Dear Mr. Epp, MP of Chatham - Kent - Leamington,

We are writing to you today from John McGregor Secondary School, in Chatham, Ontario to discuss a few concerns that we have about recycling in our town and within our country. We are concerned that the new Ontario Blue Box Program is a greenwashing tactic that will allow plastic manufacturers and producers to continue to increase their plastic production in the disguise of an environmentally friendly service. This new system that gives businesses across Ontario the option to, ‘place recycling in the garbage stream,’ is irresponsible. It is crucial that businesses should be legally made to recycle. While this change may not affect your generation's long-term future, it will certainly affect ours. The government's apathy towards environmental concerns makes us feel that you are not concerned about younger generations. We will be forced to deal with the consequences of your decisions. While enforcing environmental protection laws in the Chatham-Kent region is a small piece of the puzzle, implementing sustainable initiatives would be a step in the right direction and hopefully inspire change across the country.

We have recently been learning about the global plastic crisis and how less than 9% of recycling in Canada was actually recycled last year. It is an upsetting realization that the rest of it was either dumped in a landfill, sent to other countries to be dumped, or burned. What is more frustrating, is that some big businesses will produce more waste per minute than some families will in their entire lives, and yet the emphasis is placed on the responsibility of the consumer to do their part.

We support a strong Global Plastics Treaty and the Single-Use Plastic ban. We were upset to find out that the ban was found as ‘unreasonable’ by a federal court last November. We feel that it is unreasonable to financially profit and invest in the plastic industry when it comes at the expense of our future. Many of us feel dreadful about the future and believe there is more that the Chatham-Kent region could be doing to help.

We think that over the next century, if plastic production continues to increase (as it is expected to), and big businesses aren’t held accountable for their actions, humanity and animal life will be threatened to extinction. This issue needs real support from our government before there is no chance of a future. You have said that you will make ‘listening’ your top priority moving forward, so we hope that you will listen to the concerns of the youths living in your own community.

Create well-paid jobs that promote sustainability for a strong economy with a moral conscience. Prevent ignorance and educate the community on where plastic comes from and where we send it after it is falsely promised to be recycled. As a farming community, we feel that sustainable, environmental practices should go hand in hand with farming practices. In protecting our land, we are prolonging the fertility of our soil, clean drinking water and air and as a result we will have better quality and reliable produce.

Every morning at school after we stand for the Canadian National Anthem, we listen to the Traditional Territory Land Acknowledgements where we recognize that we, as beneficiaries of the treaty, have a ‘responsibility to the land and water’. So we want to know what you are willing to do to honour this responsibility. We encourage you to implement a mandatory bottle deposit scheme, where consumers are encouraged to recycle with financial incentive. We want to see businesses held responsible for their waste disposal with fines and potential tax deductions for waste reduction, without greenwashing tactics. Invest in our future. You said that you would represent all of the voices from this community when you are in Ottawa, and we will hold you to your word.

Sincerely,

Students of John McGregor Secondary School

& Allies/Supporters