There is a hog farm in Utah with 1.5 million pigs. It makes bacon cheap, but it's absurd - the pigs produce more solid waste each day than the entire city of Los Angeles. While up six per cent from 2009, Squamish only managed to recycle 35 per cent of its total "waste" in 2010; the rest ended up in the landfill. This approach makes disposing of our unwanted items cheap, but it's absurd - the real price tag hangs out of sight.
The hog farmer in Utah is driven by profit. I have heard many in our town argue that this is exactly the problem we have with Squamish's waste management plan. Perhaps, but let's face it - in this case, we are the ones supplying the pigs, and the butcher is not going to turn down the opportunity to make bacon cheap.
Well, out come the scales and the measuring tape - the resulting grease and fat have got to go somewhere. Did you hear? Our landfill is reaching capacity this year. Poor guy. Our good old landfill is green in the face with chronic problems of excessive weight, which affects our landscape and the health of our wildlife; gas, which produces a rank smell and poisons our air; and incontinence, with severe, constant leaks that taint the water in our rivers and streams.
This state of affairs is not only unhealthy. Treating this string of diseases is also pretty expensive. To me, it's all good news, though, as I believe that in every problem lies a good opportunity, and I can already see the hog farmer in all of us learning to distinguish between cheap bacon and cured ham. What? You think I believe in flying hogs too? Pay attention here - in just over a year, we have managed to find solutions for virtually every single thing that used to end up in the garbage bin. Above and beyond the recyclables in our blue-bin collection, we now have alternatives for handling and recycling all types of bulbs, household batteries, electronics, and Tetra-Paks. Oh, and watch this space - polystyrene is next!
But on our new planet, being able to tidy up our "garbage" is only one part of the challenge. Equal effort must be put into making sure the solutions we find for our waste are sound and safe, and that we are not simply brushing it under the carpet, or worse, piling it up in somebody else's farm.
Well, in Squamish, we are clearly shifting gears - we are not only sweeping our own barn, we are also interested in what happens to the stuff in the dustpan. In fact, your curiosity has been relentless. During the past year, I have been hounded with hundreds of questions, emails, phone calls. Your demand was simple, loud and clear: "I just want to know where our recyclables go!"
Finally, I can help quench your thirst. The answers are still hot out of the oven. For instance, we now know that the product of our curbside collection is baled commingled in Squamish, gets sorted in Washington State, then shipped everywhere. I could tell you a lot more, but I'd rather encourage you to make the information yours. It's ready to view on Squamish CAN's homepage (www.squamishcan.net). Look for the recycling bin and follow the links to see the fate not of our waste - it's time we started calling it "manure" instead.
And now it is my turn for questions. Tell me what you think. Where do you smell cheap bacon? Or perhaps, on the contrary, you see precious bucks being spent on unnecessarily expensive ham? Do you have any suggestions for change? Do you see efficiency, or is our "waste" going to waste? I look forward to your comments; let me see through your eyes - I want to know exactly what our hog farm looks like.
