From My Bottom Step

Zerofootprint London

A City Hall media release. Published by FMBS as a public service.

Waste Reduction Week

From item #15 on today’s Environment & Transportation Committee agenda:

Waste Reduction Week in Canada’s origins can be traced back to the mid 1980s when a number of environmental organizations, recycling organizations and municipalities began holding recycling and waste reduction days or weeks. Many of these events were provincial in nature. In Ontario, the efforts were led by the recycling Council of Ontario which London has been a … Continue Reading

BYOB: Bring Your OLD Bottles

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

Outdoor Water Use

Outdoor water restrictions are in effect.

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

Rain Barrels Get Some LFP Attention

During the last municipal election campaign in London, our daily newspaper ignored the part of my platform which advocated the use of rain barrels. Actually, the LFP ignored my campaign completely
It was nice to see this deserving subject receive some press in today’s newspaper (”Recycle water by using rain barrels”) even if it was only a news service filler story.
Better late than never, or … Continue Reading

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
Continue Reading

W3 Review – Lower Footprint

Here’s a recent pleasant discovery… Mateo is a fellow on Canada’s east coast who’s blogging about the experience of trying to reduce his ecological footprint this year.
Continue Reading

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.
Continue Reading

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.
Continue Reading