From My Bottom Step

Christmas Tree Depots

From the City of London website:
Before bringing your tree to a depot, Londoners are asked to:Remove all decorations, including tinsel and garland, as these materials present a safety hazard for staff operating the chipping machinesIf disposing of other holiday evergreens (cedar rope, wreaths, etc.) ensure that all metal and other materials are removedAt the depot, please remove plastic bags used to transport the tree and take them home … Continue Reading

BYOB: Bring Your OLD Bottles

Would you drink water out of a recycled bleach bottle? #LDN

Seeking Environmental Authority

This Monday, the city’s Environment & Transportation Committee (ETC) will consider a proposal by it’s Advisory Committee on the Environment that London seek the same legislative authority from the province that the City of Toronto now enjoys to pursue waste reduction and diversion measures. That could include (1) the ability to compel retailers to charge a fee for the use of plastic bags and disposable beverage containers; and … Continue Reading

Delay Now Will Cost More Later

London’s recycling program is poised to expand on Dec. 1. That’s when residents will at long last be allowed to divert more things from the landfill.

Drinking boxes (from soups, juices or wine) and milk and juice cartons will have their paper fibres recycled into things like paper towels, tissues, and cereal boxboard.

It’s taken a long time to get this far. Many would say that it’s taken too long and that it’s not enough. And I’m one of them. Continue Reading

Rubber Sidewalks?

“There are rubber balls to bounce, rubber galoshes to keep your feet dry and rubber gloves for the nasty cleaning chores. Now, in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood and in a growing number of cities around the country, there are rubber sidewalks.” 01
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Earth Hour 2008

Noting that “most United States newspapers did not play up Earth Hour” and that the Canadian papers which were reviewed “previewed Earth Hour a lot more prominently” and “dominated with Earth Hour pictures,” David Gough asks, why did Earth Hour have a larger profile in Ontario? 01
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Another Kick at the Foam

In my last post about polystyrene I told you about the closure of the Mississauga recycling facility. 01
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Recycling to the Bank?

As I pointed out HERE last month, London is currently consulting the community about waste management (if you haven’t already done so, click HERE and complete the online survey; speak now, or don’t complain later). So perhaps that’s why this story virtually jumped off the screen at me when I came across it. It seems that down Philadelphia way, they’ve got a program that pays households to recycle!
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Recycling Polystyrene Foam

Styrofoam™ is a brand name for Dow insulation and the common name for all forms of polystyrene. The fact that it’s lightweight and cheap to produce makes it popular with manufacturers. But polystyrene is a landfill nightmare because of it’s initial bulk and the very long time that it takes to decompose. Also the fact that when it finally does break up it does so into pieces small enough to be ingested by birds and subsequently kill them via starvation.
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Community Consultation re Waste Management

“The broad field of waste management is a complex discipline that includes, but is not limited to, environmental protection, public education, waste reduction, recycling, composting, garbage collection, landfill construction and maintenance, data gathering and analysis, government regulation, and public relations. For municipal governments it requires staff that is continually learning new strategies, complying with government regulations and adapting and advancing techniques of waste diversion, collection and disposal. In London, the program is referred to as the Continuous Improvement System.” 01
Now, the City of London wants your opinion. You are being asked to read it’s just-released consultative ‘Road Map to Maximize Waste Diversion in London’ report, that “outlines and explains a number of options the City has compiled and/or developed to help Londoners achieve higher diversion rates,” and to complete/submit a questionaire/comments form that it contains.
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