PROTECTING THE BASICS
ZERO WASTE
Shipping garbage halfway across the province or hiding it in holes is clearly not the answer to Ontario’s waste problem. The fact that nobody wants other people's garbage in their backyard indicates we shouldn't be producing it. Greens believe that full-cost accounting and life-cycle product stewardship, applied to manufacturing, will help advance “closed-loop” production and consumption models. Evidence from Germany has shown that where manufacturers have responsibility for the disposal of what they make, they rapidly alter their designs, packaging and production methods to reduce waste.
We have the methods and technology now to safely reduce, re-use, and recycle 80% of our current waste. Let's do this first and continue to work on the remaining 20% until we achieve virtual zero discharge.
The Green Party would also:
- ban waste incineration because it produces a very toxic fly-ash, cannot capture a number of very dangerous substances from stack emissions even with advanced pollution control, and technically requires (when recyclable materials are removed) compostable organic material for economic burning;
- gradually phase-out residential curbside garbage pickup of wet waste and instead support home, apartments, and neighbourhood composting programs.