It’s Plastic Free July. That time of year when we’re reminded to live with less plastic. Here at Environmental Defence, we appreciate the sentiment behind the month but—to be honest—we have a slightly different perspective. We want to share a bit about our approach to making change, especially since we sometimes get questions about it from our supporters.
When it comes to Plastic Free July, we could talk at length about plastic pollution and the fact there’s just way too much of it in the world. But we know that won’t change simply because some of us make a herculean effort to use less plastic in their own daily lives. In fact, that’s pretty much an industry ploy: make us think the pollution is other people’s fault, so we don’t point our fingers at the companies that are profiting from all that plastic.
In the end, we have to make the industry stop flooding the world with unnecessary and harmful plastic. And asking them nicely is not going to be enough, even if it can put the solutions we want on their radar.
That’s why our campaigns tend to focus on government decision-makers—especially our elected representatives. Governments have the power to make laws and regulations, ban harmful products and substances, and incentivize better ways of doing things—for example, by replacing throwaway packaging with reuse and refill systems.
Industry sometimes accepts new rules. If they’re applied fairly, they “level the playing field” to prevent one company from gaining advantage over others by cutting corners to make more profit. For example, Company A might get pressure from customers to switch to reusable packaging, instead of throwaway, to prevent waste. But that requires an initial investment in reusable packaging, and other upfront costs that could reduce profit in the short term (or increase the cost of the product). Meanwhile, its competitor, Company B sticks with the same trashy single-use packaging, and has no new costs. Why would Company A bother?
More likely, they’ll promise to do it, but then not deliver. A race to the environmental bottom can be good for the bottom line—and there’s no better way to get there than by eliminating government regulation. As we’ve seen recently in Canada—and, frankly, all over the world—powerful companies and industries are pushing back hard against laws that require them to clean up their act. In the plastics sphere, we’ve seen how industry lobbying and lawsuits can delay and discourage governments from doing the right thing.
The source of plastic pollution in the world is them, not us. That’s why we must never stop telling our elected representatives what we want. Together, we can be more powerful than even the richest industries.
So if you are putting in all kinds of effort to keep plastic out of your life, we definitely salute you. We just want to nudge you to take a few moments to tell your local member of parliament and municipal council how important living plastic free is to you.
And on that note, we invite you to use our action tool right now to send a message to Canada’s new Environment Minister to ask that she stand up to the plastics lobby and step up federal action to combat plastic pollution. People power is real. It’s important that the Minister hear from you.
We wish you a wonderful Plastic Free July!
