Your waste? Your energy?

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The debate today across the province is what to do about our growing mass of waste and garbage. With provincial laws tightening up about municipal landfill sites, and with most of those sites almost filled up, we are all facing a “waste” crisis. The old approach – dig a massive pit and start dumping waste there – is now illegal and has led to other experimental tries. These include MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller’s proposal to build an energy-from-waste facility.

The most common response to proposals similar to Toller’s is that we residents have to be engaged and solve the very waste problems which we – you and I! – have created. And, therefore, a real problem which we can solve. That’s the argument.

Can we genuinely claim involvement in solutions for our waste if we do next-to-nothing – or when we complain that the extra cost is “too expensive”? Not acting on this will cost much, much more! Yes, solving our runaway waste buildup will be costly and demanding – but then we can claim a future, one tackling waste buildups in any form.

Or consider how much are you willing to pay for a ticket for each bag of waste you place at the road. How much, exactly? How much per month? And, of course, who will check on tags in each pile of waste?

Twenty-five cents per bag? More realistic, three dollars? One dollar, even, means three-to-five dollars per garbage pick-up… folks, I can hear only complaints here! How willing are we to pay for our waste-handling? How much for each load of waste picked up at each doorstep?

Ah, lots of changes in store for us, if we want to make this adventure a success. Are you – you, not your neighbour – are you ready? This project… why, we can all be revolutionaries!