Castaway on Cuba

Well, Castro’s hanging on, and no surprise, but Cuba has litter too. On the beaches, left behind by tourists, and thrown up by the waves from the sea.

For some reason, the tourist litter bothers me less. Not a good comment about us, but the household waste along the beach disturbs me more. I saw juice containers, medical gloves, lots of shoes, and a syringe.

Where does this stuff come from? Do people throw their trash into the sea in Cuba? Has it drifted in from other islands? And were the shoes torn from the feet of people trying to make Florida any way they could?

Whatever, there seems to be a universal word for garbage, and it’s plastic.

To take care of it all, a tractor-pulled wagon lifted the debris off the beach, chewed it all up and threw it back onto the sand.Wonder how long it will take before we’ll be sunning on plastic.

During my stay there, I met a fellow from Quebec who picks up litter too. It seems I’m part of an interprovincial movement. He’s done it for a long time, first with his daughter and now his grandchildren.

He tells them the area they’re walking in is paradise and that we shouldn’t blemish paradise by littering or leave it unsightly by waiting for the official litter-pickers to do their job.

His life is a lesson in persistence paying off. Twenty years ago, he and his wife started a book store in an industrial area with $300. For two years, they lived in a small room in the bookstore.

Now they have 20 employees, enough to let them get away and travel.

In ways, Cuba seems ahead of us. All I saw were compact fluorescent lightbulbs. And, we put our key card into a slot to turn on the air conditioning and lights. In leaving the room, we pulled it out and the electricity cut out.

Saves running around to turn everything off.

And, because Cuba is such a poor country, locals grow much of their own food and walk everywhere. Bicycles and horse-drawn wagons are the advanced means of travel.

Good for health and the environment, although I’m sure people would prefer to have a choice.

Tomorrow, back to the snow-covered streets of Aurora.

International litter

Duty calls, and I’m off to Cuba to pick up litter along the beaches. Maybe Castro will die while I’m there, and I’ll be able to witness a historic moment and pick up some photos.

Adios for now.

Litter check-up

My last stroll took me over the route of a week ago, to Trinity Anglican to buy some clothes. So, that’s down Catherine, Spruce, across Wellington and down Victoria.

That eye-sore of a spot outside Yellow Brick House looks almost clean this week. No garbage, the container of French fries has gone (I have rules for this pickup and one of them is leaving uneaten food is one of them.). However, a discarded living room chair took its place.

All I got this trip, aside from a chat with a neighbour, was a grocery bag and coffee cup.

Pretty well sums up our litter situation here.

Big haul

Today was garbage day, arriving before I had time to transfer the recyclables I picked up, put into blue bins, then into the garbage thinking they were too dirty, then realizing they weren’t, so putt them back into the blue bins. Out to the street the stuff went, but in a blue garbage can.

Blue, my conscience thought, the recycling guys will take it because the can is blue, it’s open, they’ll see the recyclables and pick them up.

No deal. Then, I thought the garbage guys might reject the blue can too because of the recycling stuff in it, but no, it’s safely underground in Michigan by now.

Too busy working to walk, but I did manage to collect more information from the region about how our waste stream works:

We’re under a two-tier system here, and as far as anyone I’ve talked to knows, it’s mandated by the provincial government. So, municipalities in York Region such as Aurora manage and pay for the pick-up of waste, blue box material and in the fall, green bins gunk.

It’s the region’s job to manage processing. So it owns and operates the recycling centre in East Gwillimbury, which receives, sorts and packs the recyclables for sale.

From the revenue the region receives from sales (prices given in an earlier post), which amounted to $6 million from January to November 2006, $4.5 million went to processing the material. The rest goes to defray the facility’s cost, which is $29 million.

I’ve toured that facility, and it’s an impressive place. Troubling too though. There were bales and bales of crushed water bottles and aluminium cans waiting to be shipped out. Great that they’re being recycled, but it bothers me that these are items we don’t really need to use in the first place.

Small haul

After yesterday’s rant, I called Home Depot’s Canadian store maintenance division. It seems Home Depot is the not evil empire I assumed it to be.

They have someone working full-time to reduce energy use in the stores across Canada. Initiatives include the light In all except for three stores across Ontario, the lighting has been replaced with more energy efficient stuff. Light fixture displays going off automatically when it reaches 85 F outside.

This kind of initiative hassaved the company $12 million in energy costs in one year.

But, the displays are supposed to feature 15 watt bulbs. Sorry, but I saw mostly those of 25 watts and we still have 493 + fixtures brimming with light 15 hours a day.
And, the person I spoke with denies that head office dictates how the light display is supposed to look

So, the record is balanced and it seems as if there is still a lot of work to do.

Just a short jaunt today, north on Yonge to a local coffee shop. I was with a friend, so might have missed stuff because we were talking. Treasures were limited to a wrapper from a bulk pack of gum, some waxed paper and a candy wrapper. Nice change.

I’ve learned from the Region of York that as long as something recyclable is recognizable as to what it is, dirt doesn’t matter, so we can blue box it.

Now, I’m off to the garage where an almost full garbage can of previously rejected recyclables gets tipped (more like stuffed) back into blue boxes.

Waste of a different kind

The snow is helping me out and has covered stuff I’d ordinarily pick up.

Today’s walk took me over the route I took a week ago, down Walton to Centre, down Centre to Industrial Parkway, up Industrial to the Legion, across the arboretum to the town hall and then along John West Way.

Very little litter:

• 3 coffee cups (one saying hohoho). The joke is on us I think.
• 3 coffee cup lids
• 3 grocery bags (I never worry about running out of bags to collect stuff in. They seem to replace themselves.)
• 1 Pizza Pizza takeout bag
• 2 pizza slice trays
• candy wrappers
• 2 plastic takeout food trays
• 1 energy drink can
• 2 pop cans
• 1 unopened can of root beer
• 1 unopened can of beer beer

Who says there aren’t rewards to this? I’ve found something to drink by my stake-wood fire, or to celebrate the building of my walkabout waste house.

On the matter of another type of waste: I stopped by Home Depot to check out the display of light fixtures. They like to leave them on to show them to advantage. Last summer, those fixtures were putting out so much heat they had fans going to cool them down.

Today I counted the fixtures that were on. Take some time to guess how many while I tell you about the conversation I had with someone who worked in that area. He doesn’t like the electricity consumed by these displays either and has said so to the manager. Apparently, it’s the head office in Atlanta that sets the policy on displays, and they would really like to have more turned on except they don’t have the outlets to do so.

The ones they manage burn from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
At home, I’m have all compact fluorescent lightbulbs in my fixtures, live in a very small house, have energy efficient dishwasher and washing machine, and I’m contemplating doing laundry after 10 p.m. to help the energy supply.

That’s my bit.

Meanwhile, have you guessed yet on the number of fixtures turned on at Home Depot? Whatever your final answer, I can tell you it’s wrong.

The correct answer is 493, give or take, many with more than one bulb, mostly incandescent, burning 15 hours a day.

Multiply this by the number of Home Depot stores in North America, and I think we’ve got an SUV of a building centre.

As I was counting lit fixtures and burning a little myself, a soothing piped-in voices came on, asking me if I wanted to save energy at home and offering me a programmable thermostat to do so. I guess it felt I was lacking a little in confidence, because it concluded with, “You can do it. Home Depot can help.”

I was feeling discouraged alright.

Over the exit it read, “We’re helping the community.” Would that be to breath dirty air from coal-burning generating stations puffing out the power needed by this energy-gobbling display. Or to build nuclear stations that many people don’t want.

For sure, I’m boycotting this store, but I’ve seen things like this at Canadian Tire too, so they’re on my list.

I spent some time in call-centre hell trying to get to the bottom of this with no results. To be continued.

Evening constitutional

Well, I thought I was going to take the night off from picking up litter on a neighbourhood walk, but….I just got to my next door neighbour’s and headed back home for a grocery bag.

On her lawn was a an energy drink can and a Gatorade bottle. My neighbour is 90-years old and doesn’t leave the house much. Her property is all she’s got, and it would upset her to no end to see that stuff on it.

So, I picked it up and a few other things too. There’s a different demographic littering here. Lots of pop cans and water bottles. Amazingly, a lot of them had liquid left in them, which makes you wonder why they even bothered in the first place.

Total trash:

• 9 pop cans
• 5 beer cans
• 6 plastic water bottles
• 1 Gatorade bottle
• 1 plastic pop bottle
• 1 glass Coke bottle
• 3 coffee cups (Tim’s is back to the regular brown cup now)
• 2 coffee cup lids
• 1 smoothie cup
• 1 iced capp cup
• 1 toilet paper roll
• 1 hair net and pair of rubber gloves
• 1 flyer
• 1 grocery bag
• 1 flower pot

A whole lot of drinking seems to have gone on. Perhaps that explains the toilet paper roll.

The future of littering seems secure. Today’s pop and beer drinkers and discarders are tomorrow’s coffee cup tossers.

Smalltown Saturday nights

A quick walk to Yonge and Wellington to take some photos to liven up this site. The main Saturday night activity for some pranksters seems to have been heisting, taking apart, and dumping a bundle buggy in front of the TD Bank at Yonge and Wellington. I’m going back for, will fix it up and use it to collect litter for this project. Then I’ll be a true bag lady.

Other treasures found:

• 2 double-cupped coffee cups
• 6 coffee cup lids
• 2 energy drink cans (guess that’s how our friends had the drive to take apart the bundle buggy)
• 3 aerosol air freshener cans
• 1 glass juice bottle
• 5 plastic water bottles
• 2 plastic milk drink bottles
• 2 beer bottles
• 1 McDonald’s milkshake container
• 1 grocery bag
• 1 free publication
• 1 cast iron plumbing joint (to the scrap metal bin at the hazardous waste depot)
• 1 switchplate (my house is taking shape)
• candy wrappers
• 1 wooden stake

Left behind: newspapers and cardboard.

Knowing now that only clean stuff is welcome in blue boxes, I’m going to have throw a lot of otherwise good recyclables into the garbage. Sorry Michigan.

Here’s something else not so attractive about the heart of our town:

Side street

Just a short walk today, across Wellington and down Victoria to Trinity Anglican.

Beside Yellow Brick House’s parking lot it looked like a garbage bag had exploded. While I was picking up the stuff, a staff member from Yellow Brick approached me and told me that although it looked as if the garbage was from Yellow Brick House, it was actually from the tenants in the rooming house next door. Yellow Brick uses a dumpster in the back.

She said they’re having “discussions” to clear up the problem.

A few factoids: the region receives the following revenue for these recyclables:

• aluminum cans: $2,200 per metic tonne
• steel cans: $130 per metric tonne
• pop bottles (i.e. plastic with the #1 recycling code): $330 per tonne
• newspaper: $85 per metric tonne
• cardboard: $90 per metric tonne

35% of recyclables end up in the garbage. I’ll let you do the math on money lost.
More facts:

• You can save enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for four hours by recycling one glass bottle back into a new bottle.
  
• Recycled plastic can be used to make plastic lumber, which is said to hold nails and screws better than wood. This durable material can last for approximately 20 years and is maintenance free. Please check with your local building department before purchasing these recycled building materials.
• The amount of energy saved from using one ton of recycled aluminum instead of new materials can be used to power the average home for about two years. The Canadian Pulp and Paper Association states that approximately 71% of the fibre used in making Canadian pulp and paper now comes from recycled fibres that used to go into landfills.
• A glass bottle that is not recycled and instead sent to a landfill would take about 1 million years (to deteriorate seems to be the implication).
• Approximately 95% of blue box materials go on to be recycled into new products. The reason why about five percent of the items put into the blue box are not recycled is because the materials are usually too contaminated with non-recyclable materials. This shows how important it is to make sure your materials are clean before placing them into the box.

Guess I’m going to have to start washing the recyclables I pick up too.

Final fact: Town of Aurora public works spent $13,800 in 2006 on roadside cleanup litter and debris.

So, here’s what my 10 minute walk yielded:

• 8 coffee cups
• 1 coffee cup lid
• 1 plastic pop bottle
• 3 water bottles
• 3 pop cans
• 1 beer bottle
• 1 cigarette pack
• 2 juice cartons
• 1 milk carton
• 1 ice cream carton
• 1 plastic ball
• 1 package of gum
• 1 plastic bottle that contained candy
• 1 Mary Brown’s takeout carton
• 1 box for garbage bags
• 0 wooden stakes

Litterbug profile: Someone who enjoys coffee, pop, the occasional smoke, followed by breath-freshening gum. In the case of litter, the suburbs are indeed boring.

Due south

Yesterday I contacted two of the sign-owners. With so much to do post-election, they lost track of them. One told me he also picks up litter around town and recently ran across a campaign sign from yet another candidate. He was too embarrassed to pick it up himself, so called the fellow it belonged to.

In December, we spent a week in Atlanta, including a trip downtown. With Aurora as my benchmark, I found Atlanta pretty clean.

So, who litters here and when? I walked a 3-km roundtrip from Yonge and Wellington down to just past Jonathan’s. It took me an hour and not once did I see someone toss their trash. (didn’t see anyone walking either).
Once again, I stink of beer and easily filled my quota of four grocery bags, leaving lots behind. One of my reliable litter hotspots, in front of the main postal station was surprisingly litter-free. The other, the planter in front of the TD bank, at one of our town’s main intersections was its usual garbagey self.

Planters along the east side of Yonge Street displayed their winter blooms of cigarette butts, especially next to the CIBC. Is there something about banks that makes people nervous? Would conifer plantings of conifers help?
Another litter hotspot is by the little stream just north of Park Place Manor. It’s a little woodsy, so a perfect place to put garbage.

Finally, the hedge outside the Esso at Yonge and Royal Road seems to catch a lot of stuff.

More questions: Why don’t business owners and managers see that their grounds are kept clean? Does this happen because like the litterbugs they don’t feel a sense of civic duty? Are they so confident in their customers they don’t feel they need to respect them with attractive surroundings? My next step seems to be to approach them and ask why the litter.
Today’s trash count:

• 23 pop cans
• 4 plastic pop bottles
• 4 slushie-type cups
• 3 lids for the above
• 5 straws
• 7 cardboard fast food drink containers
• 15 coffee cups
• 23 coffee cup lids
• 8 water bottles
• 1 3l-water bottle
• 3 water bottle lids
• 1 chocolate milk carton
• 1 beer can
• 1 plastic vodka bottle (Russian Prince again)
• 1 sampler vodka bottle
• 1 wine tetra pak
• 11 cigarette packs
• 1 lighter
• 4 gum boxes
• 2 blister packs from gum boxes
• 1 candy cane
• 1 worker’s glove
• 1 pen
• 1 dryer sheet
• 3 calling cards (must see if they work)
• 1 tuna can (nicely perched on a retaining wall)
• 1 piece of bubble wrap
• 2 free publications
• 1 tennis ball
• 1 wooden stake

Aurora is one well-staked-out town. Forget putting the stuff into my fireplace. I’m saving it to build a house.

Of these items, I recycled three grocery bags worth. If we were back in the days of bottle deposits (other than beer) I’d at least have earned enough today for a cup of coffee. Not feeling clever enough to put together a litterbug profile, but it seems a lot of this junk comes from eating and drinking… junk.