Walking back from the store just now, I noticed two
batteries on the ground within the span of a few steps. I thought it funny to consider that in other
countries, four year olds would be fighting over that valuable find. Those things are worth something, and yet in
Canada we throw them in the trash like they are worthless. As some of my friends know, I take particular
offense to this because I realize how much damage batteries do to our planet
when they are not properly disposed of.
The same could be said for much of the trash I see
around. I walk through a high school
football field daily to the store or to catch the bus, and I could easily make
a few bucks a day simply by collecting the bottles and cans for their
deposit. Except here in Ontario, we
don’t do that anymore. If I lived in
Quebec, I and any other tree-huggers could help fight pollution and make some
spare change at the same time! The jig
is up….cans and bottles are worth money or they wouldn’t collect them at the
curb.
This brings me to another beef I have with Ontario; recycling
in general. Don’t get me wrong, as many
people know, I live and breathe recycling.
And based on the number of blue and grey bins on the curb each week, I
am not alone. I even noticed how neatly
my neighbor bound his cardboard last week!
We are a people who want recycling to work. We see the value in it. And even though we live in a relatively clean
Country, we still see that the need is greater than what we see in our own back
yards. As strange as this sounds, I feel
a wave of pride each week when I see all of my neighbors dedicating time to
mother nature, and don’t even get me started on the recycling stations I see
popping up at even privately owned stores and restaurants! How great!
You can imagine my despair and sheer and utter disgust when
I realized that none of my Governmental industries recycle….at all. Our Prisons’ kitchens do not recycle. Our military kitchens do not recycle. So this got me searching and questioning and
what I found was even more depressing.
The recycling stations at your local coffee shop are great in theory,
but like so many other programs these days they are really quite a joke. These bins are not especially user-friendly,
and so customers simply throw their waste in whichever bin is closest. The workers at said coffee shop are not
permitted to remove recyclables from the trash.
Therefore if there is even one tissue in the bin for cans and bottles,
the whole thing will be trashed. I
wonder if the Government gives them some credit for those bins?
Let’s look at another polluter. Grocery and convenience stores throw out
immense numbers of plastic garbage. They
would surely set up systems to follow if they were given credit for
recycling. As it stands today, it costs
money for stores to recycle. They have
to pay a company to come and pick recyclables up. What corporation is going to give even a few
hundred dollars a year to do something that they don’t have to do? Unfortunately, it all comes down to the bottom
line. I get that. I really do.
So why not give some credit to your citizens to have enough pride to
pick up trash for money. Money that they
can spend thereby fueling the oh so important economy.
We have now pulled out of the Kyoto program, saving Canada
millions of dollars. Why not spend a
tiny drop of that money and initiate a program to inspire your people to clean
up the province for you! At minimum
wage, a person would have to pick up about 103 ten cent cans or bottles per
hour. Wow … that’s what I call
productivity and a wage well spent! To
illustrate better, at this very moment I could walk across that field and pick
up at least fifty recyclable cans and bottles in a matter of about fifteen
minutes.
I would like to close by thanking all of my neighbors and
fellow Ontarians for doing their part each week and each day to keep the
outdoors clean. But I would also like to
compel you to demand better! We live in
the greatest country on the planet.
Let’s demand that it is kept clean!
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