causes a huge amount more than the manufacture of polyethylene. All of which is to say that 1 find the federal and provincial govern- ments’ decision to cut plastic packaging by 59 per cent, while continuing to drag their heels on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, carrying on developing nuclear power, and allowing CFC produc- tion to continue into the next cen- tury, fo be the reflection of an up- side-down set of priorities. Or is it just token environmen- talism — easy to do, high profile, and not very meaningful? e Liberal candidates selected THE CAPILANO Provincial Lib- eral Association will hold a can- didate selection mecting for the West Vancouver-Capilano riding for the next provincial election Starting at 7:30 p.m. on Wednes- day, April Tf at the Capilano Library meeting room, 3045 Highland Blvd. in North Van- couver. To date, Penny Majors and Jeremy Dalton have announced their intention to seek the nomina- tion, Registration begins at 7 p.m. The meeting is open to the gen- eral public. PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL PHYSIOFIELD LTD. CORRECTION Ae Our advertserient in tres Surideay 1990) edition of the North Shore News B In the porhor of the ac Free 3 nour seminars The times were NOt shown The seminar times tor all locations are 2:30 p.m, and 7:30 p.m. Locations are: WED APRIL 4 VAT COUVER SHERATON PLAZA 6GD Camowe & TDth Ave THURS , APRIL & SOUTH VANCOUVER BLUE BSOv HOTEL SE Manne Dr at Fraser THURS . APRIL 5 RICHMOND Granada Inn 9070 Budgenort Ra {E of No 3) FRE APRIL 6 NORTH VANCOUVER LONSDALE QUAY HOTE: 123 Carne Cates Crt For more information call 275-2296 Who's afraid of the Big Bad Crow? Mortgage rates become less important as the size of the mortgage decreases. Example: $150,000 down on a nice home in Deep Cove will leave you with a payment of over $1000/month. $150,000 down on a nice home in Valleycliffe will leave you debt-free and with something left over for a world tour. 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