The subject of today’s discussion is garbage. The
other day, my mom-in-law E.T. called me, somewhat amused, and she told me that
she had seen an article she felt was newsworthy for the Oppenheimer report. It
involved a story reported in The National
Post about 2500 tons of garbage, in 103 shipping containers, which had been
mistakenly shipped from Vancouver, B.C. to the Philippines. Ontario’s Chronic
Inc., a Canadian plastics recycling firm, is being blamed for the “mistake”,
but is denying the charges. Clearly someone screwed up, and it has become a
diplomatic nightmare. For some reason that waste has been sitting in a port in
Manila since it was delivered, four years ago. Asked about the situation while
he was in Manila recently.PM Justin Trudeau reassured Philippines President
Duterte that the matter is under consideration and that Canada will “hopefully”
find a solution. Justin is batting 0 with Duterte after publicly dissing him
over alleged human rights violations. This is apparently not the first time
garbage from another country has been “dumped” on the Philippines; Japan has apparently
been guilty of a similar crime. It is illegal for a developed country to ship
its waste to a developing nation.
Years ago, I heard an interview with CBC anchor Peter
Mansbridge, wherein he told the interviewer that he regularly takes his own
garbage to the dump. If I recall correctly, he said it kept him grounded, and he
wanted to acknowledge how much garbage he was generating. I take our garbage to
the Burk’s Falls Dump, partly for the same reason, and partly because garbage collection
is not a viable option for us. While there are private services which will
remove garbage from private residences near us, they will only do so from the
curbside. If I am going to assemble all my garbage and recycling, and drive it
to the top of our 500-meter-long drive, I might as well take it the extra three
miles to the dump. Besides, I’ve become friendly with the staff there. Some of
my more interesting conversations happen at the Burk’s Falls dump.
When I first started going to the Burk’s Falls
Landfill Site, back in 1994, the profile of the landscape was quite different.
In the past 25 years or so it is remarkable how much things have changed.
Recycling restrictions have changed considerably in that time, and we have, for
the past ten years or so, been composting our organic waste at home. I try to
keep most of that stuff out of the landfill. I often joke that Shauna and I
have the carbon footprint of Sasquatch, and in fact we have been very wasteful.
One thing I can say about taking one’s own garbage to the dump is that it makes
one more mindful of just how much waste we generate. I see how fast the landfill
mound is building, and as the local population continues to grow, that mound is
likely to be a mountain soon. I used to stop in the supermarket before my radio
show and pick up a pre-packaged sandwich to eat while I was broadcasting, but I
rarely do that anymore. Everything comes packaged in a plastic container. We
have a Tassimo coffee machine, which uses plastic coffee pods (which are almost
impossible to recycle). I have always wondered why, like Keurig, Tassimo does
not offer a compostable pod. I just heard on the news that those plastic pods will
soon be outlawed here, in favor of compostable pods.
Cynic that I am, I doubt my little attempt to reduce
our waste is going to make much difference, and certainly will not reverse the
trend of developing (and growing) Third World nations to disregard our stressed
planet. I believe that the horse is out of the barn and barking up the wrong
tree with both oars out of the water. I suspect Mother Nature will have the
last laugh, but at least I can say I was on deck when the ship went down.
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Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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