| Picking Up the Pieces |
| Birth of the Bottle Bill |
First SPEC branch was set up by concerned neighbours in West Van. They also established first recycling depot.
by Ann Ferries
Eagle Harbour beach was closed by high coliform counts in July
of 1969. Hamish McIntyre, who lived nearby, gathered a small group to see
what could be done. At that time Neil Armstrong was taking his first
steps on the moon and some of the group grumbled they’d prefer being home
watching it on TV. Those images from space of the earth, so small
, so vulnerable and precious, caught our collective consciousness.
We kept meeting and learning the facts about pollution. What could we
do? What should we do? We heard of a new organization being started
and invited Liberal MP Jack Davis to a packed meeting in West Van.
We elected an executive and called ourselves the West Vancouver branch
of SPEC.
It seemed that many of our problems were not caused maliciously. Quite the contrary, they were due to not thinking of the ramifications of our actions. To get people to appreciate the consequences of their consumption choices, we started a monthly Recycling Day for news papers, glass and cans. We naively thought the municipality would see the benefits and in a few months would initiate door-to-door recycling. Well, it was more like 23 years before it eventually happened. Another disillusionment was learning many people simply did not “think it through.” They felt virtuous bringing us unsorted muddles but became indignant when asked to separate it into proper piles. Yet more education was needed.
We took part in May Day Parades, distributed flyers, put posters on buses, protested BC Rail spraying, and staffed displays in shopping malls. It was fun coming up with ideas on how to reach people. And by acting in a positive manner we staved off despair.
Ann Ferries has been West Van SPEC treasurer since 1969. In 1996 Ann took over SPEC’s finances as well.
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by Helen Spiegelman
In the early 1960s, beverage companies introduced the revolutionary new concept of convenient "no deposit-no return" bottles. By the mid-sixties there was a growing backlash against the disposable bottle because of the proliferation of roadside litter. The governments of Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta and at least three US states were "seriously considering" bans on disposable glass bottles. In 1970 British Columbia’s Social Credit government became the first to pass a law to deal with this litter problem. The solution was not to ban disposable bottles and cans, but instead to require stores to take back empty containers and provide a cash refund. Our pioneering deposit-refund program was born– as part of the B.C. Litter Act.
The political backing for this strong legislation came from the B.C. Federation of Agriculture, the B.C. Wildlife Federation and the B.C. Nature Council. Not from the newly formed "Scientific Pollution and Environmental Control Society." SPEC founder Derek Mallard was dismissive of the new legislation in comments quoted in both the Vancouver Sun and Province (May 25, 1970). Mallard felt that the deposit-return system was "one minute step forward;” no more than "a drop in the bucket.” Mallard wanted to see the government go after the big polluters like the wood and paper industries that had created a "paper bag culture" by marketing brown paper grocery sacks. Mallard suggested that litter laws only scratch the surface of the much larger problems in our disposable society. Meanwhile, SPEC chapters all over the province were providing volunteer-run community recycling programs for newspapers as well as bottles and cans.
It is a curious irony of history that a generation later, the soft drink industry would use Mallard’s same reasoning to argue against the deposit system, and to push for expanded taxpayer-funded community recycling as the "comprehensive" solution for disposable products and packaging. SPEC bythat time was lobbying for expanded deposits. Social Credit Minister Ken Kiernan who brought in the deposit law would be proven right when he claimed that the B.C. Litter Act represented a "new philosophy" in approaching environmental problems. For all its shortcomings, and they were many, the pioneering B.C. Litter Act established the historic "polluter pays principle" as B.C. policy and created an economic instrument that would drive not only 80 per cent recycling rates, but also package redesign for easier recycling.
Even though pop and beer cans are just "a drop in the bucket", the principle
of producer responsibility was established. Like a genie in a bottle, it
was ready to be released and applied to other throw-away products. It took
a generation, but starting in 1992 B C’s landmark product stewardship programs
(for paint and household hazardous products) carried the work forward.
We are systematically shifting the burden of waste management where it
belongs – on producers of products that end up as waste.
This year we also saw the long-awaited expansion of deposit-return
to include all beverages but milk. Like the original legislation,
this update faced pressure from industry and awkward last-minute
compromises.
In 1970 the government bowed to pressure from three companies who sold
beer or pop in cans and claimed they’d be ruined by the new mandate. They
got an exemption (which in fact was rescinded before the law came into
effect). This year, a coalition of juice producers put the
screws on the government. One of its members, SunRype, threatened SPEC
with a SLAPP suit for publicizing their hardball eleventh-hour lobby campaign.
They got a one-year extension for deposits on "drink boxes", which
must now be returnable, recyclable – or banned on Oct. 1, 1999.
SPEC’s goal for 1999 is to lead a nation-wide campaign for recycled
content in certain plastic containers, which would create stable markets
for the milk jugs you put in your blue box – as well as water jugs you
return for refunds. Stay tuned. . .
Helen Spiegelman is a director of SPEC and chairs the Solid Waste
and Recycling Committee. She was
involved in setting up the BC Recycling Council and
is no stranger to corridors of power in Victoria.
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