No Pick-Up Means Less Trash
by Bonnie Alter, London on 07.28.07
We are into the end of the first week of the garbage strike in Vancouver and instead of the standard photo of smelly garbage mounting up and rats breeding, we have...people composting! It's a fact; all of the big hardware stores in town have almost sold out of composters. Amidst warnings that the strike could go on for weeks, City officials are encouraging residents to step up their recycling efforts and people seem to be getting the message. Since about half of household garbage is organic material, much of it can be composted in a backyard composter. For those in apartment buildings, of which there are many in Vancouver, things could be a bit more difficult. However condominium dwellers are being urged to get into the habit of rinsing out recycleable tins and jars as a start.
Tips issued by the City for ways to reduce garbage during the strike are an environmentalist's dream: separating wet garbage, crushing cans,adding grass clippings to the compost, letting grass grow longer, and put fruit and vegetable waste in the compost. Whilst no one wants to see a long and destructive strike, necessity is the mother of invention and this labour dispute may inspire more people to think about garbage and take some small steps towards reducing it on a long term basis. :: The Globe and Mail
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Interesting post title. According to the garbage archaeologists at the U. of Arizona, it is literally true. People will throw out more stuff if given more or larger containers to do so. Decreasing pickups makes people throw out less stuff. I do not know whether they are buying less or just throwing out more.
And to think that all of the garbage are also putting themselves out of jobs as people learn how to reduce their waste while they are striking, trying to get more money for their job!
Good for the Vancouverites to live up to their eco-rep and enviro-rep. Those garbage collectors are going to have a long strike seeing the citizens prove their services aren't as critical as they claim.
It would be interesting to find out whether the same thing happened with the recent garbageworkers strike in Oakland. I suspect that the citizens of Vancouver may have been slightly more amenable to changing their trash habits...