Lessening garbage and other solid waste
already been written and said about plastic bags. Reusable bags are easy to find. Also, there are stores where you can bring your own refillable container and continue to reuse them on subsequent shopping trips. Bulk Barn allows this with most of its items, and Yarmouth Natural Food does for some items. Emin’s Meat Market wraps their meat in butcher’s paper, eliminating disposal of plastic and Styrofoam. You can tell mail order companies not to pack with bubble wrap. All of this keeps waste items totally out of the household stream. There are probably more examples.
It then becomes a challenge to dispose of items you’ve not consumed — and it becomes more interesting. First of all, we have an excellent waste management system managed by Waste Check. (www.wastecheck.com)
I’ve called them often about individual items and they’ve never failed to have a reasonable answer on how to dispose. Their website gives a comprehensive guide and it’s worth looking at on an annual basis to refresh your memory. Here’s some tips from Margrit.
If you have a wood stove burn, what you can — used tissues, unrecyclable paper, cardboard packaging.
Air dry your laundry and don’t use dryer sheets.
Make good use of your compost bin but don’t put plastic bags in the bin. Even the so-called degradable ones are doubtful.
Save up metal bits, paint cans, light bulbs and take them to the land fill — they have a way of handing these items.
The next time you’re in Staples, have a look at their six bins that handle items such as felt tip markers, cellphones and printer cartridges.
Old clothes can be passed on, mended or brought to donation bins (www.afterwear.ca).
CDs, clothes and household items can be taken to the Salvation Army for their thrift store on Main Street in Yarmouth.
Electronic items can be taken to the recycler on the Hardscratch Road in Yarmouth. Working electrical components can be taken in by TREPA for the annual freecycle event where used but working electrical items are gathered and then given away.
It is scheduled this year for April 25, contact me at Barrie.MacGregor@ gmail.com or at 902-648-0462. This includes computer equipment.
Where garbage gets complicated is with items that are composed of a number of components. To illustrate this point Margrit deconstructed a small can of tea bags into its various components. The photo shows the various bits all of which go into a separate stream of your household waste.
How waste is handled covers a spectrum and people can chose for themselves what extent suits them. Every little bit helps.