Most Canadians would agree that recycling is an accepted practice, a part of our daily way of life. We reuse what we can to minimize what we put into landfills and impact our landscape. In the age of global warming, most would agree that we are obligated to do what we can to limit our environmental impact. Alas, not so in Saskatoon. There, the raging debate of the day is whether to start curbside recycling pickup.
*sound of a record needle screeching*
Yep. In the ever-proud "Paris of the Prairies," the current hot municipal topic of the day is whether or not City Hall will start curb side recycling pick up. You see, Saskatoon does not have any form of recycling pickup service currently. If you want to recycle your glass, tin, or paper items, you have two options:
1- drive your car (creating emissions) to depots (mostly located on the outskirts of town) to drop off these goods.
2-pay an annual fee for a private company (~$120 a year) to come by your house to pick up your recyclables.
Right now, the mayoral race is debating whether to start curbside pickup. http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/City+eyes+recycling+plan+mayor/2095341/story.html And incumbent Don Atcheson is opposed to the plan. Isnt that lovely. Am I ever glad to not live in 'Toontown' any more. What a joke! What is this 1980? Nope, it's Saskatoon, where unfortunately, yes, it's still 1980.
Only in SK is recycling seen as a bad thing. Might as well say that global warming is a fiction. Then again, Saskies likely dont even know what global warming is. Those people might as well make an impassioned argument about how recycling is an impediment to the development of local ski hill development (for those of you not from SK, the local ski hill in Saskatoon is a former garbage dump. Imagine: a frozen pile of garbage....... then wake up screaming).
When I lived in Saskatoon, I remember throwing away countless glass jars, tin cans, bottles, and all sorts of recyclable items in the trash. I felt bad about it until I got used to it. After a while I didnt even bother crushing the cans. Stores that sell containers dont even accept them back for deposit. Instead you have to drive to Sarcan to wait in a horrbile line in a stinky hellhole full of bums and rusty shopping carts... and in the end you get less deposit that what you even paid! What, am I supposed to look upon it as a stupidity tax?
When in Rome anyone? Every house in Stoon gets a giant garbage container for trash (I now see apartments here in BC with the same size container for several suites) so why the hell not. It encourages people to throw away things that might be diverted from landfills and who know, converted into maybe useful things again! What a novel thought!
Good luck, Don - this rivals the time to delivered a racist rant at the First Nations University about "Indians" as part of your campaign strategy. You got elected then so I expect you to get re-elected by the masses with your anti-recycling policies. Saskatchewan looks like it is not quite ready to give up its title as one of Canada's worst poluuters. Long live the 1980s!
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Gotta think this one out man, and disregard the clichés about Sask hicks and the fancy-pants crowd in Vancouver or Toronto....
- In Regina, you can buy pretty good private recycling service for $10 per month. If you want a municipally-run recycling service, I would imagine that taxes would need to go up by more than $10 per month? And that brings us to another long-standing complaint about Sask (cities, and province as a whole)..."taxes are too high, can't get anyone to come here..."
- The issue is not as black-and-white as you make it out to be. People in the bigger cities aren’t walking down the streets, holding hands, picking up cigarette butts and singing “Kumbaya”…..For example, in squeaky-clean Calgary, they voted to introduce a city-run service...but in council, the motion passed by only one vote!!
I've also heard incessant griping about the green box program in Ottawa.
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