green bin comes to mississauga

Our green recycling bin was delivered yesterday, the next step in the long-range plan for waste in the Peel Region.

First, some months back, we were able to combine all our recycling into one bin - paper, plastic, glass, foil.

Next, we received several information bulletins about organics recycling, what it would look like, how it would work, when it would be implemented.

Then yesterday our green bins were delivered: one large container with wheels and a locking cap for the garage, and a smaller container with a lid for the kitchen. The contents of our collective green bins will be composted.

Organics recycling for Peel begins on April 2. In October, the three-bag standard for garbage - that is, how many bags of trash you can leave at curbside for pick-up - will be reduced to two. The eventual goal is to divert 70% of Peel's trash from landfill by 2016.

People who already have green-bin recycling have told me that their weekly trash output is one grocery bag's worth of garbage each week. Between the various recycling containers, I think we'll hardly have any garbage at all.

Many wmtc commenters already have green-bin recycling, but many other readers don't, and I had never heard of it before moving to Canada. It fairly amazes me. Delivery of these large, sturdy containers to every home in this sprawling region amazes me.

In fact, the whole regional landfill diversion plan, and the progressive attitude towards recycling, amaze me. It's fantastic.

But it's also so frustrating that we - all of us - didn't start thinking this way a long time ago, and that so much of the world still does not.

Since our trip to Peru last year, I always imagine that beautiful country filling up with plastic water bottles. An economy dependent on tourism, plus unhealthy, undrinkable water, plus no plastics recycling, equals millions upon millions of plastic water bottles. Where are they all going?

Then I imagine all the countries of the earth, filling up with plastics.