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One of two near-new one-litre Sigg bottles found in the paper recycling bin of a Vancouver strata complex.
January 15, 2009
An accidental binner embraces the rejected at Vancouver strata
Posted by Rob Klovance
As a veteran of strata living, in both apartments and townhouses, I’ve become acutely aware of our diverse attitudes toward recycling.
And for the most part, I’ve found Vancouverites to be divided into two main categories:
- The Believer, who not only takes great care to recycle as much as possible, but also rinses oily containers and always tries to place recyclables in the right bins. The Believer knows the rules and adherse to them, to the point of seeking out the local paint or electronics recycling facility.
- The Flinger, who only half pays attention to the recycling rules, probably doesn’t make any purchases based on the type of packaging the product comes in, tosses juice boxes in the paper bin, and leaves cardboard boxes, uncrushed, above the cardboard recycling bin. The Flinger helps out, but figures there are enough Believers around to deal with their mistakes.
But there is a third, fortunately far less common species I’ll charitably call The Pretender. And it is this sorry animal who unwittingly – always unwittingly – has turned me into an accidental binner.
The Pretender may occasionally place the right recyclable in the right bin, but on many occasions, he/she will either dump an unsorted collection of organic matter and recyclables in the garbage bin or – egad! – in a recycling bin. The Pretender is simply too busy, too important or too distracted to even care about getting it right.
One person's trash...
That’s where I come in. As a Believer, I will take a few minutes to transfer an errantly thrown tin from the paper to the container recycling bin, or carefully grab a bag full of organics and toss it into the garbage bin. I may even crush an extra box or two and slide it through the slot in that enormous cardboard recycling bin.
And on occasion, I am rewarded for my efforts.
In the past few months alone, I’ve plucked from the recycling bins:
- One unbroken, perfectly fine large black umbrella with wooden handle;
- Two pristine, probably new, one-litre Sigg aluminum bottles – one black, one with a camouflage pattern;
- One enormous roll of wrapping paper, adorned with penguins and snowballs in a winter scene.
It’s not like I’m dumpster diving here. I’m not even digging around. I’m just taking a quick peek each time I drop off my assortment of newspapers, plastics and paper in the strata’s communal recycling room.
Who would chuck a couple of $25 bottles into a paper recycling bin? And what sense does it make to toss a functioning, flawless umbrella into the actual garbage bin? My wife spotted the umbrella, because it was open and sitting on the top of a heap of organics and non-recyclable plastics.
So far, the giant roll of wrapping paper has covered 10 or so different kids gifts, and there’s probably enough left to wrap another 10 or 20.
Even if you got a chic new umbrella for Christmas, wouldn’t you leave it outside the bin so someone else might use it? And if you grew to despise the never-ending roll of penguin wrapping paper, wouldn’t you leave it for someone else?
Why recycling matters
An excellent piece on landfills in this month’s Maisonneuve Magazine states that Canadians created 35 million tonnes of garbage in 2006, an amount eight per cent higher than two years earlier.
That same piece, titled Talking Trash, delves into the possible long-term effects of “gasification technology”, which uses intense heat to convert municipal garbage into synthetic gas that’s then used to generate electricity. It sounds like a good idea, but it also cites an environmental consultant’s concern that long-term contracts to supply gasification plants could actually act as a disincentive for cities to promote recycling.
My guess is that the three Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle – still amount to the best answer to the ridiculous amounts of garbage we create. And it's with that belief that I have quietly ventured into a quiet form of recycler activism.
Twice in the past five years, I’ve outed Pretenders. In both cases they were boneheaded enough to not only drop bags of garbage – complete with coffee grounds, bones and other non-recyclables – into a recycling bin, but to leave envelopes addressed to them in the bag.
The next step was to post a message, accompanied by the addressed envelope, on the strata common area bulletin board: “Mr. Jones, Suite 1201, please stop tossing garbage in the recycling bins!”
I think it worked.
Rob Klovance is managing editor of bchydro.com.
Related links:
- BC Hydro Power Smart Resources: Waste & Recycling
- Go paperless with your BC Hydro bill
- Buy Something Used Day, Jan. 22, 2009
Go to the Unplug This Blog! main page
The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of BC Hydro.
Source: BC Hydro
