UVic political scientist Will Greaves studies how people’s need for security intersects with environmental policies. But his personal position on plastic was developed in the university cafeteria.
Greaves said he watches people at the University of Victoria eat with plastic spoons and forks even when clean metal utensils are on offer.
They aren’t eating takeout. They just reach for single-use, disposable utensils.
“They are sitting in an environment where [plastic utensils are] completely needless,” he said.
As part of Ideafest, Greaves will be one of four people on a panel discussion called Beyond Plastics: Exploring the Issue of Waste in Canada, examining the issue of discarded plastic accumulating in the world.
In an event organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences, he will be joined by geographer Jutta Gutberlet, economist Pascal Courty and environmental lawyer Deborah Curran to look at how to move beyond plastic, whether a voluntary end to disposable plastics will actually work and whether mechanisms can be created to support a plastic-free economy.
The use of disposable plastics is increasingly recognized as a serious pollution problem all over the world.
Marine scientists are finding discarded plastic at every level of the ocean food chain. Dissected stomachs of dead whales are yielding kilograms of plastic waste. Tiny plankton creatures are ingesting particles of plastic.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world has made it clear that it doesn’t want to deal with Canada’s plastic waste any longer.
Countries such as the Philippines will no longer take plastics for recycling or disposal. Last year, Philippine leaders practically threatened war after 103 containers filled with plastic and garbage were traced to Vancouver.
That means Canadians have to wake up and start thinking about how to dispose of their own plastics, Greaves said.
“The plastic we use now is going to invariably stay in Canada,” he said. “It’s coming back on us.”
Greaves said plastic is not all bad — it’s used to create all kinds of useful items that our society would sorely miss if it disappeared altogether. But governments need to take action on the manufacture of plastic items intended to be used once and discarded.
Greaves says it’s time in Canada to recognize that the three Rs of environmentally responsible living — reduce, reuse and recycle — are arranged in a hierarchy, with reduce at the top. That means some government prohibitions might be required. “We just using too much of the stuff,” he said.
Beyond Plastic: Exploring the Issue of Waste in Canada will be on Wednesday, March 4, in the Bob Wright Centre, Room 104, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
