Take out containers are a great way to reduce your personal waste
Using refillable or reusable containers when ordering “take out” is a great way of reducing the waste you create! Here are a couple of simple rules that I have learnt in the last while that will insure your good intentions are achieved:
1. Make sure the container you use is big enough, because if it is not … guess what they use the same old plastic ones for any overflow! And your mission of zero waste has not been achieved.
2. Remember to ask for “no napkins, chopsticks, soya sauce” or other stuff that might come with your take out order. Even if you have used a refillable container the amount of waste the other extra things generate is silly!
3. Make sure to tell the restaurant that you are coming with your refillable container, otherwise they will put it in the styrofoam or plastic and then transfer it to your refillable container (and what good is that!!). Note to self, many restaurants won’t start making your order till the refillable container gets there, so they can put your order directly into it.
I went to our local sushi restaurant recently and the server said to me (as I was handing over my refillable container), “don’t use this the sushi will look much nicer in one of our take out trays”. WHAT – are you kidding me, I made all this effort to arrive and not create waste, and now your sales pitch to me is: its going to look nicer in one of our trays! I don’t think so! I am a committed individual who will not let the art of the sushi display deter me from my plight of no waste!
ISWMP (Ingtegrated Solid Waste Mgmt Plan) for Metro Vancouver
Metro Vancouver (metrovancouver.org) has been battling our waste bulge for a long time. July 14, 2010 is the last day for public input into the most recent version of the ISWMP for the Greater Vancouver Regional District and member municipalities. There is a public meeting slated for 6:30 PM on July 14, 2010 @ Metro Vancouver offices 4330 Kingsway, main board room (2nd floor). This is the last opportunity for the public to ask questions and give their opinion on the plan and what it is hoping to achieve.
Many people are debating the proposed changes in the plan. The most glaring change in the plan (this time over the last plan) is the comprehensive integration of the Recovery of energy. Translation, burning garbage and turning into energy that will heat local communities or businesses.
Our region is creating 3.4 milion tonnes of garbage each year, this is staggering. Of this amount we manage to divert 1.9 million tonnes to recycling facilities, or 55% diversion. This is not bad, but we have a ways to go!
Metro Vancouver today needs to manage (that means dispose) 1.5 million tonnes of waste each year. Hopefully over the next 5 years we will all see the light and become even better recyclers or perhaps more importantly buy less and consume less resources and divert 2.7 million tonnes of waste which would equal 70% diversion. Is this too ambitious? I don’t think so, I actually believe it is very achievable but it is going to require a concerted effort and quite frankly complacency about the garbage we create as a household, business or person has to stop. We actually have to start caring about what we buy and what we throughout.
The current hierarchy (or priority) for waste management plans is Reduce, Resuse, Recycle and Residual (throw away what is left). The change is quite simple, add in Recover after Recycle, and this quite simply means incinerate or burn the garbage that remains. Personallly I belive that the science is good (or at least it sounds good, b/c I am not a qualified scientist) and that incinerating makes sense. I wish we had no waste so there would be no reason to have to incinerate (Recover) but that is not our realty in the Lower Mainland and we should learn how to deal with the waste in our own backyard. We might take it more seriously if we do!
Truck idling and the environment
We often get asked, why do your drivers leave the trucks idling when they leave the truck? This is an excellent question.
I have researched this internally and have asked our VP Ops to explain to me why this is the case.
Urban Impact’s fleet of diesel trucks are all turbo charged diesels. They are the cleanest combustion engines in the market place. When the trucks are working under a heavy load (carrying their cargo) the exhaust gas temperatures are very high (1000 degrees F), this is hotter then a barbeque! If these engines are shut down immediately after working hard (carrying their cargo) it may result in premature bearing failure (in the turbo charger) and this is a very costly repair (in excess of $10k). If the trucks have worked under load conditions, they need to run for approximately 5 minutes to cool down before they can be shut off. Urban Impact trucks all have anti idling technology. This means that if the temperatures have decreased enough to be warrent shut off, the truck does so automatically if they are in Park.
The Hybrid truck that we put into operation in August of 2009 is the ultimate anti idling machine. This truck can work (while parked) on its Hybrid battery. We have tested and measured the results of the Hybrid’s performance and are very pleased with the results. The Hybrid truck consumes 50% less fuel then its equivalent counterpart. In addition the truck engine hours are 50% less then its counterpart. This is a remarkable “savings” and achieves a remarkable improvement in its impact on the environement. The Hybrid truck we employ works best in an urban or dense client setting, the benefits are not achieved in a more rural or driving style route.
Urban Impact hopes to move all office paper and shredding trucks to Hybrid technology in the next 4 years.
Reducing plastic bag consumption
I keep thinking about this plastic bag issue. Last night I was in Shopper’s Drug Mart and for the first time the cashier asked if I would like a plastic bag before just assuming and bagging up all my items. She told me that they now in fact charge 5 cents a bag. My mother was quite flustered by this saying that the only reason they charge is to cover their costs for the bags. I disagree.
So my question is: Does charging for each bag reduce consumption?
Humans have a funny nature of thinking twice when there is a price attached. Whether 5 cents or $20, people tend to think more when they are being charged. I think charging for bags can help reduce consumption in 2 ways. 1. People want to spend less and therefore use less bags 2. Retailers aren’t just assuming that you NEED a bag, and asking which makes the consumer think “do I really need a bag?” . With any hope, consumers will give their head a shake and realize it’s not that hard to bring a reuseable bag and with any luck cut back the drastic over consumption of plastic bags. My hopes is to eliminate the use of plastic shopping bags all together!
Here are some shocking facts on Plastic bags: http://www.greenerfootprints.com/plasticbagfacts/
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