Mary-Em Wadding of Computers for Schools wrote this about her observations on a recent trip to the Maritimes:
Hi Everyone – I just returned from a trip to the Maritimes and was pretty impressed with what I saw out there in terms of home recycling and composting options for the residents in PEI and Nova Scotia.
New Brunswick had a program similar to BC with the exception of glass, which is land-filled there. [Ed Note: landfilling glass is not so dumb. The glass we recycle is not "recycled" into new glass but "downcycled" into sand and gravel substitute. This is a complete write-off on all the energy used to create the glass. The only really good use of glass is in refillable bottles ~ as is still done by Canada's beer industry.]
My hostess in PEI had a little waste can in the bathroom and a bigger can for compost! For tissues and other assorted paper products etc, a very active green organics collection program, and their local recycling plant had a wind turbine on the roof!
All kitchen scrap is collected in Nova Scotia, and many of the fast-food restaurants have bins for both waste and compost available for consumers to use after their meals – see the photo. (not that they were used without confusion as to what went where, but I didn’t take a picture of inside the waste containers).
Perhaps Metro shouldn’t be sending politicians to Sweden to look at waste-to-energy. It seems a trip to the Maritimes might prove a better example at moving towards zero waste. If they can do it, why can’t we?
New Brunswick had a program similar to BC with the exception of glass, which is land-filled there. [Ed Note: landfilling glass is not so dumb. The glass we recycle is not "recycled" into new glass but "downcycled" into sand and gravel substitute. This is a complete write-off on all the energy used to create the glass. The only really good use of glass is in refillable bottles ~ as is still done by Canada's beer industry.]
My hostess in PEI had a little waste can in the bathroom and a bigger can for compost! For tissues and other assorted paper products etc, a very active green organics collection program, and their local recycling plant had a wind turbine on the roof!
All kitchen scrap is collected in Nova Scotia, and many of the fast-food restaurants have bins for both waste and compost available for consumers to use after their meals – see the photo. (not that they were used without confusion as to what went where, but I didn’t take a picture of inside the waste containers).
Perhaps Metro shouldn’t be sending politicians to Sweden to look at waste-to-energy. It seems a trip to the Maritimes might prove a better example at moving towards zero waste. If they can do it, why can’t we?
Pic: Birdseye chili
