Science and Research Committee on Oct. 3rd, 2024

[Marina Pietrosel]

In terms of the timeline, the new regulations come into force on January 1, 2025 for selective collection, so blue bin, for recyclables, and on March 1, 2025 for extended deposit. That doesn't give producers enough time to reach the recycling rates prescribed by the government. A process to ecodesign, change packaging or replace it with packaging composed of a single material can't be done in three months. It takes at least a good year, because there is research and development involved.

Another thing the federal government can do is invest in researching materials and equipment. We have a lot of very interesting facilities in Quebec, as well as in British Columbia. We need more federal investment in these areas. There are investments in every province, but it's not enough for the major construction project ahead of us to meet the prescribed recycling rates.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

That's great, and right on time.

For the last two and a half minutes, we'll turn to MP Cannings.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

I'm going to turn to Mr. Fisher from the Council of the Great Lakes Region.

In your opening statement, you listed six areas that we had to really work on. I tried to write them down, but I must admit that I fell behind quite quickly.

I don't remember that you talked much about the “reduce” part of the solution, and we have to eliminate much of the use of plastics over the next five or six years. A big part of that has to come in the form of reduction, and that means moving to different materials or simply not needing them.

How has your work tackled that part of the problem in the Great Lakes region? What kind of initiatives are there to help us reduce plastics in the heart of industrial North America?

[Mark Fisher]

Thank you for the question.

From our perspective, we advocate reducing waste at source and looking at packaging alternatives as part of the materials management hierarchy. Source reduction is at the top, so we have to be talking about it. It's certainly not going to get you to a 50% recycling rate or a circular economy, but it is incredibly important. We work alongside a number of consumer packaging and goods companies headquartered in the region—such as Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio, and SC Johnson in Racine, Wisconsin—that are doing tremendous innovations in their own packaging at that large-scale company size.

I just came back today from a sustainable packaging conference in Chicago, where there were 600 participants from the U.S. I can tell you that there are a lot of innovations happening that will allow for source reduction, including bio-based materials using seaweed, for example, which has almost the same properties as flexible film. Innovations are happening that are going to allow for source reduction.

Also, a final point I would make is this: We have to look at things on a life-cycle basis. I know that when we look at different choices, it might seem obvious that these are better than plastics. However, when you look at it from cradle to grave—GHG emissions, use of water and energy, or how many times consumers use that alternative product—the environmental performance isn't always better. Whatever the alternatives, we have to look at them through the lens of cradle-to-grave life cycles. Truly, what are the better-performing products we could be pushing consumers towards?

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you.

What a nice, positive note to end our study on.

You are the last witnesses for this recyclable plastics study. Thank you, Mark Fisher, Jason Taylor and Marina Pietrosel for your testimonies and participation. Feel free to submit anything further in writing that you may wish to add and have considered.

We will meet again on Tuesday. We will do drafting instructions for this study and start reviewing the first draft of our U15 study.

Is it the will of the committee to adjourn?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

The meeting is adjourned.