Deforest City Blues: Can we fight our way out of a paper or plastic bag?

The Right Honourable City of London is trying to save money and some part of the environment by moving from plastic bags to paper bags at the curbside - so the fight about which is the best to dispose our yard waste is on... and on... and on...

And missing another fine point that I feel inclined to bring to everyone’s attention.

[It’s a habit of mine. When one has an opinion about everything it’s hard to sit still during any public debate. About the only time I remain silent is when my wife asks if her jeans look too tight. Or when I hear a piece of really fine music. Have you heard Susan Boyd sing lately? Oh, she’s good, eh? Sorry, I digress.]

Whether we use paper or plastic (paper has better optics and may be 43% better for the environment) we involve ourselves in a production, distribution, collection and disposal process that is knee-deep in fossil fuels and will never go away unless we include another step in the way we handle our unending supply of waste products here in Deforest City and all other parts of Canada - dare I say the entire world?


["Get the whole family to join the fun"]

And that step is - compost as much as possible.

If we have the strength to rake our leaves and haul them to the curb in a big paper bag then we could certainly put them inside a backyard composter.

Too many leaves? Don’t like the look of them? Buy or build a bigger composter. Mulch the leaves. Spread them around your property.


Our $150,000 - $200,000 savings could easily double if we put more hands on deck and used a bit of elbow grease. North Americans certainly need the exercise and budgets are straining everywhere.

Do we need government bodies to help us clean up leaves and trimmings from a shrub?

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Shouldn’t we be allowed to have small, contained fires on occasion too?

Backyard fire pits are becoming all the rage, aren’t they?

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