Our mission is to accelerate environmental action in Banff National Park by normalizing reusable takeout in our community.
BID is a pilot reusable container program that was created in order to address a specific issue written in Banff’s environmental master plan: how might we eliminate single-use items and plastics from the townsite? The goal of the program is to reduce the amount of single-use container waste and to validate a reusable scheme for Banff in the long run. This project is being spearheaded by Luna Kawano as a part of a capstone design project at the University of Waterloo.
The goal is to launch fast and iterate quickly. Our hope is to launch the pilot sometime in May!
the plastic pollution problem lies not in the plastic itself but people's relationship with it.
We are using plastic #5 containers (polypropylene) manufactured by G.E.T enterprise. While it may seem strange that we've moved forward with plastic, it's important to remember that human consumption behaviour is at the root of the plastic pollution problem. If we focus on changing behaviour and transitioning to reuse, plastic is the best option we have—at least, for now.
According to LCA’s conducted by various researchers, plastic is often responsible for fewer environmental impacts than many common packaging materials. This is because smaller amounts of mass are needed for effective packaging performance, allowing for lower transport emissions and less energy and materials needed to produce plastic relative to other materials. Plastic is also durable, affordable, and can be washed and dried easily.
How do you accelerate environmental action within communities? This is the question that led to the creation of BID. Let's begin with why community action matters.