Earth Day opportunity to be compostable leader: Miller

QUEEN’S PARK — Sunday’s Earth Day celebration is an opportunity not to be wasted.

MPP Norm Miller wants Ontario to be compostable leader in packaging.

In the lead up to Earth Day, Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norm Miller moved a motion calling upon the government to make Ontario a leader in the emerging field of compostable packaging.

He’s been big on the issue urging the government in recent years to act more responsibly.

And you can bet if the Tories win the June 7 election, his bill will gain more weight and traction.

“As the Environmental Commissioner has told us: ‘Ontario has a waste problem,’ and I agree,” said Miller in the legislature last week.

“I believe one of the ways to address our waste problem is to increase the use of compostable packaging and provide greater access or organics collection.”

The motion suggested offering tax incentives to companies doing research into compostable packaging or transitioning to compostable packaging. It also suggested helping municipalities improve and expand organics collection through incentives and by streamlining the approvals process for composting facilities.

This motion follows up on Miller’s Private Member’s Bill debated last November to require all single-use coffee pods sold in Ontario to be compostable within four years.

Don’t forget Earth Day is …

“Today I want to talk about more than coffee pods. Lots of packaging could be made from compostable bioplastics and I would love to see Ontario on the leading edge of compostable packaging,” said Miller.

“Plastics are becoming recognized around the world as a problem so compostable packaging is not only good for the environment, it represents a good business opportunity.”

Members of all three parties spoke in support of Miller’s motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Meanwhile, a report in the Toronto Star says Miller’s PC Party is not committing to continue a Liberal program that shifts the cost and responsibility for recycling waste on to the companies that produced it.