I just saw this CBC story on organic car parts and I’m left with one resonating thought: if we replace our oil-based plastics development with crop-based, what happens to the cost of food? Why are we desperately trying to starve ourselves out, just so we can have a new car every few years?

The Ontario government has also bought into the vision, committing nearly $6 million to the BioCar Initiative. At the University of Guelph, that money is helping researchers create industrial strains of crops like wheat, corn and soybeans.

Even if industrial strains of crops are different from those that are edible, the economics behind industry can easily cause food production to drop. All it takes is for the price of industrial crops to exceed that of food. Farmers will go where the money is. Either the price of food crops will jump and poor people will go hungry or the price of food crops won’t jump and everyone will go hungry.

This is really the same problem as before: people refuse to look at the total effects of the stuff they want. Everything comes from somewhere and eventually goes somewhere. Now it just happens to be bio-degradable and not require quite as much oil, but we’re no better off. A better option would be to just consume less junk…

It’s hard not to be cynical in the face of hyper-consumerism.

Wellington currently has a residential recycling program that collects types 1 and 2 plastics, glass, tins and paper¹. As part of their program to make the city cleaner and greener, they are implementing a public recycling program. There will be around 80 fixed recycling bins placed around the city to collect recyclables that don’t make it back to a house. This will give options to tourists and locals alike. Now I shouldn’t have to stop in at a café or store along the way and ask if they have a recycling bin.

¹ I’m still holding out hope that they will eventually accept more plastic types. The bulk of the containers available at the grocery stores are type 5.

CBC has some news on the development of new biodegradable materials that can be used to replace the ever-present coffee cup. The next trick will be convincing the cafes to adopt them, even if it happens to cost a bit more.