Zero Waste Meeting

My wife and I attended the zero waste meeting last night in Courtice.  We were very impressed by the professionalism of the volunteer panel that they assembled to discuss zero waste and the problems with incineration.

They opened the meeting with a great little video called "The Story of Stuff."  It simply demonstrates how we got ourselves into this huge waste management mess in the first place and what we'll need to do to get back to a sustainable existence.  You can watch the video at www.storyofstuff.com  I suggest you watch it with your kids so they can get a good understanding of what they are going to have to do in the coming decades.  There really is no other way forward out of this mess other than the zero waste concept.  The sooner we all understand that; the soon we can get on with tackling the issues.

One of my favourite speakers was the lady from the Town of Markham; she had a very pragmatic attitude towards waste and told some interesting stories about how they turned things around quickly.  They have implemented zero waste initiatives in all their municipal buildings, parks and events and the municipality is now at 70% waste diversion.  They started by leading by example by removing 500 personal garbage cans in their two municipal buildings.  Having been at some Clarington events this year and not even seeing a recycling bin was rather depressing.  It's too bad our council are content to just stick everything in an incinerator and add more CO2 and pollution to our already pathetic air quality.  I'm so disappointed with most of our leaders on the municipal and regional level when it comes to the environment.  There were 3 local councillors (Woo, Hooper and Foster) there who seem to be concerned with these issues.  I'm hopeful they can do what's right and somehow help stop this crazy incinerator idea from becoming a smear on our skyline.

Another promising note is the Ontario Ministry of the Environment's recent discussion paper "Towards a Zero Waste Future: Review of Ontario's Waste Diversion Act, 2002"  you can find this at www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/env_reg/er/documents/2008/010-4676.pdf 

I'm excited that Ontario may join the many other communities around the world who have made serious commitments to implementing zero waste by a specific date.

In the mean time, we've got to do what we can to help and that is contact the various decision makers and tell them what we think.  You can find lots of links on www.zerowaste4zeroburning.ca of whom to contact.  A good starting place is sending an e-mail to clerks@region.durham.on.ca.  All you have to do is tell them you'd like to see the region commit to zero waste and not burn our garbage.

Until next time, do what you can!

Comments

[Duane Cook]

Hi Laurence,

I can see the smokestack spewing all the time from my kitchen window or when I'm in the yard. Up here in the Kendal hills we can see a lot of air pollution. I'm not looking forward to seeing another large smoke stack that is even dirtier than the coal they are burning at St. Mary's.

As we approach zero waste the remaing garabage should be relatively benign. All the toxins should go to the haz waste centre; electronics to the e-waste centre; the organics to the compost; all the paper, glass and plastic containers to the recycling. With incineration they want to burn the wood, paper and plastics first and bury the toxic ash left over in the ground where it can cause a lot more problems than just burying the stuff in the first place.

The fist step in a journey is deciding to go there. I can't see where else we really want to go.

[Laurence Cutner]

Zero waste is a laudable goal. However, until that nigh impossible thing is obtained do we just keep dumping our garbage and damaging our water table? In talking about 'smears' on the horizon - have you seen the nice grey cloud that announces your arrival in Bowmanville? no, it's not incineration, it's the concrete factory.

[Duane Cook]

Sorry for the typo Mike,

It's
zerowaste4zeroburning.ca

I forgot the "n" ...
If you click on the action page and click number 2) it will come up with lots of e-mail addresses

I hope you do what you can!

Duane

[Mike Simmons]

Duane:

I can't seem to get to this link, I double checked it with google.

www.zerowaste4zeroburing.ca

Is that the correct address? Thanks.