Living Out Loud

Sometimes I think they do this just to torture me. Over and over, Halifax Regional Council raises the spectre of forcing the citizens of HRM to use clear garbage bags, only to retreat and defer the decision to another day, another year, another set of councillors.

I’ll be honest: Despite the fact that I know that the intentions are good, and the plan is meant to be “better for the environment,” I hate the idea.

HRM Solid Waste Resources has proposed that the current household bag limit should be reduced from six to four every two weeks, and that three of the four garbage bags should be clear. One black or green bag would be allowed per pickup.

The argument is that more than 30 percent of the household waste going to the landfill shouldn’t be in the waste stream.

Well, it can’t be that we’re not trying. In my house, I have seven—count ‘em—seven separate receptacles for various types of trash. There’s a container with a blue bag, of course, for cans, bottles and plastics. There’s the green bin, for compostables. I have a separate “green basket” for boxboard that doesn’t fit into the small green bin. I have another basket for newspapers (yes, I am that old-school). I have another bin that used to hold potatoes but had to be repurposed to contain all the plastic bags (bread bags, frozen food bags, etc) that will eventually go, in their own plastic bag, into the blue bag, as is the format requested by HRM. Then there’s the fine paper receptacle in my office. Oh, and finally, the actual garbage can.

Already, all of this separating has meant that much of what I don’t use (I guess I can’t really call it “garbage”) is laid out for full inspection by whoever collects it.

My green-cart collectors must be fully aware that I have a certain propensity for frozen pizzas; that I enjoy a bit of cereal, and apparently drink a lot of coffee, for breakfast; and that I may be in the midst of a bad cold right now, because I’m going through an awful lot of tissue boxes. The men that steal from my blue bag know that I enjoy a cold can of beer now and then, and that we go through a fair bit of homogenized milk in our coffee. The paper collectors, if they were to chat with the green-bin guys, might guess that I read those newspapers with my morning coffee. They also know that I do an awful lot of typing and printing of stuff. (For the record, I rip up all my fine paper before putting it in the bin, and I shred pages that might reveal personal identities or information.)

I am already living out loud through my garbage. How much more bare must I lay my life?

That one black bag we might be allowed is supposed to assuage all the concerns about the further invasion of privacy that clear bags represent, but that just doesn’t cut it. And frankly, I can barely stomach the thought of a walk around the block on trash day.

I think the people who are trying to comply with keeping recyclables out of the landfills ARE trying, and the people who may not be trying as hard, simply may not get it. It’s really complicated, and it’s hard to get it right.

If our citizens aren’t able to understand, I call that a failure of education on HRM’s part. They should keep their eyes on their own educational shortcomings, and out of my bags of trash.