The semi-recent limit to our garbage pickup has left me in a conundrum.
I exceed the one-can limit every week, or should I call it the 3/4 can limit? We are a family of four with two being teenagers as well as weekend visits from my daughter and son-in-law. It is not unusual for me to walk into my house to find my kids and their friends crowded around the living room drinking slurpees while they hang out socializing. I am quite often left with 4 or 5 large slurpee cups sitting on my coffee table or if I am lucky on my kitchen counter.
My point is, it is tough to meet the weekly limit in our household. I understand the city is trying to force us to amend our ways, and we had, long before the limit was enforced. We always recycled anything that is recyclable. My husband faithfully packed it all up and sorted it, then delivered it weekly to the Strathcona recycling bins. We bring back all our bottles to the bottle depot and we even used our composter out back so in a nut shell we had made every effort to help keep our garbage waste down to a minimum.
Now times have changed with the one-can limit. I won’t say we don’t recycle anymore because we do. However, now our routine includes trips to the landfill to dispose of the excess garbage. What are we supposed to do with it? We do all the right things and still exceed our limit every week.
The conundrum? Are you wondering what it is now? I’ll tell you what it is, I am slipping. I find myself more often throwing away cardboard waste or used cans.
I know, I am a horrible earth friendly citizen. I feel guilty about it but truth be told my busy life has me cut corners and when I am packing up the kitchen waste I find myself throwing things away that could be recycled because I know we are headed to the landfill. Please don’t scream and shout, I am being honest and I don’t throw recyclable items away all the time but the day before and the day of the landfill trip I am more likely to cut corners.
Any good recycler knows it takes time to recycle. To fold up boxes, rinse cans, yogurt containers etc. It is much faster to stomp on cardboard and throw it away or shove the yogurt container in the garbage.
Don’t get me wrong, like I mentioned already we still recycle 90 per cent of the time but I do find myself slipping. We used to recycle 100 per cent of the time.
I suppose trying to keep ourselves in a two-can limit was already challenging enough and the challenge to stay within the two-can limit motivated me to always recycle. Now the city expects the impossible.
When you are fighting a losing battle sometimes it gets discouraging and I have slipped.
My question is...can I be the only one? If I am not...and maybe I am...but again if I am not, what has the city accomplished?
Even if I didn’t slip on the odd occasion we haven’t reduced our garbage, has anyone else?
In one year’s time I would love to know the stats of garbage waste at the landfill, has Campbell River changed their ways?
Karyn Rasmussen