Every time anyone in Manitoba goes for a walk they will not have to look very far to find an item that should have made its way into a recycling bin. From pop cans to plastic water bottles to plastic bags, the resulting pollution is shameful in this day and age. When the rest of the world is grappling with the dreadful and sudden awareness of just how harmful plastic is to the ecosystems of the Earth, Manitoba is stuck in the environmental stone age where its citizens cannot even manage the simple task of picking up after ourselves.
This is not our fault. We are epitomizing what is described as ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’. This term means that we, the people, will use whatever is the cheapest item, and will utilize the cheapest or easiest means to get what we want when we want it. Everything else is secondary. Unfortunately, this is a very bankable economic tenet that business people have been capitalizing on for generations. And this is why a voluntary blue box program is a long way from where Manitoba needs to be in the quest for environmental responsibility.
Consider the fact that Winnipeg’s land fill authority recently cited that it only is able to divert approximately 25% of the material people discard away from the city land fill. This means that over 75 % of Winnipeg’s waste products are still going completely to waste. These are the wages of our current recycling system. A comparable Canadian city, Edmonton, is boasting a 60 % diversion rate and is shooting to reach 90% by next year.
The problem isn’t restricted to drinking containers either. There is a fee of approximately $15.00 associated with turning in your used electronics appliance to a responsible authority. How many people will go ahead and pay this fee you ask? Remember the tragedy of the commons when you consider your answer to this question.
We need to set up a recycling program that is pretty much common place in other parts of Canada. By imposing a deposit at the point of sale, we will have no choice but to provide an incentive to others to pick up those recyclable items. Even if we do not wish to do so ourselves, the deposit placed on those items will provide an economic reward for people to take that item to a recycling station for processing. Moreover, our least able citizens will be able to find employment at these recycling stations in much the same way as they are able to in other Canadian provinces.
Canada Post asks Canadians to start accepting junk mail
http://globalnews.ca/news/585922/canada-post-opts-for-junk-mail/
This is not our fault. We are epitomizing what is described as ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’. This term means that we, the people, will use whatever is the cheapest item, and will utilize the cheapest or easiest means to get what we want when we want it. Everything else is secondary. Unfortunately, this is a very bankable economic tenet that business people have been capitalizing on for generations. And this is why a voluntary blue box program is a long way from where Manitoba needs to be in the quest for environmental responsibility.
Consider the fact that Winnipeg’s land fill authority recently cited that it only is able to divert approximately 25% of the material people discard away from the city land fill. This means that over 75 % of Winnipeg’s waste products are still going completely to waste. These are the wages of our current recycling system. A comparable Canadian city, Edmonton, is boasting a 60 % diversion rate and is shooting to reach 90% by next year.
The problem isn’t restricted to drinking containers either. There is a fee of approximately $15.00 associated with turning in your used electronics appliance to a responsible authority. How many people will go ahead and pay this fee you ask? Remember the tragedy of the commons when you consider your answer to this question.
We need to set up a recycling program that is pretty much common place in other parts of Canada. By imposing a deposit at the point of sale, we will have no choice but to provide an incentive to others to pick up those recyclable items. Even if we do not wish to do so ourselves, the deposit placed on those items will provide an economic reward for people to take that item to a recycling station for processing. Moreover, our least able citizens will be able to find employment at these recycling stations in much the same way as they are able to in other Canadian provinces.
Canada Post asks Canadians to start accepting junk mail
http://globalnews.ca/news/585922/canada-post-opts-for-junk-mail/
No comments:
Post a Comment