Separation issues: 1 chute or 3
Dennis the superintendent has been up this dark path before. Armed with a long hooked pole, he hopes to avoid a painful and potentially dangerous collision. He has dealt with the messy results of past collisions before.
His opponent is a lodged garbage bag and he is staring up into the dark tunnel of a high-rise garbage chute.
Garbage chutes epitomize the convenience-driven lifestyle of high-rise living. It is a very simple concept: throw a bag of garbage down the chute and someone else takes care of it from there. All-inclusive condo fees add to the convenience. If it all sounds too easy, it probably is, and for Noel Wright, a green committee member and resident of the Matrix condominium, at Front and Spadina in downtown Toronto, that means one thing.
“It’s easier for people to put everything in a garbage bag and take it out once or twice a day,” Wright said. “And just chuck it all down the chute.”
One option available to tackle the convenience and recycling challenges is a tri-sorter. These automated systems separate refuse into three individual bins at the bottom of the chute. They first began to appear in Toronto buildings in the early 1990s but it wasn’t until recently that they became much more prevalent. A 2006 bylaw requiring developers to include recycling facilities that are as convenient as garbage disposal saw a huge spike in numbers in the GTA, upwards of 250 buildings at last count.
Tim Reeve-Newson of Waste Solutions Group, a tri-sorter manufacturer says convenience is not the only attribute tri-sorters bring to the condo equation.
“The rule of thumb we work on is that we expect to cut your garbage bill by a third,” he said. “We see the best use in buildings that have a retrofit system. They don’t take it for granted.”
Jennifer Da Silva is one of the lucky ones. She lives in a mid-town Toronto condo with a tri-sorter in place.
“Its pretty simple and convenient. We have the system where you just press the button before you put your bag in the chute,” Da Silva said. “One button for recyclables, one for garbage and one for food waste.”
Wright is trying to break through the convenience barrier and change the poor recycling habits of her fellow residents. She is fighting a big battle, a 642-unit battle with an even split of owners and renters.
Wright is a volunteer who works closely with the Matrix building manager, Sylvia Clark. Clark lays a portion of the blame for poor recycling on the design of the building and some on the residents.
“We have a high number of renters who don’t realize the cost of garbage,” Clark said. “I also think it’s difficult for people to get down to the recycling bins, they have to come all the way down to the parking levels and it’s not easily accessible for them.”
This is not just a problem at the Matrix. City of Toronto statistics clearly illustrate the huge gap between multi-family buildings and single homes. In 2008, single-family homes recycled 59 per cent of waste while multi-family buildings diverted only 15 per cent, for a city wide total of 44 per cent. The recycling goal is 70 per cent diversion by 2010.
Residents of the Matrix can play the convenience card handily, given they have to carry their recycling down to designated areas in the underground parking lot.
Back in midtown, as convenient as a tri-sorter system is, Da Silva still finds separating her recycling challenging in her suite.
“I want to recycle as much as possible but how am I supposed to store all the different bins in my place?” she said. “My place is not that big, so sometimes I just cant.”
The space issue also dominates discussion back at the Matrix. The building design doesn’t allow for installation of a tri-sorter system. Clark has to find creative ways to encourage recycling or she will simply have to increase the condo fees. The green committee has helped. Since its inception, recycling levels have increased by 15 per cent. However, Wright is convinced there is a lot more that can be done.
“I think you have handful of people who are very environmentally conscious and make an effort to recycle all the time,” Wright said. “For the others, it doesn’t seem to be a big deal. I think it has a lot to do with renters.”
For Dennis the super, the black hole he is staring up is attached to a tri-sorter. When the lodged bag gave up the fight and fell into the bin, sure enough it wasn’t sorted in the least. This is nothing new for Dennis.
By Steve Darley
Water water everywhere… but not enough for golfers.
How green are your greens?
It seems illogical that vast swaths of open space, surrounded by trees, interspersed with ponds, creeks and streams, could be anything but environmentally friendly. However, poor water management, chemical use and the impact of land clearing for golf courses can all be particularly harmful.
Throughout the golf industry water use is acknowledged as one of the most pressing environmental concerns. To that end, golf’s governing bodies such as the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient (R&A) based in Scotland are promoting the development of enhanced water management practices.
Toronto-based golf course architect and principal of Carrick Design, Doug Carrick understands the importance of an environmentally sensitive approach to design, particularly with regards to water use.
“The thing we are doing more and more of today are water storage reservoirs on golf courses. They try to capture as much runoff on site as possible,” Carrick said. “We’re always trying to reduce the reliance of water taken from the ground water and the aquifers. So storage areas become a lot more important as we try to conserve water.”
Grasses have been developed to operate in specific locations and, when managed correctly can play a significant role in reducing the impact on the water table and the overall environmental impact of the golf course. Stew Bennett is an agronomist and golf course superintendant with 30 years experience. His Florida based company, SaltScape Solutions, began breeding and developing a saline-resistant type of grass called Seashore Paspalum in 1994.
“It (Paspalum) has gained popularity in the last five years mainly because it is salt tolerant,” Bennett said. “It has been used on golf courses that may not have access to that much freshwater for irrigation. It has also gained popularity in non-coastal environments because of its ability to thrive in effluent water.”
Turf technology has advanced significantly over the past 20 years. Designers have a wide range of grass varieties at their disposal. To the naked eye grass appears to be grass, however for those in the turf business, location plays a huge role in grass selection, Bennett said.
Developed to thrive in tropical and sub-tropical conditions, Paspalum would simply die in Ontario. Carrick, though, is working to develop a grass that would ease the pressure on local water sources.
“We are experimenting with varieties of blue grass that are drought tolerant,” Carrick said. “They are able to withstand long periods without water and effectively become dormant. This is particularly useful in desert locations but also places like Ontario where the summers can be hot and dry.”
Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, a Washington D.C.-based non- profit environmental pressure group acknowledged a lot of effort has been made by the golf industry to limit the environmental impact of courses through technological advances, however one key area of concern is often unaddressed.
“The challenge starts on day one of a new development,” Feldman said. “Too often what we see is the good soil with all the important life and microorganisms in it taken off the development site and turf is brought in without much topsoil to support it. So in a sense, from day one, the course is undermined by the soil types that the turf is being asked to grow on.”
In North America, golf course construction has boomed regardless of course style. Over the last few years, the term minimalism has become prevalent in North American golf course design. Essentially, it is an architectural term, referring to the look of a course that is designed to reflect the local landscape. Based on the original British links courses, the minimalist approach to design does not necessarily mean the environmental impact of a course is lessened.
One of the key differences between British links courses and those in North America is history. Based in England, Kevin Munt, a golf course maintenance and operations consultant for over 30 years, said British courses tend to blend in with the local area.
“A lot of British courses have been in existence for a long time,” Munt said. “They exist in very sound environmental areas already, particularly heath land and links style courses, where their ecology is already quite well developed. We haven’t had to worry about minimalism and design”
Carrick cautioned that people should understand exactly what the term minimalist means and warned that it does not necessarily mean a lower environmental impact.
“If a course is truly minimalist you’re talking about a number of different things from how much earth is moved to how much manipulation of the landscape there is, to how much maintained area there is on the golf course.”
According to Feldman, managing golfers’ expectations can go along way to creating an environmentally sound golf course. He said it is unrealistic for regular golfers to expect picture perfect conditions, as seen on television. In Toronto, for example, 45,000 rounds of golf are played each year on the city run Don Valley golf course.
“We need to find a way to get some compatibility between the game and the environment in which it operates,” Feldman said. “There is too much pressure on superintendents to produce Augusta-like courses. At times they’ll resort to poor management practices, introduction of chemicals and bad environmental decisions to achieve that.”
By Steve Darley
How low can your food miles go?
How many food miles are on your plate today? What type of journey did your rib-eye endure? Was it a planes, trains and automobiles scenario for your spuds?
Increasingly, Torontonians food priorities are shifting and they are beginning to ask these questions. One of those is self-acknowledged locavore (local product purchaser) Ian Kay, who has been eating as locally as possible for the last few years and particularly so since his move to Toronto three years ago.
“Its important to me that I know where my food comes from,” Kay, 32, said. “From a personal standpoint there is no reason why you shouldn’t have 80-90 per cent of your vegetables, sourced locally.”
The local food movement continues to gain traction as environmental concerns about the impact of the global supply chain grow.
“Food miles” are ostensibly a measure of the distance a product travels from harvest to table and the term is one of the newest terms in the culinary lexicon. The combating force against the large carbon footprint and many millions of food miles accumulated in the global supply chain is the “slow food” movement.
Slow food is locally sourced, often organic, sustainable food product. The movement has been criticized for driving the cost of goods up, elitism and food snobbery.
The locavore movement is working hard to shed that image.
“From a vegetable standpoint, I feel in some situations the price is preferable over imported items. In terms of meat, it may be a bit more expensive but the quality is so much better that you really get what you pay for,” he said.
Elsewhere, a number of creative organizations are working to break the barrier, change perceptions and provide sustainable locally grown produce to a wider cross-section of the population.
On Roncesvalles Avenue, sitting in his hot dog restaurant, Buddha Dog, Andrew Hunter is proud of his contributions to the slow food movement.
“We jokingly refer to ourselves as fast slow food,” Hunter said. “Local is our first and foremost tenet,” he said. “We thought ‘can we make one product using as many different local suppliers as possible?”’
Looking to elevate Toronto’s ubiquitous street meat, the Buddha Dog team saw a clear gap in the Toronto restaurant market. The opportunity to present locally sourced ingredients in a comfortable, approachable manner, far removed from the white linens of the city’s classic culinary temples.
“Customers aren’t necessarily expecting local but they’re not surprised,” Hunter said. “More and more restaurants, whether its something like ours which is fairly low-brow so to speak to some of the finest restaurants in the city are almost exclusively local.”
Just around the corner from Roncesvalles another organization is blazing a food miles trail in Toronto. The HOPE (Healthy Organic Parkdale Edibles) Garden and its youth offshoot in Parkdale provide space for local, organic and sustainable food production in the heart of downtown Toronto. Gelek Badheytsang works for Greenest City, a non-profit organization driving the creation of urban agriculture spaces in the city.
“The Parkdale community has lots of people who live in multi-unit dwellings, lots of high-rise buildings or houses turned into multiple units,” Badheytsang said. “Ninety per cent of people living there (Parkdale) don’t have access to backyard gardening or access to space to grow their own food.”
The urban gardens are open throughout the spring and summer, providing thirty families with all the necessary seeds, tools and knowledge to grow their own produce. Strict organic and environmental standards are in place monitored by a full time urban agriculture manager, Marilyn Brownlee.
As their various contributions to the locavore movement increase, all three men acknowledge the need for education as the local food movement grows.
In Hunter’s case that means hand-drawn chalk murals on the walls of the restaurant illustrating the locations of the various suppliers Buddha Dog uses. It also means an ever-changing list of seasonal ingredients for customers to choose from.
“My belief is if you start preaching to someone they’re not going to listen,” Hunter said. “You have to work with them, give them information and let them choose.”
Back in Parkdale at Greenest City, Badheytsang is proud of the educational program in place. Implemented by Brownlee, the program teaches not only the skills and techniques of organic and sustainable gardening, but also effective use of the products after harvest.
Meanwhile back in Kay’s downtown condominium it is a question of self-education for as he prepares for another Ontario winter. He readies himself with cookbooks, tips and ideas to maximize the cold weather produce.
“I am the king of the roasted root vegetable,” he said with a rueful smile. “Its all about roasted parsnips, hearty soups and plenty of potatoes at this time of year.”
By Steve Darley
Washing Away: 10-year-old bylaw ignored by Torontonians
Photo by Will Senn
It’s a sunny Saturday morning and the car, long overdue for a wash, is sitting in the driveway practically begging to be cleaned. So you get out the pail and sponges and for the next hour it’s just you and the car.
That scene has been played out in countless homes across the country, except Toronto, where homeowners are no longer allowed to wash their cars on driveways or city streets.
Eliza Parker, of RiverSides Foundation – an organization committed to protecting rivers and creeks around Toronto – said Toronto’s nine-year-old bylaw restricting home car-washing was necessary.
“One drop of soap can strip the protective coating off fish, making them susceptible to disease. We also get oils, dirt and salts washing untreated straight into the lake,” she said.
City hall sources say there hasn’t been much negative reaction to the bylaw, but Parker thinks that could be due to the fact that many people in Toronto don’t even know of its existence.
Jorge De Mendoca, operations manager for the Canadian Carwash Association, says it’s more than that; the city doesn’t enforce the bylaw at all.
“There’s nobody going out and forcing you to stop washing your car in the driveway,” he said.
De Mendoca said most carwashes do about one-third of their business in the winter months, suggesting perhaps people aren’t following Toronto’s bylaw at all.
City officials did not return calls requesting comment.
Kevin Mercer, chairman of RiverSides Foundation, was instrumental in getting the bylaw pushed through. He said it isn’t really about the dirt and grease on the cars, but what is used to do the cleaning.
“Go to the shelves in a store and look at what’s in tire cleaner. This is stuff strong enough to dissolve brake-lining dust,” he said. “That stuff is seriously toxic.”
According to Mercer, the bylaw, which is actually related to Toronto’s storm sewers and not car washing specifically, is one of the best moves made by the city in recent years.
The city can’t control what products are offered for sale on store shelves, but it can control its sewer system.
“(Essentially, they said) thou shalt not discharge anything to the city’s sewer system that (the city) doesn’t like, because they are our pipes,” Mercer said.
At issue is the fact that storm sewer water is rarely directed to water treatment plants. For the most part, they have outflow into streams and rivers around the city, and that water is highly contaminated, according to Mercer.
Commercial carwashes are better because they are subject to Toronto’s sewer-use bylaw, and must follow strict regulations.
Carwashes must have holding tanks on site, and they must filter all the used water. Some will be directed to water treatment plants. The solid waste accumulates in holding tanks, and is eventually pumped out by waste management companies.
Wash N’ Go carwash on Dundas St. uses an environmentally friendly solar heating system to heat all its water, and De Mendoca says the system is very efficient.
“The owner has a whole raft of solar panels to heat the water, and sometimes they actually have to throw cold water in to bring the temperature down,” he said.
But what if you don’t want to go out to a commercially run carwash? There might be a solution which will allow people to clean their cars at home and use virtually no water.
Eccosave Mobil Wash uses a non-toxic and biodegradable cleaning product that requires only 500mL of water per wash.
“The solution does have a bit of water in it but that’s just to thin it out. It encapsulates the dirt, lifts it away from the surface of the car, and we wipe it off with a microfibre cloth,” company owner Simon Smith said.
According to Smith, there’s no runoff associated with the waterless solution he uses, so city storm sewers would remain free from all the toxic elements usually associated with washing a car at home. For a slightly higher initial cost, car owners can get several washes out of one bottle, which could save money in the long run.
Smith’s company is working on getting the product on store shelves in Canada so average consumers have access to it.
But according to Mercer, waterless products tend to use surfactants, similar to those used in dry-cleaning, which can be quite toxic. Any incidental runoff would have to be carefully monitored and controlled so as not to allow it to drain into the storm sewers.
By Will Senn
Hybrid cars are taking charge
Photo by Will Senn
Roy Lampard and his wife used to own a seven passenger Toyota Sienna minivan. Back when their children were younger it made perfect sense for the family to have a larger vehicle. However, these days it’s just the two of them, and they decided it was probably time to switch to something a little smaller and more practical.
“We felt that our van was a bit more car than we needed now that it’s just the two of us,” Lampard said.
They decided to buy a hybrid car. The decision making process was quick, but far from uninformed. The Lampards went for a Toyota Prius, because they wanted a car that was more environmentally friendly than a conventional vehicle from the point of purchase. But they knew the Prius wasn’t perfect.
“People will climb all over you about the manufacturing process, and it’s probably all true,” he said. “But at some point we had to ignore all that and just get a car that was better for the environment and cheaper to run.”
The Lampards aren’t alone.
Jeff Gates, a salesman at a Toyota dealership in St. Catharines, says ever since the spike in gas prices last year his dealership can’t get enough Priuses to satisfy demand. Gates says he does encounter customers who have researched the Prius and its potential drawbacks and some of them have concerns about the disposal of used batteries.
“People are concerned about the lifecycle (of the battery), but we’ve never had to replace one,” he said.
Hybrids can carry a price premium over similar sized, conventional vehicles. For example, a base Chevrolet Malibu (which is slightly larger than a Prius) starts at an MSRP of $23,995. The base Prius model starts at $27,500. Long-term maintenance costs between the two types of vehicles tend to be quite similar, so the added premium of a hybrid must be paid off through savings at the pump.
Nicholas Heap, a climate and energy policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, says that increase in fuel economy is quite important and makes up for the initial environmental impact associated with developing and producing hybrids. But a few years ago, a study was released by CNW Marketing Research that seemed to prove otherwise. Heap argues the study is pointless today.
“They included all the emissions that were involved with development of a technology, divided by the number of cars produced by that technology,” Heap said. “But there were millions and millions of internal combustion engines and only a couple million hybrid systems at that point.”
Heap adds the study was inherently flawed in its reasoning, because it assumed a hybrid would only be driven an average of 175,000 kilometres in its lifetime compared to a Hummer, which would apparently average closer to 500,000 kilometres. CNW didn’t bother to explain how it arrived at those numbers, but its claims don’t stand up to scrutiny. Heap says hybrid taxi fleets in Vancouver and other cities completely debunk this belief, as there are many on the road with more than 200,000 kilometres on the odometer .
Officials at Toyota Canada back up Heap’s claims. The batteries used in the Prius (nickel metal hydride) are covered under warranty for 160,000 kilometres or 96 months, but the fact is most, if not all, will last much longer. In fact, Toyota claims you should never have to replace the battery during the life of the vehicle.
Heap goes on to point out the batteries used in hybrids aren’t new technology, as similar set-ups already exist in millions of laptops and other high-tech devices around the world.
He says supposed problems with disposal and recycling would exist with or without hybrid technology, so fears that we could have a future environmental crisis are baseless.
But Heap believes that we can’t just stop with the current hybrid technology.
Today’s standard is to pair a battery pack – which is recharged through regenerative breaking – with a conventional internal combustion engine to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy, but it’s not enough.
According to Heap, plug-in hybrids – those that rely solely on a battery pack for driving and use a small internal combustion engine to recharge the battery – are a much better technology.
“It’s much easier to think of a car that has a 60 or 100-kilometre battery pack, which would take care of 90 per cent of your driving needs, augmented by an internal combustion engine.
“That would reduce your dependence on fossil fuels by 90 per cent,” he said.
As for the batteries, which are just under one metre square by about 20 centimetres in height, Toyota recycles 100 per cent of the materials used to create them through a battery recovery program.
By Will Senn
Long-term green renos to think about
 Photo by Will Senn |
Amy Peers’ house in Waterloo was built in the 1960s. Nearly 50 years later, it was still in its original condition, and that included its old gas furnace,
Peers investigated her options and eventually settled on a geothermal system for the house because it’s more environmentally friendly than a typical gas furnace. About $28,000 later, she’s one step closer to having a green home.
“There’s a huge price difference, but I wanted to make a choice we were proud of,” she said.
Peers and her husband had their home audited and new insulation installed before converting to geothermal.
Geothermal systems don’t need natural gas or oil, like standard furnaces. They work by pumping a fluid through pipes underground. The fluid absorbs the heat from the ground and is pumped back into the house, where a heat pump extracts the heat from it. The warm air is then pumped through the house using the existing ductwork. In the summer, warm air is pumped into the ground, where it is cooled before going back into the house.
A potential downside to geothermal systems is they’re always running. But Chris Phillips, owner of Greening Homes, a Toronto company specializing in green home renovations, says that isn’t unique to geothermal heat.
“A lot of people don’t realize that the furnace fan should be running all the time anyway,” he said. “Houses are built so close together these days you’ll have stale air if you don’t run your exhaust all the time.”
Phillips added most people in North America tend to live in one house for an average of four to five years, so the economics of converting to a geothermal system may not make sense.
According to Lorraine Gauthier of Work Worth Doing, a company which specializes in retrofitting war-time houses, many people don’t realize their homes – particularly older homes – have many small leaks, which allow cold or warm air into the house. Those leaks contribute to much higher energy demands, which increases pollution due to fossil fuel use.
“When we started, frankly, we found people didn’t really understand their houses were as bad as their cars for burning fossil fuels,” she said.
Gauthier says the most cost effective way to make a home more environmentally friendly is to make sure it has proper insulation from top to bottom.
And a new form of insulation, popular in Germany, is now mandated in Toronto: green roofs.
Essentially, plants and grasses are grown on the existing roofs of buildings. Impermeable membranes are placed on top of the existing structure, so there is no intrusion into the interior of the home.
Green roofs can actually reduce a building’s heat gains by up to 95 per cent, compared to a standard roof.
Li Wang, a landscape architect based in Toronto, has designed a number of green roofs for larger buildings and says they’re also very important for maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
“The problem in a general urban setting is all the buildings are together. So when it rains, all that water just flushes into the storm pipes together and the burden on the pipes gets higher,” she said. “There’s a habitat problem because of the volume of water and the speed it hits creeks. Green roofs delay and slow the amount of water which runs off during a storm.”
But according to Wang, there’s a big problem with green roofs today: they’re expensive.
“It’s a big investment, about $200 to $500 per square metre, and without government encouragement a developer will rarely want to pay that price. It’s usually the first thing cut when costs go up.” she said.
Gauthier adds there are other, less expensive things an owner can do to make their homes more environmentally friendly, such as installing a tankless water heater.
Tankless heaters eliminate the need for a standard water tank and the constant re-heating of the water within, as they simply heat water on demand. The water is cycled through the device, where it comes into contact with heat coils, which in turn heat the water as it’s needed.
“It reduces the amount of hot water that is produced because you’re not heating it up all day long,” Gauthier said.
She also said many people would require multiple heaters for all their household hot water needs, as most heaters are limited to generating about 6 litres per minute.
Many environmentally friendly renovations carry a price premium over traditional methods, but Gauthier says they’re manageable in the long term, especially since most will pay for themselves in the end.
By Will Senn
Wasting Away: T.O. aims for 70
Photo by Will Senn
Living in Korea had a profound effect on Sarah McGaughey’s life.
McGaughey doesn’t speak Korean and she noticed the language barrier was having a strange and unexpected side effect. When she went shopping she had to buy a lot of pre-packaged goods, because buying produce in Korea is a little different than buying produce in Canada.
“If you wanted to buy produce, you had to talk to someone in the store,” she said. “So I ended up buying pre-packaged goods.”
By 2004 McGaughey was back in Toronto, shocked at the amount of pre-packaged goods she had used in Korea, so she and her husband decided to challenge themselves: they intended to go 31 days straight without generating any household garbage. They had no idea it would be so difficult.
The McGaugheys started their 31 day challenge in April 2004. They didn’t succeed until January 2007.
“I take things completely to the extreme,” she said. “The first year we did it we kept everything, and we had two black garbage bags at the end of the year…a lot of people would be satisfied with that and count it as garbage free.”
McGaughey says their challenge took up a lot of free time, time which most people just don’t have.
“The month we were successful cutting out our garbage I worked four shifts,” she said with a laugh.
McGaughey is not alone in trying to limit the amount of garbage she produces. On a much larger scale, Toronto is attempting to change the habits of its inhabitants and divert 70 per cent of all waste from by landfill by the end of 2010. The plan, called Target 70, was ambitious and the goal lofty, too lofty in fact. The city acknowledges the targets will not be met within the current timeframe.
Geoff Rathbone, general manager of Solid Waste Management Services for Toronto, says despite recent setbacks, the city’s waste diversion program, is well ahead of many other municipalities in North America.
“I would say that we certainly have nothing to be ashamed about. We’re diverting 44 per cent of waste overall from landfill,” he said. “Our program really is one of the leading programs in North America in terms of where we are today.”
According to Rathbone, residents produced 900,000 tonnes of waste last year, and the city diverted 400,000 tonnes from landfill. The lower than expected numbers are due in part to a lack of much needed infrastructure.
“We need to complete the building of the infrastructure,” Rathbone said. “And it has taken quite a bit longer than we originally thought.”
Similar sized cities in the United States, such as Chicago, look to Toronto as a leading example. Rathbone was in Chicago recently, and says Toronto’s plan is very well respected.
“To be frank, they were blown away by (our) program in Toronto. I think it’s because we’re doing so many things simultaneously that many other municipalities aren’t doing,” he said.
Rathbone says Target 70 will be achieved within the next two to three years.
Andrew Nisker is a documentary filmmaker who wanted to raise awareness of the amount of household waste the city produces and set about making a documentary centred on one family’s attempt to keep all their garbage for three months.
“All that waste is hidden away from us in a very convenient way, and we have no way to quantify (what) we produce,” he said. “I was hoping after seeing the film people would try to become better stewards of the environment.”
Well, it worked.
Since releasing his film, Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home, Nisker says over 1,000 schools have ordered copies and the people have responded.
“A lot of people jokingly say I’ve ruined their lives. Now they have to think about all these things,” he said.
Toronto has worked to introduce programs to help residents manage their household waste and create efficient diversion systems.
“We are fundamentally changing the way Toronto deals with its waste,” Rathbone said. “At times it can be a little overwhelming. People said the blue box would never work, and now it’s just the way we do things, and the green bin is getting to that point now.”
McGaughey and her family, who now reside in Kingston, says Toronto residents shouldn’t have trouble reducing their waste.
“I didn’t realize how lucky I was in Toronto,” she said. “Being there made it a lot easier to do it.”
Toronto’s deal with a Michigan landfill expires at the end of 2010. The city already has a landfill near London that Rathbone says due to Target 70 can handle Toronto’s waste until 2034.
By Will Senn
|
|
iving in Korea had a profound effect on Sarah McGaughey’s life.
McGaughey doesn’t speak Korean and she noticed the language barrier was having a strange and unexpected side effect. When she went shopping she had to buy a lot of pre-packaged goods, because buying produce in Korea is a little different than buying produce in Canada.
“If you wanted to buy produce, you had to talk to someone in the store,” she said. “So I ended up buying pre-packaged goods.”
By 2004 McGaughey was back in Toronto, shocked at the amount of pre-packaged goods she had used in Korea, so she and her husband decided to challenge themselves: they intended to go 31 days straight without generating any household garbage. They had no idea it would be so difficult.
The McGaugheys started their 31 day challenge in April 2004. They didn’t succeed until January 2007.
“I take things completely to the extreme,” she said. “The first year we did it we kept everything, and we had two black garbage bags at the end of the year…a lot of people would be satisfied with that and count it as garbage free.”
McGaughey says their challenge took up a lot of free time, time which most people just don’t have.
“The month we were successful cutting out our garbage I worked four shifts,” she said with a laugh.
McGaughey is not alone in trying to limit the amount of garbage she produces. On a much larger scale, Toronto is attempting to change the habits of its inhabitants and divert 70 per cent of all waste from by landfill by the end of 2010. The plan, called Target 70, was ambitious and the goal lofty, too lofty in fact. The city acknowledges the targets will not be met within the current timeframe.
Geoff Rathbone, general manager of Solid Waste Management Services for Toronto, says despite recent setbacks, the city’s waste diversion program, is well ahead of many other municipalities in North America.
“I would say that we certainly have nothing to be ashamed about. We’re diverting 44 per cent of waste overall from landfill,” he said. “Our program really is one of the leading programs in North America in terms of where we are today.”
According to Rathbone, residents produced 900,000 tonnes of waste last year, and the city diverted 400,000 tonnes from landfill. The lower than expected numbers are due in part to a lack of much needed infrastructure.
“We need to complete the building of the infrastructure,” Rathbone said. “And it has taken quite a bit longer than we originally thought.”
Similar sized cities in the United States, such as Chicago, look to Toronto as a leading example. Rathbone was in Chicago recently, and says Toronto’s plan is very well respected.
“To be frank, they were blown away by (our) program in Toronto. I think it’s because we’re doing so many things simultaneously that many other municipalities aren’t doing,” he said.
Rathbone says Target 70 will be achieved within the next two to three years.
Andrew Nisker is a documentary filmmaker who wanted to raise awareness of the amount of household waste the city produces and set about making a documentary centred on one family’s attempt to keep all their garbage for three months.
“All that waste is hidden away from us in a very convenient way, and we have no way to quantify (what) we produce,” he said. “I was hoping after seeing the film people would try to become better stewards of the environment.”
Well, it worked.
Since releasing his film, Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home, Nisker says over 1,000 schools have ordered copies and the people have responded.
“A lot of people jokingly say I’ve ruined their lives. Now they have to think about all these things,” he said.
Toronto has worked to introduce programs to help residents manage their household waste and create efficient diversion systems.
“We are fundamentally changing the way Toronto deals with its waste,” Rathbone said. “At times it can be a little overwhelming. People said the blue box would never work, and now it’s just the way we do things, and the green bin is getting to that point now.”
McGaughey and her family, who now reside in Kingston, says Toronto residents shouldn’t have trouble reducing their waste.
“I didn’t realize how lucky I was in Toronto,” she said. “Being there made it a lot easier to do it.”
Toronto’s deal with a Michigan landfill expires at the end of 2010. The city already has a landfill near London that Rathbone says due to Target 70 can handle Toronto’s waste until 2034.
‘Guilt-free’ fish on today’s menu
Photo by Monique Plessas
Lack of information may be the less obvious culprit of why it’s so hard for companies to break into the seafood market in Ontario.
Jennifer Johnston, the Ontario sales representative for Goldwater Seafoods is spreading the word about her company’s sustainable fishing practices by holding information demos at farmer’s markets and various supermarkets in the city. She addresses consumers’ questions and concerns about sustainable fishing in hopes to encourage shoppers to choose more confidently when walking through the seafood aisle.
“I jumped at this opportunity to work with Goldwater Seafoods after trying the haddock myself. I also found out more about the company and it’s efforts to ensure sustainability in their fishing practices and since I’ve always had interest in environmental issues it just seemed perfect.”
Johnston says what makes haddock from Goldwater Seafoods a better fish to buy, aside from the freshness and quality is the way the fish are caught. The company ensures it buys haddock from local Canadian fishermen using hook and long line. Both of these methods are considered sustainable fishing practices and are a stark contrast to netting or dragging.
The cost of ensuring their product is sustainably caught is another reality they have to struggle with. Using local fishermen who go out on the ocean on smaller boats for only one or two days at a time means much less fuel is consumed than a larger fleet fishing for weeks or months at a time. The fishermen are paid fair wages and are fishing for only one specific species as opposed to catching everything and anything they can to make most of the time they are out on the ocean. These factors contribute to a higher cost being passed on to the consumer. Goldwater Seafoods’ haddock costs approximately $14.99 per package versus the $8.99 average price of other brands.
Although many processing plants are located on the East Coast, many have chosen to relocate to countries like China where labour costs are significantly lower, those savings can then be passed onto retailers and consumers. But the size of footprint this type of practice leaves behind is where the cost to the environment becomes more obvious.
Goldwater Seafoods’ processing plant is located in Nova Scotia and and says it is conscious about getting the fish to retailer as soon as possible to ensure the freshness.
According to Marie-Eve Higo a spokesperson for the department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada values sustainable fishing practices.
She provided some numbers to put into perspective how important and valuable the fishing industry is today. The commercial fishing industry in Canada is worth over $5 billion dollars a year and provides more than 130,00 jobs to Canadians.
Internationally known for its fish and seafood, Canada is the world’s seventh largest exporter of fish and seafood products. The ministry is also looking at ensuring the conservation of target fish species such as haddock and the ecosystem in which they live in.
Once Johnston became a mom, she became very aware of what she was putting on the kitchen table. She has now reversed her role from consumer to retailer and tries to get the message of sustainable fishing methods to retailers and consumers.
Starting at local Farmer’s markets she has been successful at convincing retailers and restaurants to pay the extra cost to carry Goldwater Seafood haddock.
Joe Virgona, owner of Fiesta farms supermarket in the Toronto area, well-known for carrying local, organic products has recently started carrying Goldwater Seafood haddock.
“When I had two requests for this specific product I was happy to meet with Jennifer and so far I’ve had great reviews about the fish,” Virgona said.
“My consumers are very knowledgeable and I always listen to them,” he added.
Amuse-Bouche, a local restaurant on Tecumseth St. in downtown Toronto where consumers can eat “guilt-free” fish has also started carrying haddock from Goldwater Seafoods.
Essentially, Johnston is getting her message out one menu option at a time whether it’s at your own kitchen table or at your local restaurant.
By Monique Plessas
Everything starts at “The Zero Point”
Photo by Monique Plessas
Nestled between the up and coming Leslieville neighbourhood and the trendy Beaches, The Zero Point is an eco-store located at 1590 Queen St. E. in Toronto’s east end. Just opened in June of this year, the store has built its reputation in a short period of time through word of mouth. What makes this store unique is Kay Valley, the owner, thoroughly researches every single product that she carries in the store. A product only makes it to her shelves if it exceeds her high standards.
Valley says that although profit is a part of owning a business, it takes a backseat to being ethically responsible.
“The whole point of an eco-store is to be ethical, products are important but so are the ethics behind those products,” Valley says.
With everything from reclaimed flooring, paper countertops, earth-friendly paint to organic clothing, biodegradable diapers, bed linens and worm composting, the store is sure to carry something to appeal to anyone looking for green options.
Yolo Colorhouse is an American paint company that Valley supports and carries in her store, she says she has done her research and knows Yolo has created safe, environmentally responsible paint since its inception. She says everything from their displays to the colour tint they use is done with a conscious effort to do it responsibly and ethically. Valley questions companies that carry a green version of paint and still carry their regular line of toxic paint.
“If they are a company that really believes in creating a paint that is healthy for your family and the environment, why carry the other paints,” Valley says. “I can’t support a company like that, they are not concerned with people, they’re concerned with jumping on a bandwagon to make money.”
Valley also believes she has a responsibility to create awareness about the connection between the green movement and human rights.
“What we buy here has a direct correlation with how other people live around the world.”
Klean Kanteen has earned a spot on her shelves. The product is made in China, and although some customers come into her store expecting not to see any products made in China because of the human rights violations the country has been accused of, Valley explains her choice.
“Klean Kanteen products are made in China but the company has taken it an extra step, they have someone who works for Klean Kanteen living in China, who goes to the plant and checks the working conditions. They make sure that their plant is a certified plant and that the workers are paid fair wages.”
She also connects the dots for the consumer who questions why some green products cost more than non-green products.
“If you are going to have people doing ethical things whether it’s in China or anywhere else, it means the cost is going to go up because people over there are now going to be paid a proper fair wage.”
She also points out that big corporations like Walmart jumping on the green movement bandwagon has it’s effect on local businesses. She has had to pull all of the Bio-Vert products she carries because it’s impossible for her to compete with Walmart’s price point on the same product. Her cost before mark-up is actually more than Walmart sells it for.
By Monique Plessas
