2020 has been a ridiculous year, one where keeping up with the sheer pace of the news cycle was an achievement in itself. It will be defined forever by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on, well, everything. It’s only in hindsight that we will be able to reflect on its impacts in other areas, particularly waste. There have been glimmers of hope for a waste free future though, and the growing consensus against waste at multiple levels of society and government have been promising to watch.
Here are some of our hopes and resolutions for a 2021 that has to be better.
- No more delays on SUP legislation.
2020, for as bad as it was, had mixed messages on the topic of banning single-use plastics. While Edmonton’s progress on the SUP bylaw has been paused, the federal government’s announcement of a 2021 ban was both promising and a reminder that reducing plastic waste should be on the radar of every government. However, banning single-use plastics ‘by the end of 2021’ is vague enough that we expect to be holding governments accountable for their promises. We hope that won’t be the case.
- International waste legislation
Our SUP framework will help government officials with their planning and decision making for similar SUP bylaws in their jurisdictions. The best way to achieve waste reduction is through a network of overlapping laws that provide knowledge and experience for other cities and countries looking to reduce waste. The European Union has us beat with a tax on unrecyclable plastic that went live on January 1st! Bans, taxes, and other prohibitions will help stamp out plastic waste slowly, but surely. It’s up to us to use these advances to help waste reduction efforts in Edmonton.
- More opportunities for collaboration, dialogue
We’ve been able to work on communicating the need for waste reduction through our social media and digital meetups, but just being in the same room as someone, talking about waste, hearing and listening how it affects someone and their community provides that energy to push for greater change. We want more community events, repair cafes, field trips, anything to help further integrate waste reduction into our everyday lives.
- Continued moves towards local economies
For years, we spoke against online shopping from an emissions standpoint — how much CO₂ was released into the atmosphere to ship that parcel to your door? But Amazon worker strikes helped shed more light on the negative results of mass consumerism and pushed more individuals to think, shop, and act locally. Acknowledging the benefits of circular economies, freecycling, bartering, and local connectivity helps reduce waste and foster community.
- A healthy Edmonton
COVID-19’s effects on Edmonton have been painful, and we’re all looking forward to a regression and elimination of the pandemic. As exciting as the recent news on vaccines has been, we don’t know the logistics of vaccination, how it’s going to be implemented in Edmonton, and how long the process will take. What we do know is that there’s no waste reduction without Edmontonians to achieve it. We need to keep our community as healthy as possible in 2021.
