David Krayden: Plastics Registry Is a Nightmare for Industry and a Farce for Canadians

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault speaks at a press conference during the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international treaty on plastic pollution, in Ottawa on April 22, 2024. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Commentary

Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault has decided Canada needs a plastics registry.

But what he isn’t telling you is that while it may be possible to track the production of plastics, it is well-nigh impossible to detect where these materials are sent for disposal.

If you think all those plastic bottles that you assiduously place into your blue recycling box every week are being shipped away for reuse and that somebody is actually making a healthy profit from this ecologically friendly exercise, think again.

We should be wary when governments want to introduce “registries.” Remember the hated long gun registry that complicated the lives of farmers and hunters while creating another layer of bureaucracy to manage this insidious federal government invasion into the lives of law-abiding Canadians?

Now the government has announced a plastics registry in order to assess just how much of this material is being produced by industry in Canada. Right now the concept is being foisted on the backs of private industry, but don’t rule out seeing individuals forced to account for how much plastic they are using and how they are disposing of it.

Guilbeault has declared himself a “proud socialist,” and when he is involved in a project he believes in inserting the state boldly into your life.

During an April 22 news conference, he explained how the new registry will work.

“We’re implementing a comprehensive plan to reduce plastic waste and pollution, and today I’m excited to announce a new federal plastic registry which will increase transparency and help make producers responsible,” he said.

Guilbeault suggested there is nothing really new about this as companies already keep a record of their plastic production but it’s a provincial and territorial issue that is fairly ad hoc.

In reality, this registry will be a massive manifestation of government regulation, requiring private enterprise to police itself with a staff of plastic snoops who will create greater costs and restrict the amount of time and money that industry can devote to innovation or research and development.

Clearly, the federal government has moved beyond Trudeau’s initial plastics policy, which involved his family moving from plastic beverage containers to drink boxes, as he said in answer to a reporter’s question in June 2019.

Mr. Guilbeault made the announcement a day prior to negotiations for a global treaty to end plastic waste, which aims to put in place an international agreement to eliminate all plastic waste by 2040.

This ludicrous goal—like phasing out the gas-powered engine by 2035—is another unrealistic notion emanating from the environmental zealots who run the environment ministry.

Guilbeault’s registry will first harass producers of plastic packaging, electronics, and single-use plastic products, and it will proceed to extensively micromanage the industry by targeting producers of agricultural products, tires, and resins.

The dictate will require affected companies to report how much plastic they produce and where its consumer lifespan ends.

There’s the cruel joke in this latest farcical legislation from the environment ministry.

Much of that waste is being dumped overseas in poor, developing countries that have little say in it. You can watch a myriad of YouTube videos on the subject matter—if you have the stomach for it.

The message is clear in all of these reports: recycling of plastics is a scam. “Recycling” companies that receive or pick up your water bottles are sending up to 60 percent of it to foreign ports where it is unceremoniously dumped on the shore, in the water, or in overflowing landfills where people like Steven Guilbeault don’t have to see it.

The current government has been engaged in this hypocritical and duplicitous activity for years.

And it’s not just plastics that Canada is dumping on developing countries.

A “Fifth Estate/Enquête” investigation in 2022 barely scratched the veneer of Canada’s sham commitment to recycling when it discovered that at least 123 shipping containers were sent back to Canada in a five-year time period after Canadian recycling companies were found to be in contravention of numerous violations of international waste export regulations.

These companies had the full approval of the federal government to send illegal, unsorted household waste to these developing countries where they hoped it wouldn’t be noticed.

It’s hard to fight over-consumption of plastics when the federal government is covering up or ignoring the depth of gross incompetence and neglect that characterizes recycling programs and is protecting the illegal disposal of waste.

Just as the government’s carbon tax has done nothing to address global greenhouse gas emissions, so the plastics registry will prove to be another flight of environmental folly from a government that is committed to looking like it is “fighting” climate change and reducing plastics but in reality has been playing a cynical game of politics all along.

So is a global plastics ban a solution? No, it’s more environmental showmanship and, as much as I hate to use the cliché, virtue signalling.

Just as green energy supplied by solar panels and windmills cannot be expected by any rational person to power a modern industrial society, and just as electric vehicles are dependent upon fossil fuels for recharging, there is no feasible way to eliminate all plastics in 15 years without endangering the health and safety of individuals and the hygienic integrity of a myriad of consumer products, including food.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.