Fagstein » Environment

The plastic bag drought one year later

Fagstein — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:46:50 +0000

My still unempty bag of plastic bags

It's Earth Day, and it's been a year since major grocery stores decided to charge five cents a bag in an effort to rid this planet of the lightweight plastic menace. (Though subsequent events have shown that dedication to be not so absolute.)

I was worried when I switched from the plastic bags to my green bin that I would have a problem with one of my main uses for plastic bags: garbage containment. Like many people I imagine, the plastic grocery bags become garbage can liners, which are then tied up and thrown in the big garbage can to head to the curb. Without this source of bags, what would I put my garbage in? I still get the occasional plastic bag from non-grocery purchases, but not enough to satisfy that habit, I thought.

As it turns out, it wasn't so much of a problem. I just started using other types of plastic bags to store my garbage: 4L milk bags, Subway sandwich bags, bread bags, bags from take-out purchases (though I usually decline them when offered).

The only difference is that these bags are smaller, which means they need to be changed more often and they won't fit into the large kitchen garbage can. I have them hanging off a doorknob until I can think of something better.

Even then, the number coming in is larger than the number going out. Rather than needing a new source for plastic bags, I need to find a way to reduce their consumption even further.

My kingdom for a lid

Fagstein — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:13:51 +0000

My beloved green recycling bin: zero cost, zero waste

I hadn't paid attention to the matter until recently, but apparently the city of Montreal has a problem with its recycling bins.

Actually, a few problems.

The first is that after prolonged use they tended to crack and break. That's okay though, the recycling bins themselves are recyclable, and there are new, stronger bins like the one above (after three years of use, it's dirty, but completely intact).

The second is that they're difficult to carry outside, requiring the use of both hands. More of an annoyance to everyone else really, requiring them to put the bin down as they open and close doors (or awkwardly wedge the bin against something to free up the other hand). But for people with limited mobility, it's a more serious problem.

Finally, the most pressing issue, it seemed, was that papers and light containers would fly out of the recycling bins and litter the surrounding streets. Though I'm pretty good about packing my bin and haven't seen any of my recyclables tumbling down the street, my job at the coop I live in requires me to clean up the front yard on a nearly daily basis, and it's obvious that garbage is piling up there from somewhere, most likely other green bins.

To solve all three of these problems, the city of Montreal has looked at three different solutions, which are being implemented in various boroughs. The city is studying each carefully to see which is more successful.

The bac-sac

The first solution is this contraption, a redesign of the recycling bin that allows it to carry more stuff but also be carried with one hand, and be easily emptied by collection crews. It seemed perfect, and the city was really excited about it, so they started a pilot project in three boroughs.

Blue-collar workers quickly predicted that the redesigned bins wouldn't last through the winter. Flexibility doesn't mean much when you're encased in ice, and the meshy sides of the container are just an invitation for a freeze-thaw cycle to permanently bond it to a snowbank.

Sure enough, in January, residents using the "bac-sac" (the city didn't want people to call it that) complained that it was too high, too difficult to carry and would break easily. In fact, most of the ones on the street were already broken in some way, as this Canoe.tv video shows. Residents wanted their old bins back.

It's a failure, but not one I feel too badly about. As predictable as it was, this is a pilot project, and you have to expect failures when you're testing something new.

Hopefully the city will learn from this and design a new container that is more sturdy and easier to transport.

Going big

Thinking, I suppose, that bigger is better, the Saint-Laurent borough is testing a large recycling container on wheels that has a lid and can be easily (even automatically) picked up and emptied into recycling trucks. The fact that the bins are in some cases larger than their owners is a bit of an issue though. You can't take them down a flight of stairs, so they have to stay outside at all times. That's okay if you live in a single-family house, but in an apartment building in a high-density area, it's a solution that doesn't work.

The sac-sac

The final solution to the garbage problem was to get rid of the idea of bins altogether and just have people put their recyclables in clear plastic bags. The Ville-Marie borough started this in 2007, and now the Plateau borough is climbing on board, with green guys Projet Montréal (who control the borough council) thinking it's the best option as they announced their environment plans this week. The big containers won't work in the dense borough, the bac-sac isn't strong enough, and the garbage problem caused by the old bins can't be left to continue.

An initial supply of bags will be handed out by June. After that, residents will need to buy their own bags, at a cost of between 10 and 50 cents a bag. Considering how people complained about the five cents a bag it costs for groceries, you can imagine how they'd feel about this. Some might decide they don't want to pay for the bags and just hide their recyclables in garbage. Or a household might run out of the bags and decide to throw a few recyclables in the trash because they won't be able to make a trip to the store for another day or two.

What's more, the bags themselves aren't recyclable. It's just plain wasteful.

And, to top it all off, there are problems with this system that are just as predictable as the problems with the bac-sac. Crews can be confused between the recycling bags and the garbage bags. Poor people scavenging for refundable containers can rip open the bags to get at that soda can or two-litre bottle, leaving a big mess. Or the bags can get stuck in the ice.

Still, Luc Ferrandez and the Projet Montréal people are smart, and I respect their opinions on matters such as these. It's very possible that this is an imperfect solution that is the lesser of many evils, and will only need to last a few years until a better one comes along. And statistics show that the boroughs using the bags (Ville-Marie and Verdun) show increased recycling by 10 to 15 per cent so far, which is pretty encouraging.

The short-term fix: more collection

Fortunately or unfortunately none of these have come to my borough yet, so we're still using the little green bins that could, and I'm still picking up garbage every day from the front lawn.

I certainly am not crazy about this idea of plastic bags, and I think the bac-sacs still need a redesign. A large bin on wheels might work for the small apartment building I'm in, something I can empty recyclables into and wheel to the curb once a week.

But one solution to the problem of overflowing recycling bins would seem to me to be to just collect them more often. Instead of two garbage pickups and one recycling pickup a week, have two recycling pickups and one garbage pickup. I already have more recycling waste than pure garbage, and once a composting option becomes available to me that will become even more so.

Then again, it takes two minutes to clean up the front yard, and my recycling bin works just fine. So I'm not exactly losing sleep over it.

Recycling bottles in the metro

Fagstein — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:07:53 +0000

Yellow "contenants" bin accepts plastic bottles for recycling

I noticed as I passed by the Mont-Royal metro today that a new bin has been installed next to the paper recycling. A yellow bin marked "contenants" is the STM's first which accepts plastic and glass bottles, milk/juice cartons and aluminum cans.

Though the main issue in the metro for the past decade has been the free Metro newspaper, it's always been a bit silly that non-paper recyclable materials couldn't be collected in the metro system.

Hopefully installation of these bins throughout the network will come fast, and the amount of unrecyclable garbage that goes out will get greatly reduced.

UPDATE (Oct. 27): The STM has begun a three-month pilot project with such bins in "islands" (together with trash and paper recycling bins) at Mont-Royal, Champ de Mars and Snowdon. Once the project is finished in mid-January, the bins will be expanded throughout the network.

V pour vidange

Fagstein — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:20:04 +0000

30 seconds earlier, 20 feet away:

Enviro pop quiz

Fagstein — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:05:11 +0000

According to a recently released data set, what Montreal agglomeration entity (Montreal borough or demerged suburb) recycles the most of its household waste? And which recycles the least?

UPDATE: According to this chart, the most recycle-friendly (on a per-capita basis) is the sparsely-populated Senneville, thanks mostly to organic waste recovery. The most unfriendly is St. Leonard.

Shopping centre double pop quiz

Fagstein — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:38:40 +0000

The owner of this giant parking lot revently announced measures to become more environmentally-friendly. What did it decide to do?

Remove 100 of its 4,000 parking spaces to add trees and other greenery
Require its buildings to abide by strict environmental standards and ban the use of air conditioners with open doors
Add bicycle lanes to its roads
Partially subsidize an STM bus that would stop inside the shopping centre and take shoppers to the metro
Install recycling bins at street corners and at store entrances
Give away some plants, encourage some merchants to take used batteries and run some composting workshops

What was taking place when these pictures were taken?

A bankruptcy sale of a major retailer
A sidewalk sale
An evacuation
Family day

UPDATE: So those are the answers.

Marché Central, the neighbourhood of parking lots and strip malls that represent just about everything environmentalists hate, is trying again to present itself as environmentally-friendly. For their greenwashing efforts, they got a no-questions-asked press-release-as-news article in the Courrier Bordeaux-Cartierville. (It's also unclear if their used battery plan was dependent on Eco-Centres, who have decided to no longer accept them from retailers.)

And they organized a sidewalk sale that few merchants participated in (even then it amounted to putting a rack of clothes outside and having a very bored sales rep sitting guard outside).

There are plenty of very big ways that Marché Central could reduce its environmental footprint, most of which involve discouraging car travel and excess energy consumption by retailers. But those measures would cause a revolt by the retailers and might affect their bottom line.

Marché Central believes in environmentalism, but not enough to pay for it.

Montreal Geography Trivia No. 39

Fagstein — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:00:32 +0000

'Roundabout where is this?

UPDATE: Jason gets it right below. It's the intersection of Sources Blvd. and Riverdale Blvd. in Pierrefonds, just beyond the tracks, one of the few roundabouts on the island.

Riverdale Blvd.: Behold the suburban conformity!

The roundabout, which I crossed a while back on my bike, leads to a new development in the Parc des Rapides du Cheval Blanc that is so new the streets don't have names, the driveways are made of gravel and grass hasn't grown yet on the yards. I took a brief tour of the neighbourhood, noticed a lot of young families, many of Indian and south Asian descent.

I also noticed a lot of insects, reminding me that this development is encroaching on what was once their habitat.

The Rapides du Cheval Blanc is one of the 10 Eco-territories on the island of Montreal, which some might assume to mean its territory is sacred and can't be touched. But in 2007, the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro approved a development of 251 housing units (PDF), about half of which are in the form of single-family detached houses that all look alike. The developers had actually wanted to build 650 housing units, but pressure from the city forced them to scale back from 15 to 10 hectares. The revised project also talked a lot about "integrating" into the territory by using the same trees or something. Still, the development cut 21% of the green space out of the eco-territory.

So green that stuff is growing on the walls

Fagstein — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:27:48 +0000

The STM has put stickers on the floor of metro stations touting the fact that they're using 100% biodegradable cleaning products to clean up things like ... the glue left by sticking ads to the floors.

Behold, the environmentally-friendly clean metro station!

They might have skipped the Guy-Concordia station, considering how disgusting it still is.

Loblaws offers free* green bin

Fagstein — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:30:10 +0000

From The Gazette's Green Life blog: Loblaws is giving away free green shopping bins to people who buy at least $60 worth of groceries (not including alcohol and other non-food stuff) and have this coupon, until April 30.

As a regular user of the green bin, I can attest that it's the most convenient way of hauling a medium-size load of groceries home (so long as you don't use the stairs too much). My only quibble is that if you're spending $60 on groceries, you're probably not going to be able to fit it all into the bin (or if you do, it's going to be really heavy).

Nuns’ Island allergic to children, fun

Fagstein — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:55:40 +0000

Having children running around would just ruin this image.

Nuns' Island residents, apparently feeling that their reputation as snobs wasn't cartoonishly cliché enough, have declared opposition to the sound of children playing in a public park. They want the park to be made less fun so that the children won't be so tempted to make children-fun noises and disturb all the condo construction going on.

Oh, but they say, they don't want to close the park next to their high-rise apartment building, they just want the water shut off to save the environment!

To them I'll point out that this picture was taken on the same street as that park.

Notice the SUV parade?

Thankfully there's no shortage of others also ready to point out the hypocrisy and stupidity of the argument, and those include Verdun mayor Claude Trudel, who rebuffed the petition.

Beware water bottle recyclers

Fagstein — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:01:22 +0000

From the latest episode of URLER.TV, a video interview with a guy who goes around the city, checks recycling bins for empty water bottles, then leaves a pamphlet making them feel guilty about ruining the environment by buying bottled water.

The lesson is obvious: Don't recycle your water bottles; put them straight into the trash.

Party leaders, only with more hair

Fagstein — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:44:43 +0000

CBC's Archives, which has good stuff but unfortunately encodes it using Windows Media, which I have to play using my choppy, buggy Quicktime plugin instead of a universal Flash player, has found archival footage of the five party leaders. As you can see, they have wacky hairstyles (Duceppe's mullet being the most awesome) and big glasses and stuff.

Dion, Harper and Duceppe are all from the same turbulent early 90s era. Dion a political scientist commenting on the Charlottetown Accord pre-referendum. Harper from when he was a Reform Party wonk and before he was elected an MP, and Duceppe after he was elected in a by-election as the first Bloc Québécois MP (and the whole he-swore-an-oath-to-the-Queen controversy).

Layton is from a decade earlier, when he was elected in a surprise upset to Toronto City Council.

But the most interesting clip is of Elizabeth May, 30 years ago in 1978. It's actually a feature piece for The Fifth Estate, about a debate in Nova Scotia on whether to spray the forest with insecticide to fight the spruce budworm which was devastating forests. Forestry executives were for it, wanting to protect their trees and fearing an epidemic. May was against it, saying the spray had health risks associated with it.

Curious, I looked up the Wikipedia article to see what happened with the whole debate. It seems the infestation died out on its own, as May predicted, and an environmentally-friendly insecticide was created to deal with the problem as well.

(via Tea Makers)

Spot the green

Fagstein — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:26:04 +0000

Which of the following green-coloured products are made using recycled paper or make any other claims toward environmental sustainability?

The answer, of course, is none. They're just green-coloured.

That's the problem with greenwashing. There is no standard body to say what environmentally-friendly claims can be made and which ones can't. And even if there were such a body with strictly-enforced rules, nothing prevents a company from simply using green-coloured packaging to subtly fool consumers into thinking that there is an environmental benefit to choosing a green product over a non-green version.

What's the difference between these two products? They're both from the same company, both weigh the same and are made from the same material. The difference, if you look at the numbers at the bottom, is that the green-coloured package has sheets that are half the size as those the blue-coloured package, and offsets that by having twice as many sheets.

In other words, the only difference between the two is that the one on the left has twice as many perforations. And yet there's a sense that, because it's green, it's better for the environment somehow.

The one product on the shelves that does make green claims is this jumbo package of paper towels from President's Choice. The paper towels here are printed on made using recycled paper, and I believe once you throw them away will explode into butterflies or something.

Whose bright idea was it to associate such a complicated, easily-abused marketing concept with little more than a colour?

Hampstead still hates the environment

Fagstein — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:43:58 +0000

The city of Hampstead has apparently decided that outdoor clotheslines are still too ghetto to be allowed back into their perfect little white-ass town.

But don't worry. The mayor is advising environmentally-conscious citizens to (wink, wink) break the by-law which specifically bans their use.

That makes perfect sense.

The Great Apple Store Opening of 2008

Fagstein — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 07:08:24 +0000

Oh hey, did you hear they opened a new Apple store on Ste. Catherine Street downtown on Friday? I don't think anyone noticed the opening event but me.

I started work at 6:30 on Friday, so I figured I'd stop by and see all the commotion around the new Apple Store on Ste. Catherine Street. It wasn't the store itself I was interested in, as much as the crowd that gathered to worship it.

So many people showed up that a barricade had to be setup to the corner of Crescent Street and then at least halfway up the block toward de Maisonneuve. Even an hour after the store opened, the line continued around the block.

Apple Store doors open at 5pm

At 5pm (just moments after I arrived), the doors opened and people who had been waiting since as early as 7am got ushered in.

A customer is handed swag and cheered as he walks in

As each customer entered, they were handed swag (more on that below), and gleefully cheered at by over a dozen employees in blue and orange t-shirts.

Store employees cheer on customers

The group kept this up for thousands of customers over at least an hour, cheering for each of them as if ... uhh ... what would cause you to cheer enthusiastically for someone you've never met?

Well-wishers on the second floor

The second floor, which houses the genius bar among other things, was packed with people looking outside taking photos. Many of them are already on flickr.

Gazette photographer Dave Sidaway takes a shot of the employees

The media were there in full force, taking pictures and doing interviews. Most came by earlier for a "pre-opening" exclusive to the media, but stuck around for the craziness. Gazette photographer Dave Sidaway put together a photo gallery. Reporter Roberto Rocha has a video.

I managed to capture a few of them on camera. Full points if you can recognize all five:

NNNNNNERRRRRDDSSSS!

Perhaps the only thing more pathetic than the people waiting in line to go into a store were the people who came up with excuses on how to cut in line. Just about every excuse in the book came out. Some claimed they were just inside, others wanted to meet family members, or just go in for a second, or wanted special privileges because they were tired. Many just said they didn't notice there was a huge line right behind them that snaked around the block.

"I was just inside. I forgot to get a shirt"

This guy, for example, nearly assaulted the security guard to get in after his friend tried excuses of his own. His efforts failed.

Honk honk

This fire truck happened by, and its occupants rubber-necked at the commotion. The driver happily obliged the store employees who urged him to give a celebratory honk.

The loot

This is what thousands of t-shirts in Apple boxes looks like

For the opening, the store rounded up 2,500 t-shirts, each in its individual Apple-branded box, to be given to the first 2,500 customers. A side-effect (whether intended or not) was that rumours abounded about what was in the boxes. Were they giving out iPhones? iPods? A rumour that they contained free iPod shuffles made the rounds, thanks to some devious rumour-spreading on my part. It seemed just plausible enough.

The loot

As my lovely assistant demonstrates, the swag was pretty standard fare. A one-size-fits-most t-shirt, a pamphlet, and some cards.

Apple Store Opening t-shirt

The t-shirt is blue, with a graphic of a hockey stick with iPod earphones wrapped around it. Someone apparently told Apple's marketing department that we like hockey here.

Apple Store t-shirt: Back detail of date

On the back, near the collar, is some text reminding people of the event in question, so you can one day tell your grandkids about it.

This is the box the t-shirt came in

The box the t-shirt came in (was a box really necessary here?) was folded in a funky way, which also made it cool because it was Apple.

Bright at night

Apple Store at night

I went by after my shift ended late at night, and noticed that the store was extremely bright. Not only did that waste a lot of electricity, but it had a side-effect of attracting bugs:

A bug on the Apple Store window at night

The bugs attached themselves to the outer window, apparently confusing the bright lights inside with the light of the sun and/or moon.

The empty Apple Store at night

It also presented my first opportunity to get a clear view inside. Computers and iPods on display, unsurprisingly.

Upcoming events at the Apple Store

The store is ccelebrating by having über-cool artists come and play there. Anik Jean and David Usher are among those scheduled this week.

TWIM: Dion’s carbon tax idea

Fagstein — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:20:33 +0000

Somehow, despite working 42 hours this week, I managed to put together another bluffer's guide, for the Liberal carbon tax plan. Liberal leader Stéphane Dion calls it Green Shift, which I guess is not to be confused with this Green Shift. From the video, it seems to have something to do with stock photos of plants and animals, combined with people in suits clapping awkwardly in a white room.

The 48-page plan (PDF), which ironically wastes quite a bit of space by having blank pages and one-word all-green title pages, explains far more details than non-Liberal politicians would have liked, because now they can't attack Dion for being unclear.

That doesn't mean they won't attack the Liberals though. The Tories have already setup a they-think-it's-funny website mocking Dion and his plan, saying everyone but the tooth fairy and leprechauns will have to pay more taxes as a result of it.

Basically all you need to know about the plan is this:

It would tax polluting fossil fuels and cut income taxes to balance the money difference
It exempts gasoline, because politicians are too scared to admit that high gas prices help the environment when suburban soccer moms are griping about how much money it takes to fill up their SUVs. This makes the plan useless for its intended purpose.
It's a Liberal plan, and the Liberals have to become the government and get support from a majority of MPs before they can implement it.

Conditioned

Fagstein — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:33:37 +0000

I'm glad to hear that the global warming/energy crisis has been solved, and local businesses can go back to cranking up the air conditioning full blast and throwing open their doors so they can cool the sidewalk in front of their stores.

I'm not sure what's more outrageous: the fact that this happens, or the fact that consumers fall for it and/or don't care enough to protest.

Not to mention the fact that air conditioners displace heat, so for all the air that's cooled in front of a store, hot air in the back is heated even further. The result is a net increase in heat that just makes hot days in the city even hotter.

Bouchard-Taylor love wasting paper (literally)

Fagstein — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:39:17 +0000

So as I was taking a short break from doing my job yesterday, I downloaded this report that everyone's talking about, in its original French. I expected a long report taking up far more paper than is necessary, and I wasn't disappointed.

But I noticed something on one of the pages of the report:

I thought that was funny because the report had so many blank pages in it, to serve as bookends for the title pages. I did a quick count of the blank pages and mentioned to my boss that of the 310 pages in the report, 34 were entirely blank (not a single dot of ink).

She asked me to give her a couple of paragraphs saying that, and it turned into the shortest article I've ever written, in today's paper. (It was a bit longer than that to begin with, but it was cut down for space, and also because it went on a bit too long, by a ruthless copy editor who ironically turned out to be myself).

Admittedly, both the environmental policies and the blank pages are common practice in government reports. The Johnson Commission report (PDF) has a similar notice (though it actually calculates how much of the planet you're saving), and also has blank pages (though not as many).

Without the blank pages and title pages (including pages that repeat the title page or just include photos of the commission chairs, but not including the environmental/copyright notice above which is on an otherwise blank page), the Bouchard-Taylor report would have 60 fewer pages, for a 19% reduction in paper use.

Wouldn't that have been better for the environment?

YAGB: Environment, culture

Fagstein — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:21:05 +0000

My evil misunderstood overlords at The Gazette have launched two new blogs this week, bringing its total to 1,425:

Stage and Page, which I have to admit is a kind of catchy title, is the blog of new "culture critic" Pat Donnelly. Formerly the books columnist, she's taken over Matt Radz's theatre beat as well, bringing herself to a level of cultural aptitude that simply puts the rest of us to shame.

Green Life, by reporters Monique Beaudin and Michelle Lalonde, is the environment blog, which was launched last Tuesday as part of the whole Earth Day thing. It's part of a larger "website" devoted to environment issues. There will also be a weekly column on the environment on Mondays (including a big splash in today's Arts & Life section on reducing your carbon footprint in 12 easy steps). The column will alternate between the two as they teach us new and disgusting ways to make us greener.

(UPDATE - April 30):

Showbiz Chez Nous, by Brendan Kelly, follows the same subject matter as his weekly column: TV and movies in Quebec.

Editor and Publisher aren’t scooping anyone

Fagstein — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:22:02 +0000

Editor and Publisher has a short article (via J-Source) about The Gazette's Green Report Card, in which the newspaper looks at its own environmental impact and comes up with some sobering results (they use a lot of paper). E&P calls it "groundbreaking," which makes me wonder what took them so long: the report was published in April.

I realize magazines have long lead times between writing and publishing, but this is kind of silly.

Anyway, the report is still worth reading, if only for its surprisingly honest self-assessment.

Fagstein » Environment

The plastic bag drought one year later

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My kingdom for a lid

The bac-sac

Going big

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The short-term fix: more collection

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V pour vidange

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