City wants to cut garbage in half

The city is determined to cut garbage in half over the next 12 years and has committed to a plan also signed by two dozen other cities worldwide to achieve this.

It’s a great idea – but we need to either have legitimate recycling that works, or serious efforts made to reduce packaging, the kind of thing that would completely revamp how we buy food and other products, including changes in sanitation laws, and I don’t see any sign of people working seriously on that one.

I notice that the PLQ tagline this election is “pour faciliter la vie aux Québécois” – “to make life easier for Quebecers” on the English side. We’re addicted to ease and convenience and we want more of it, but all that convenience means a hell of a lot of waste.

The world we’ve got to envision involves less convenience, involves having us all do more work for it. Imagine a world where, if you wanted to buy yogurt or hummus or tomato paste, you had to bring a reusable container to the store. And you had to wash the container, too. And you still have a full-time job and other things to do, of course. You want to be able to stop off at the store for dinner ingredients, but you forgot your containers, or didn’t have time to wash them out. Too bad.

Even if individuals are prepared to shoulder these efforts, corporations won’t easily give up the pop factor of bright packaging. Our species is likely to founder in its own lust for easily acquired stuff and the waste that comes with it.