Single use plastics ban, a good start but doesn’t go far enough says REAPS

She calls the regulation “inefficient”, and says we need a more proactive strategy to reduce the consumption and mismanagement of single use plastics.

At the local level, REAPS encourages communities and spreads awareness of the constructive steps people can take every day.

“If you have laundry soap, body products, health care products, you can think about, refilling, those products instead of purchasing new products every time.”

McClymont adds small things such as changing your toothbrush to bamboo toothbrush and buying blades instead of getting a new razor can all cumulatively help make a big difference.

Dr. Juan Jose Alava, an Environmental Management professor at UBC says it’s becoming easier nowadays to see the impact of plastics on wildlife.

He says animals and sea birds can misapprehend the floating stryofoams as “popcorn” and may ingest it.

“At least plastic is no food. So they are eating junk food. And that junk food basically is pretty bad for the track of or seabirds, for example, right? When you have a sea turtle that sees the plastic bag, she gets fooled because they believe it’s jellyfish. Because sea turtles, they eat jellyfish and they swallow this kind of plastic bag.”

Most prevalent on seabirds, the disease that was introduced in 2023, is called “plasticosis”.

The research shows in extreme cases, the young birds may even starve to death after their stomachs are filled with plastics, making it hard for them to digest any foods.

With these things in mind, Dr. Alava says it’s unclear whether we are going to eliminate plastic pollution in the ocean by 2030 unless there’s more regulatory enforcement to really make sure the plastic ban is in place across the country.

by Chris Koo

Single use plastics ban, a good start but doesn’t go far enough says REAPS

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