Blowin’ in the wind.
So what is this? An art installation by the great Christo and Jeanne-Claude? Unfortunately these are escapees on the perimeter of our municipal dump. We took a little tour of the facility today provided by Norm our Public Works foreman who outlined some serious issues relating to waste management for Dawson.
This coming council meeting I will be asking councilors to discuss the pros and cons of having retailers replace those cheap plastic bags with resonably priced, reusable canvas totes. If anyone wants to come in delegation to speak to this, now is the time to get yourself on the agenda.
Hi John,
glad you had a chance to visit the landfill and see the effect that plastic bags have on our environment. Just imagine what an estimated 24 trillion bags do worldwide each year.
The thing is, it’s totally unecessary and avoidable. There are plenty of viable and inexpensive alternatives. It’s just a question of education, changing peoples’ habits and helping provide alternatives.
It would be a great achievement if Dawson City became the first community in the territories to introduce initiatives to curb plastic bag use. I’d certainly support banning them outright and I imagine the majority of Dawsonites would too.
Cheers.
Thanks for your comments Jim, I know I’m one of the biggest offenders when it comes to neglecting to bring my own bag to the stores. I now have a big handled bag hanging on the doorknob, so hopefully I’ll get into the habit of grabbing it on the way out.
You’re right, there’s just no excuse for that kind of excess.
Good evening Mr. Mayor. I know that many people I have spoken with over the past winter are in favour of getting rid of the local plastic bag population. It is an official movement in many N.American places including San Fran! Small Alaska communities started up this path years ago.
Also, I am concerned about the serious possibility of the sewage lagoon, the location, and so on. I think that there is the potential to lead the way towards green sewage treatment here in Dawson. Seriously!
“Green-house Wetland Treatment” “Solar-Aquatic System”
Please check out these sites below. Of course our cold winters and short summers mean the recipe would be different while using the same concept. I see it as a great opportunity.
http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn177todded
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_5_12/ai_77749301
http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/petersen/ENVS316/ProjectResources/CarolineTurnerThesis/Intro_chapter.doc
If you cannot open these links, please let me know and I’ll add in the search titles.
Thanks
[...] May 1st, 2007 at 9:12 am (Uncategorized) I recently came across a fellow blogger’s photograph of some of the garbage blown around near the Dawson City dump. This reminded me of articles I recently read in the Globe and Mail about a couple trying to go a month without producing any household trash, I was inspired. Of course I can’t claim to have come anywhere close to them, but their campaign made me more aware of just how much garbage we produce. Looking in my own trashcan, I realized that the largest portion of garbage turns out to be plastic: plastic wrap, plastic food containers/wrap (i.e. pasta), and the worst culprit, plastic shopping bags. Though I tried to re-use plastic shopping bags, they eventually tear and end up in the garbage. So I decided to buy canvas tote bags, as mentioned in a previous post. [...]
Janice Harris is a former mayor of North Vancouver, now District of North Vancouver councilor, who is advocating a national 25 cent tax on plastic grocery bags. She’s an advocate of the “PlasTax” solution…at the very least, her suggestion caused quite a stir, pro and con, and generated a fair share of publicity!
Here is a thoughtful article written about Janice, and the whole issue in general, you might like to jump to: http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/plastic-bag-tax-%E2%80%93-a-workable-solution
The photo you began “Blowin’ in the Wind” with is pretty powerful. Good luck.
plastic bags are the first indicators of a dump. I don’t know what has changed since my days at the dump, but from what I see it is stil a dump. Try changing the site into a landfill with some dramatic cultural changes. Install a proper bear fence, restrict access, charge an appropriate fee to dispose of the trash and after all that, at the end of each day of opening, bury the garbage.
The users will first get a linching party together, but as with all change, whithin 3 month everyone will have forgotten what the system was like before and appreciate the change.
The change is difficult, but it works. Living in an an area not unlike Dawson (Nelson BC), I restricted access to 12 dumps, closed four, charged for disposal kept the bears out and no one would want that the revert back to the old ways.
ps I did not make anyone’s christmas card list that year and we now actually make enough money to provide other waste reduction services.
The plastic bags are a problem, don’t put all the blame on them. Good luck