It is important to achieve the goal of visibility without sacrificing our light environmental footprint principle in this election.
The signs we use this time at Beachs East-York is made by cardboard, with a biodegradable plastic coating. It is printed on vegetable ink. It is more expensive than the non-biodegradable bag or corrugated plastic signs, but I believe we must walk the talk. There are 107 ridings in Ontario, each with at least 4 candidates. If each candidate uses between 200 to 1000 non-biodegradable signs, we are talking about 85,000 to 400,000 signs that will go to the landfill after this election, and it will take hundred of years for these signs to disappear in the landfill.
This is the same for our printed materials. The Green Party of Ontario postcards are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper that uses vegetable ink. We use waterless printing technology that reduces the use of water and pollutants that go into our water. They are also printed by using wind power. If each of the 107 riding has 4 candidates, each produces between 50,000 to 70,000 pieces of printed material, it is a small forest being cut down this election if we use paper from non-sustainable forest.
