QUEEN’S PARK — Green Party of Ontario Leader and MPP for Guelph, Mike Schreiner, released the following statement after the government promised a transition to producer responsibility in 2023:
“I am glad the government plans to shift to a producer responsibility model, putting the onus on companies to pay for their pollution and to make less harmful products.
But I am concerned that our waste problem is being punted until 2023.
This is not the first government to make promises about fixing the Blue Bin program, and yet municipalities have been left alone to pay for the onslaught of waste.
Our waste problem is at a crisis point and we need action well before the next election.
That’s why I am urging the PC government to ban the worst single-use plastics by 2020.
Our own Great Lakes alone collect an estimated 10,000 metric tonnes of plastic every year.
We don’t need to wait until 2023 to take a stand and start cutting back on this environmental devastation.”