Washing the Garbage

"New York City has finally hired women to pick up the garbage, which makes sense to me, since, as I've discovered, a good bit of being a woman consists of picking up garbage."
- Anna Quindlen -

We seem to spend an awful lot of time these days preparing our garbage. Everything gets carefully sorted into green garbage, regular garbage and recyclables. Massive bins inhabit our garages. Green garbage gets picked up just once a week now and regular garbage and recyclables get picked up every two weeks. Though in Toronto nothing is being picked up as we are in week three of a garbage strike. (Note to Mayor Miller - DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!) It seems like it wasn't that long ago when we just threw everything in a big garbage bag and put it at the curb twice a week.

I can respect the desire to protect our environment by practicing the three "Rs". I sometimes wonder though just how much energy we consume while trying to be green. For example, unless you are willing to put up with the stench and invite bugs and rodents, you can't just toss your recyclables into the bin. The only way to prevent the odor is to wash every can, bottle and styrofoam meat tray before it hits the bin. It can take quite a lot of time and water to wash the garbage.

A few months ago, our five-year-old refrigerator/freezer decided to quit. I always have a lot of food in my fridge as well as a packed freezer. I like to be prepared in the event an army drops by for dinner (and let's face it, I feed an army of Jacob's friends almost every weekend). I lost everything in the fridge and freezer. As if that wasn't bad enough, in order to dispose of all the spoiled food, I had to unpackage each item and separate it's components into the appropriate bin. Then I had to wash all the recyclables. It took me the best part of a day to get it all done. I will admit there were times that day when I considered getting a big garbage bag and just dumping it all in, but I resisted the temptation and plodded through.

I was pretty horrified to pick up the Toronto Star this past weekend and learn that much of the green garbage and recyclables we so carefully sort are in fact ending up in landfills along with the rest of the garbage. And the green garbage that is getting composted, isn't being properly sorted and so the compost is toxic to plant life. Could someone in the mayor's office explain that to me?

Perhaps it is time to rethink our garbage problems and go after the companies that over-package their goods. Maybe we could demand that those companies responsible for sorting the garbage after pick up, actually do their jobs. Or how about this - let's ask Mayor Miller to step up and be accountable for cleaning up the mess his administration has made. Wasn't he the candidate who ran around town brandishing a broom? The municipal elections will be here before we know it. Perhaps it is time for Torontonians to put out the garbage.