garbage day!

First garbage day!

Don't worry...I'm sure the novelty will wear off quickly, but this is new for us. We got somewhat spoiled as condo-living types; we took our garbage to the chute down the hall anytime we wanted. There were two recycling boxes which were magically emptied every day.



Now we have to make sure the garbage can is raccoon-proof, for example. Some Toronto residents have been using bungee cords, but apparently the raccoons have figured out how to take these off unless the cords are fastened in elaborate and secure configurations. And the catch is that the trash guys won't empty cans with bungee cords, so you have to make sure you take the cords off before 7 am.

Ours passed the raccoon test, at least this first time.

Leaf and yard waste is handled differently in Toronto. In the summers, this type of trash is collected every other week, and has to be in paper bags or in a rigid open-top container. Cardboard boxes aren't allowed. Branches have to be cut up and bundled within a certain specifications (click on the close-up of the picture below for details), and yard waste apparently does NOT include grass clippings, which I find somewhat confusing. Not that it matters to us, since we have no grass. :-)



The recycling rules are somewhat baffling to me. The basics are easy, of course...glass and plastic containers, cardboard. It's the minute seemingly counter-intuitive details that continue to escape my memory. While some paper gift wrap is recyclable, for example, the type with a foil pattern is not. Plastic muffin trays are not recyclable, but margarine containers are. The list of exceptions seems endless.

Things are going to get more complicated in October, when the Green Bin program starts in North York. We're planning to get a compost bin as soon as we get settled (HA!!!) and figure out where to put it. Right now, trash is picked up every week, with yard waste and recyclables being picked up on alternate weeks. Once the Green Bin program starts, trash will only be picked up every other week.

Despite confusion over recycling and trash rules, I know this is all ultimately a Good Thing. I'm already much more conscious of the types of food product packaging I buy (whether it's recyclable, for example, and how much space it will take up in the trash can if it's not). I'm also making a much concerted effort in reducing the amount of trash that comes out of this house. And yes, I'm somewhat embarrassed by the fact that it took moving into a house to make me more conscientious about this sort of thing.



According to city stats, 43,000 residential tonnes of trash were recycled in Toronto last year, with 32% of residential waste diverted because of various recycling, green bin and yard composting programs. Toronto currently ships 120 trucks of garbage a day, which is down from 140 a day in 2003.

A survey: What are the trash and recycling "rules" like in your area? I'm curious.

Heartfelt thanks to Jeff in helping me set up my office space. I'm SO pleased with it so far. I still need some more bookshelves, need to paint my magnetic wall, a phone jack, a corkboard, set up my printer and scanner area, my craft table. But at least I can start working in my office!

Here are some pics...

My workspace, with a brand-new desk from IKEA. The bookshelves in my office were from our old living room. I'm going to line the wall on the left with corkboard, and put a shelf above the corkboard:



I bought the bunch of cloth sunflowers at Lewiscraft yesterday to add some corner colour, temporarily hung up the scarf from Andrea below the window. I'm going to have a shorter book shelf below the window, need a reading lamp, may put another shelf on the other side of the filing cabinet near the tree. The reading chair is from Jeff's office and is here temporarily while he gets his workspace set up. I'm on the lookout for a nice cushy comfy armchair:



Interesting to compare the above photo to the original room before we moved in:

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