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Whose Garbage is It Anyway?
According to the VANCOUVER SUN the GVRD is looking at 23 different proposals from firms poised to "refine" GVRD waste.
It seems to me that the amount of time and effort people and organizations have spent discussing the need for "sustainability" in all that we do, that the silent message of moving our garbage elswhere is a troublesome one.
Would some people subconciously feel defeated in their growing efforts to re-use and recycle? Perhaps some would wonder what the point of their blue bow efforts would be if all of our waste would be shipped to Alberta regardless?
I am one who thinks we should be cleaning up our own messes. It is a starting point for teaching us that we should be careful in how we buy consume and discard.
What do you think?
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The BC Sustainable Energy Association (BCSEA) will be holding a forum around waste incineration in Vancouver at the beginning of November. For more details see www.bcsea.org/vancouver.
I agree that incineration is a good but unpopular solution.
If there was a decent cost benefit (environmental) analysis of incineration vs. transport of garbage perhaps a new solution could evolve?
What about burning construction materials and old couches at greenhouse facilities rather plain old wood?
I went to meetings in 1989 and we did make a difference. Plans for a 'garbage unmixing plant' on the edge of downtown were abandoned in favour of source separation of recycleables (esp. paper from all those offices) Recycling and moves to get yard waste out of the garbage stream have reduced the volume. The GVRD had a target for reduction and I believe they've met it.
As unpopular as it might be, I'm inclined to think we should consider gasification or incineration for some proportion of the non-recycleable mixed waste stream. I worked in property management for some years and was struck by the volume of waste when you re-carpet a suite or have to dispose of decrepit abandoned furniture.
And yes, we 'should' consume less. But that won't happen overnight!
Well said Stephen. I couldn't agree more.
We are just starting to get a grip on our consumption bad habits and moving the refuse elsewhere sends the wrong message.
Its ours. Our responsibility. We must take care of it here. And we have to start by regarding it not as garbage but as a valuable resource. Not spend money and precious fossil fuel taking it somewhere else and just burying it. But turning it into things we can use, or into energy we desparately need. The blue box hardly scratches the surface. And have you tried to get rid of a tv or computer monitor lately?
And merchants and manufacturers have to step up to the plate. Stop making things with built in obsolesence. Make sure that if it has a battery that the battery can not only be recharged but replaced. Make it repairable. Give people who need jobs the opportunity to show what they can do. Is taking back bottles the best we can come up with?
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