The futuristic library — which can autonomously manage its heating, lighting and electricity systems — makes the small city of Varennes proud. Every day, more than 150 people come to enjoy the library. Varennes, population 21,000 and 30 kilometres southeast of Montreal, is a renewable energy pioneer in Quebec. The library sits at the city’s centre — a shining beacon with a cathedral-style roof covered with 428 solar panels — and aligns directly with the sun’s path across the sky. With a wide array of windows letting in natural light and a geothermal system in the basement, it’s clear that energy efficiency and clean electricity is at the library’s heart. |
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Emily Chung · CBC News · Posted: Jun 04, 2018 Reduce, Reuse and Rethink is a CBC News series about recycling. We're exploring why our communities are at a turning point and exploring ways to recycle better. You can be part of the conversation by joining our Facebook group. The Canadian plastics industry aims to make all plastic packaging recyclable or "recoverable" by 2030, and actually entirely diverted from landfills by 2040. At the same time, environmental groups say they want to eliminate litter from single-use plastics like bags and cutlery by 2025. The Canadian Plastics Industry Association and the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada announced Monday that they aim to make 100 per cent of plastic packaging recyclable or "recoverable" — divertable from landfills for use in products like chemical feedstocks, fuel and lubricants — by 2030. The same day, a group of 33 environmental and civil society groups recommended that Canada require all provinces to aim to recycle at least 85 per cent of single-use plastics by 2025 and have the rest "captured" — that is, disposed of properly by landfill or incineration and not released into the environment. That was one of a dozen national policies suggested in the "Towards a Zero Plastic Waste Canada" declaration released by Environmental Defence, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Canadian Environmental Law Association, the Broadbent Institute and dozens of others. READ MORE EDITOR'S COMMENT: Let us keep this major environmental problem at the top of our concerns and to call on industry and politians to act! What do you think, 2040 or 2025? For your grandchildren speak out! The plastics declaration proposes banning hard-to-recycle plastics. Environmental Defence's Ashley Wallis says an example is styrofoam. (Jon Hernandez/CBC) |
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