Talk about eliminating single-use plastics in the Glebe
Posted Jul 24, 2018 07:27:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Business leaders and residents in the Glebe are meeting to brainstorm ways to end single-use plastics in their neighbourhood.
It's not a change that is expected to happen overnight, but the Glebe Community Association Environmental Committee's Chair of the Taskforce on Reducing Single Use Plastics Andrew Johnson told 1310 NEWS' The Rick Gibbon Show, they're hoping to set some basic goals Tuesday night.
He sees the elimination of straws and plastic bags as low hanging fruit, and thinks those could be two of three single-use plastics identified as targets at the meeting.
Then, as a community, they will try to identify which business areas those plastics could be eliminated from.
“Whether that's restaurants or pharmacies or what have you,” said Johnson. “And then after that, we want to really listen to what strategies people will have for us to start the work. Because everybody has an opinion, and that's great, and we really want to hear what everybody has to say because we want this to be a community — neighbourhood-wide initiative.”
Listen to the full conversation with Andrew Johnson:
Although straws make up just 0.3% of plastics ending up in Ottawa's waterways, Johnson added that it would be a start, and hopefully these small initiatives will have a snowball effect.
As a whole, Johnson thinks Ottawa has a long way to go when it comes to recycling.
“Like food waste — less than 50% of the population is actually recycling that stuff properly,” he said.
Tuesday evening's meeting runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 650 Lyon St. South — that's St. James United Church. Between 80 and 90 people have responded to an event RSVP, according to Johnson.
Members of the Glebe BIA are expected in attendance. Owners of a zero-waste grocery store in Hintonburg will also be at Tuesday's meeting.
Johnson said the elimination of single-use plastics is going to take effort from businesses, the government and individuals. He thinks these kind of community initiatives can eventually change the big picture, but it's going to take time and a consistently optimistic view.
