Awake to the sound of rolling thunder
This morning I awoke to the sound of rolling thunder. Nothing to do with stormy weather, although we didn’t get the sunshine I had hoped for when I decided to turn this into a longer than usual long weekend. No matter. The sound came from a truck and trailer, busily unloading our new recycling bins. Hundreds of them, stacked and nested, with a team of men installing wheels, lids and schedule cards. Noisy. Useful. Timely. I am so pleased!
We’ve been recyclers for ages now, even though the city did little to encourage the activity. When they decided to change the collection structure some years ago, we had a drop in service from two times per week to one. As well, we were encouraged through a new tax and an “offer we couldn’t refuse” to adopt a garbage bin, a blue recycling basket and new habits. You could remain with trusty green garbage bags, but you adopted all the neighbourhood gulls and crows at the same time; unless you were into birdwatching it didn’t make much sense.
The recycling basket was tiny, in keeping with the tiny recycling mentality. In fact, for many years less than a third of the houses even bothered putting one out. Not us, and our basket showed its age. Duct tape is useful but hardly esthetic, even when the goal is to simply repair the cracks caused by the garbage truck sideswiping the blue box on a cold day.
So, the delivery of a 360 litre brand new bin is welcome. I’ve run out of tricks for stuffing two loads of paper and plastic into one basket, and I’m too honest to steal my neighbour’s (even if it isn’t being used). The new dumpster will probably be too heavy to move when the new bi-weekly schedule comes into force, but I’m stubborn. And I’m hopeful that my neighbours will treat the bin as useful, rather than a decoration. Besides, the blue and the green go so well together. Next on the list of things to learn: composting.
