A threat of war is always a wake-up call.

So when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to declare war on Canada, of all places, over the issue of garbage, of all things, it caught the attention of the world.

And it drew the curtain back on a dirty little secret.

Since China closed its doors to all but the most pristine recyclables a year ago, ports in South-East Asian countries have become the dumping ground for contaminated plastics and cardboard from the West that consumers mistakenly, it turns out, believed were being recycled into nice new products.

So much for what Greenpeace calls “the myth of recycling.”

Now, as 69 containers of Canadian trash wend their way back to Canada — courtesy of Duterte, who kindly suggested we could “eat” the contents — this country has an opportunity to rethink the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Happily, that’s something Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is tackling with a new national zero plastic waste strategy scheduled to be released in phases, starting on Monday.

The goal, she says, is to cut down on the production and use of single-use plastics, put more onus on producers of plastic to pay for the problem, and improve recycling results.

All these objectives are not only welcome, but long overdue. And, surprisingly, they should not be difficult to enforce.

That’s because government regulations are lagging behind the expectations of the public and the aspirations of industry leaders.

A 2019 poll, for example, found 90 per cent of Canadians worry about how plastics are affecting the environment. (They are right to do so since only 9 per cent of plastics are recycled.) And 82 per cent believe the government can do more to tackle the issue.

Recycling programs, then, seem as good as any place to start. The simple fact is they are not working.

Much of what Canadians place in blue bins actually ends up in landfills and incinerators, or as litter.

And since China and other Asian countries are now closing their doors to recyclables, it’s going to get much worse.

Already, American cities such as Philadelphia and Memphis, which have been unable to find new markets for recyclables, have simply cancelled or placed limitations on their decades-old curbside pickup programs.

Toronto hasn’t waved the white flag on its blue bin program yet. But in 2018 the solid waste division received $6 million less from the sale of recyclables than in 2017, a shortfall triggered by both Chinese recyclers turning away non-pristine recyclables and bin contamination that boosts processing costs.

It’s clear, then, that a market must be created for disposables where they are manufactured.

A start would be for McKenna to require producers of plastics to at least use recyclables in their manufacturing process.

Further, the government can nudge manufacturers to reduce packaging by requiring them, not municipalities, to bear the cost of recycling the materials they use.

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This idea is not new. It’s already in place in British Columbia and the European Union.

And it should be a no-brainer considering it not only protects the environment but provides the manufacturers and retailers who find ways to reduce packaging with substantial economic benefits.

Walmart realized that way back in 2008 when it told its suppliers it would sell only concentrated laundry detergents that could be packaged in smaller bottles.

That seemingly small step resulted in a lot of “less”: less plastic used to produce containers, less water used in detergent manufacturing, less cardboard for smaller shipping boxes, less energy to transport and warehouse them, less greenhouse gas emissions — and, yes, less garbage and recycling.

Food retailers, too, are becoming more environmentally aware under pressure from their customers. After all, do zucchinis really have to be packaged in plastic wrap and Styrofoam trays?

Unboxed, a Toronto grocery store, doesn’t think so. It has eliminated or at least minimized all food packaging.

McKenna’s strategy should also encourage municipalities to make their recycling programs compatible.

The fact is, the system shouldn’t be as complicated as it is now. Some municipalities in the GTA recycle black plastics used in takeout food containers, for example, while others, such as Toronto, don’t. The result? Mass confusion over what’s recyclable — and more waste.

Finally, if Duterte’s threats demonstrated anything, it’s this:

McKenna’s strategy must ensure that Canada’s waste — from plastics to electronics — is recycled here.

It should not be dumped in Third World countries where there are few regulatory controls over where it ends up (hello oceans!) and where poisons from the trash leach into the soil, poisoning crops, people and creatures.

The bottom line is that Canada produces more garbage per person than any other industrialized nation. We’ve got to clean up our act.