The idea of having a ‘garbage police’ strikes me as a tad bizarre. That someone is now patrolling my trash, on the lookout for the banana peel I threw away last week, seems slightly reminiscent of a dystopian novel. George Orwell, your vision for a future based on extremities seems to have further come to fruition.
What I reference is Vancouver’s new Organics Disposal Ban, which was implemented at the beginning of the month. The municipal bylaw states that Metro Vancouverites must separate their food waste from regular garbage in an effort to put restraints on greenhouse gas emissions. Our regular garbage will then be delivered to a disposal facility, where the ‘garbage police’ will survey our trash for any organic matter. If our food waste is found to exceed the 25 per cent limit, garbage will be tagged and fines will be administered to haulers.
Let me be clear: I applaud any attempts to curb greenhouse gas production. I understand that Canadians throw away tremendous amounts of perfectly good food, which is then left to produce methane as it decomposes in a landfill. Our ever-melting climate is the biggest challenge we face as a planet, and if left unchecked, it will quickly worsen with time. However, this new food waste plan seems only to be a hasty, clumsy attempt at responding to our global crisis — a plan bereft of logic or realism, intent on exploiting our city’s ‘green’ image. In other words, the plan isn’t really going to work.
We do not write our names on our garbage. This is invasive and slightly creepy.
Apart from criticisms from concerned residents claiming the law to be unconstitutional, or the restaurant-owners who find it to be a hassle for their businesses, I’m struggling to see how this law will be enforced systematically enough to be effective.
As an apartment-dweller, my garbage, along with everyone else’s, is carelessly thrown into a sizeable dumpster near the basement of the complex. We do not write our names on our garbage — that would be pointless, invasive, and slightly creepy. If trash inspectors find a violation, yes, they will know the region from which the trash was hauled. However, to find the individual unit responsible for food waste will be virtually impossible and incredibly time-consuming without having sorted through the trash for clues leading back to the culprit.
Which brings me to my second point. Most trash bags are not transparent, and trash inspectors will not be opening them, but simply judging by what they survey from afar — an enforcement method that seems a little less-than-thorough. Large amounts of food waste, concealed behind plastic, are liable to slip under the radar, and render this bylaw impotent.
So, what’s the alternative to this hastily inefficient plan of action? While it would cost more time and money, it would be much more practical to set up facilities that can detect organic matter and separate it from our other garbage. It’s unrealistic to assume that every Vancouverite is going to comply with this food waste ban — yet another example of a law that’s blind to human nature — and it’s even more unrealistic to think that this current system will be efficient enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Good effort, Vancouver, but you’ll have to iron out the crinkles in your food waste management before my garbage becomes completely climate change-free.
