Rubbish, I Say!

Garbage, rubbish, trash, waste, junk, debris, swill ...

Call it what you will, we all throw out a lot of stuff. At my house, we put out at least one bag of recycling and one bag of garbage each week. Sadly, these are our only options. I was recently back home in Toronto, and was totally inspired by the way that the city disposes of waste. At my mom's house, there are three separate bags - one for recycling (cans, plastics, paper, etc), one for compost (all food waste and easily broken down paper, like tissues and paper towel) and then the last one, actual garbage (which is really only things like cling film or plastics that can't be put in the recycling). After removing items which fall into the first two categories, there is little left over which is "real" garbage. This seems to be a great system - the amount of actual garbage disposed is much less, and hopefully, the compost waste and recycling items are put to good use and employed in another capacity which is beneficial to both consumers and the earth (for more info on Toronto's waste disposal, click here).

Living in a "throw-away" society contributes to our attitude and mentality about putting things in the bin. My grandparents wouldn't dream of throwing away something broken until they had exhausted all possibilities of fixing it at least a couple of times themselves (I'm sure it helps that they are quite handy and electrically inclined); today's generations (myself included) think about things very differently. The advent of cheaply made products gave rise to a disposable culture, and we could all do better to use less and dispose more mindfully.

Cities need to get on board and offer options for reducing waste, or at least improving the disposal options so that our impact on the earth is less. If you have space or a garden (not so common in densely populated London), consider putting a composter in the backyard - your flowers will thank you and the grass really will be greener (in your yard, no less!).

It is slowly happening and cities or councils are getting on board - a friend in a different part of west London recently showed me the compost bucket required by her council, so hopefully my council will pick this up soon, reducing at least one (perhaps the biggest) section of waste that goes in our bin - food products.

Until then ... the 3 R's - Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.

GG Rating - Good for Flaxseed Fanatics, given the lack of compost options.