Richmond residents Michelle Li and her family were shocked by how much Styrofoam refuse they found during a shoreline litter pickup last Saturday, and they're determined to make a change.
A petition asking Richmond city council to ban foam food-service packaging was launched by Li over the weekend and has collected more than 300 signatures.
“When we went out (to do the pickup) as a family, we couldn't believe how much garbage we were finding,” Li told the Richmond news.
“When we saw all the small particles of Styrofoam, and we couldn't pick up the thousands of tiny pieces, that’s when I thought, we really need to finally do something about this.”
Li and her family filled up their buckets soon after they commenced their one-hour search of Garry Point Park. She said other volunteers - nearly 100 in total on the day - all came back with full buckets.
“Foam made up 90 per cent what we found on the beach that day...that’s crazy just in one hour what garbage you can find on the beaches,” said Li.
"My daughter, a six-year-old, said ‘if we stop making it, we wouldn’t have to clean it up," and that's so true."
Li recognizes that a lot of foam garbage actually comes as a by-product from the fishing industry - from floating docks to large fish storage containers.
But she also noted that every one in 10 pieces of Styrofoam she picked up was part of food packagings, such as a foam cup or lid.
“That’s certainly something we and the city could address, even if it’s the small steps we take,” said Li.
“If we did a ban, it sends a message to big corporations that we don’t want to use packaging materials made of those fuels and chemicals when so many alternatives exists.”
In Feburary, Coun. Chak Au brought up a motion at a local general purposes committee meeting, asking staff to “study the merits and practicability of banning single-use plastic items” in Richmond.
The proposal is scheduled to come back to council for discussion next month and Li said she will present the petition to council then.
“The city has had a good start,” said Li.
“It could be a better bylaw if we want to incorporate a lot of single-use items, such as Styrofoam packaging, into one bylaw. It makes a lot of sense to address all these issues at once.”
