Canadian plastic bags have washed ashore in Scotland and bio-degradable bag production has helped to sky-rocket corn prices for Mexicans.The relationship between environmental health and human rights has become a stark reality as global warming wreaks havoc in every corner of the globe, shaping a world where human rights workers and environmental organizations must embark on a fruitful partnership in the name of sustainability.
Environmental concerns have finally become politically trendy, although most concrete almost-policies are tied up in research and red tape. However, while Canada’s politicians battle over reduction percentages, legal jargon and complex — albeit important — environmental strategies, thousands of small town Canadians have started a simpler, yet significant conversation connecting human rights and actions to environmental health.
This revolution has prompted a dialogue about the every-day plastic bag — a banter that quickly launched itself into the Canadian media as a hot topic this spring. The CBC jumped onboard, pegging one town against the other in a race to be the first to go plastic bag-free, an honour that was eventually bestowed upon the 500-person municipality of Leaf Rapids, Manitoba, which imposed the ban on April 2, 2007. The town’s by-law includes a $1000/day fine for retailers that continue to distribute or sell one-use plastic bags.
One plastic bag — one of 9-15 billion bags consumed annually in Canada — is of use for about five minutes but can take one thousand years to “break down,” only to contaminate groundwater and enter the food web. Put 8.7 of them together, and you’ve got enough non-renewable resources used in bag production to power a car for one kilometre.
Plastic bag supporters argue that modern landfills are sealed to prevent groundwater leakage, also noting that plastic bags easily compress to take up less space than, say, paper bags. But according to Greener Footprints, 47 per cent of all wind-borne litter from landfills is plastic, mainly in bag form, and this debris has managed to fly, flip and float its way across the Atlantic to rest as far away as Scotland’s rugged shores.
Aside from causing a trans-Atlantic nuisance in terms of aesthetics, plastic bags trap birds, kill animals when digested and pollute the groundwater after eventual photo-degradation. Call it a karmic evening out, of sorts, but toxic materials like carbon and ethanol are infiltrating the food chain and coincidentally endangering numerous aspects of the very human rights that the United Nations has laid out for us — the rights to health, safety and access to clean water.
Often perceived as the lesser of two evils, biodegradable bags are simply “substituting one bad habit for another,” says Tracey Saxby, co-founder of Greener Footprints and BC’s foremost anti-plastic activist. The eco-friendly moniker for these bags is misleading, as degradation is only possible in precise soil conditions and the production of these bags may effectively use up more resources — rendering them less an alternative than a close cousin to their plastic counterparts.
Composed of either soy or corn, bio-bags have contributed to the mounting pressure on North America’s corn/ethanol industry — a trend that has observed a cost increase in bio-bag production, but more importantly has affected a hike in the price of corn. Corn is the chief ingredient in tortillas; tortillas are the chief starch staple for Mexicans — the outcome of this developing technology isn’t difficult to decipher.
Tens of thousands of Mexicans rioted in Mexico City on February 1 of this year after the price of tortillas rose by 400 per cent, sparking concern that the poorest in the nation may face malnourishment (approximately one-third of these families’ wages is currently spent on corn flour).
Mexican president Felipe Calderon considered importing corn to discourage company hoarding after he signed a price cap agreement with several business groups that then effectively ignored the non-binding document. Under 1994’s North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), corn was supposed to come into the country cheap — but the search for alternative fuels/bags has parched the continent’s supply.
Mexico’s dilemma should perhaps fall into the updated mandate of Canada’s Action Plan for Food Security, a response to 2001’s World Food Summit that committed monies to cut the number of undernourished peoples in half by the year 2015. Simply reducing plastic bag consumption appears to be a baby step in the right direction.
“We have this whole mantra, the three Rs — reduce, reuse, recycle — but we never seem to really consider ‘reduce’,” notes Saxby, who promotes cloth bags as an alternative to plastic. By taking the old bag shopping just 11 times, the consumer delivers a lower environmental impact than one single-use plastic bag.
Motivated by the success story of Australia’s looming plastic bag ban, Saxby has spent much of 2007 presenting her embargo strategy to myriad city councils across British Columbia — enjoying victories with both politicians and retailers in Rossland, Tofino and most of the Sea-to-Sky route from Vancouver to Whistler.
“I think a lot of people get really apathetic about what they as individuals can do for the environment,” said Saxby. “They believe [activity is] tied up in the government, in people or things beyond their control.”
Saxby feels that such deceptively simple grassroots movements ignite a dialogue regarding humanity’s impact on nature. Sharing this information may foster conceptual tools that can be applied to other aspects of environmental consciousness both at home and in federal politics.
The link between individual and community, between town and nation and further connecting North American refuse to some of the most environmentally and economically fragile nations is startling. Canadian plastic bags have washed ashore in Scotland and bio-degradable bag production has helped to sky-rocket corn prices for Mexicans. This small-world reality risks traditional cultures and has the capacity to make food, air and water a vulnerable commodity in periphery nations — violating human rights across the board.
While environmentalists lobby the UN for eco-health’s inclusion as a human right and politicians weigh policy options, regular Canadian citizens can say no to plastic, one bag at a time.
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