City
Morning Brew: November 20th, 2008
Photo: "DSC02620 idc sml" by mikepop2ca, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes slightly beyond):
High-rise condo dwellers were introduced to the idea of green bin composting of organic waste, rather than dumping all of their unsorted garbage down the chute. Listening to CFRB last night, it seems that many condo residents are reticent because of fears that organic waste will smell bad and attract bugs and mice. With attitudes like this persisting, it'll be difficult to reach our 70% landfill diversion goal.
Oshawa drivers are being given a neat option this holiday season. Rather than paying parking ticket fines in anger and disgust, they're able to pay their fines with toys, which will then be given to children in need. I suspect that the only thing stopping Toronto from following suit is... well... being broke and needing the money desperately.
The Toronto Zoo wants to turn poop into something useful by me and you - electricity. There's not quite enough crap being generated by elephants, lions, and orangutans to run a 4MW digester (i.e. more crap would need to come from elsewhere), so it being hosted by the zoo would be a largely symbolic gesture.
--
A chilling note that read "Do not enter. Call police" was posted on the front door of a Scarborough home yesterday morning. Inside lay the bodies of four slain people, all described by neighbours as good people. More details about this grisly scene are expected to trickle in throughout the coming days.
CBC Toronto got a bit of a makeover this morning. It's a little cold and blue, but I like it!
Previewing of mystery artworks is now open on the OCAD Whodunit? art sale page. Come Saturday morning, it'll be first come, first claims - and they're going for just $75 a pop. Don't be a jerk and beat me to the ones I want. Please and thanks!
Discussion
18 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
From my very brief experience so far living in a condo, I can tell you there's a whole hell of a lot of people that don't seem to even know how to dispose of garbage properly using these chutes.
"Being reluctant to use it because of odours & rodents doesn't make sense."
Actually, it makes perfect sense, depending on how such a program would be set up. If it's set up so that organic waste could be thrown down a separate chute in a bag (daily, since collecting it in one's apartment is not feasible for most people), or placed into a tightly sealed bin in one's garbage room, then it may work. If not, then apartment and condo dwellers worrying about organic waste attracting bugs, rodents and smells makes perfect sense.
I live in a high-rise, and I recycle. I do so because I have a passing interest in environmental preservation, and because there's a blue bin down my hallway in the garbage room. If that bin wasn't there or I had to take the elevator downstairs to recycle, I wouldn't do it and neither would the vast majority of people who live in buildings. One key reason a lot of people live in buildings is to avoid gardening, mowing the lawn, shovelling snow or dragging trash to the curb once a week. The city needs to recognize this if they're going to succeed in bringing green-bin recycling to buildings.
Just because you're self-righteous, it doesn't make you right... It has nothing to do with being lazy. Having to take recycling down the elevator constantly would be a fairly significant inconvenience to me. I work long hours, am not home much during the week, and have other, more important things to take care of when I am home. To run crap down to a bin in the morning when I'm rushing to the office, or at night when I'm rushing to fix dinner, means 10-15 minutes I don't have on a daily basis. And sure, I could bring everything down once or twice a week instead, but that's just as big an inconvenience, as it means I have to collect garbage in my already cramped space through the week.
Anyhow, it's a moot point; my building does offer recycling on each floor, and I take advantage of it. My point was this is how any new programs will have to be set up for any realistic buy-in to happen.
And this will be enforced in condos/apartments how? Garbage police? You can sneer are those who won't participate all you want, but the reality is if it is not easy, people won't do it. Unlike with homeowners, there is no real incentive for apartment dwellers to participate.
And to follow up on my point above, whether or not you throw food waste into the garbage or put it into a Green Bin, both will potentially attract unwanted pests and cause odours. I don't think it's much of an argument to say that garbage that contains organic waste smells better and attracks less rodents & bugs than a Green Bin that only contains organic waste.
See my point above. I can throw out my combined waste down the chute daily negating any issue with smell while I wouldn't have the option with organics. It would mean a daily trip downstairs to dispose as it would in most buildings. I know it may seem trivial to some (myself included) but to echo Dave's point it will not happen if it isn't easy and can't be enforced.
I don't doubt you're right: some people won't bother to participate. Some people leave their food wrappers on the floor of the subway; some people let their dog crap in the park and don't scoop it up. All am saying is that those people are -- and I say this as politely and unselfrighteously as possible :] -- dicks.