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LETTER: Ban plastics in Cowichan, please!

New legislation allows municipalities and regional districts to do so
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Dear Mayors, Councillors and CVRD Directors:

Please pass an immediate ban of all plastics under recent B.C. legislation now allowing municipalities and regional districts to ban various plastics.

Of course, such a plastic ban in Cowichan not only makes environmental sense — paralleling our laudable climate-change bylaws — but economic sense, since Cowichan pays some $3 million annually to ship our trash downstream to Washington State.

Most Cowichanians have done a superb job recycling to reduce our shipping and tipping fees.

Please ban plastic bags and other plastics in local stores and shops, and advertise to remind folks to bring cloth bags for shopping — or to request compostable paper bags.

This plastic ban is a no-brainer for Cowichan where local leaders have debated such a sensible action for years but not achieved it — spelling more plastics in our tourist-oriented natural environment.

I also urge our local governments to request our provincial and federal governments to reduce or eliminate more plastic packaging, and plastic fishing gear, that are deadly to our wildlife and ecology.

The feds have promised to ban various single-use plastics this year but have failed to do so thus far.

Furthermore, I suggest council and the CVRD work with our great local businesses and chambers of commerce to make the ban a smooth transition away from such plastics that can last forever in our environment.

Thanks, and I look forward to your swift action on such a plastics ban that’s already legally in place in various B.C. municipalities.

Yours in health and safety,

Peter W. Rusland

North Cowichan