Green Bin Promotion - Community Service

[Sierra Club Canada]

Sierra Club Canada, one of the oldest and most established environmental organizations in Canada, wants your help to promote an important community service opportunity during February - May 2010.  Attached is an e-poster with further information. Visit www.sierraclub.ca/bintalkottawa for complete information. 

Below are some more details:

 

Sierra Club Canada is assisting the City of Ottawa with the education and promotion of the new Green Bin Program.

 

Be an environmental leader, give a "Bin Talk."

The collection of food scraps is the next logical step in our waste diversion efforts and a critical step in our efforts to mitigate climate change.  Food scraps buried in a landfill produce large amounts of methane, a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) now believed to be 70-100 times more potent, by volume, than CO2.  As such, generating and maintaining public participation in Ottawa's new Green Bin Program is of the utmost importance.

 

Sierra Club Canada will be recruiting, training, and motivating volunteers in Ottawa to give short 5-10 minute presentations at amongst other locations; schools, their places of work and worship and to the many many clubs and organizations to which they belong all within their local area.

 

This is an excellent opportunity for people to practice their public speaking and presentation skills. In addition, high school students can earn community service hours and educate their fellow students, teachers, and the broader community at large on the benefits and ease of the Green Bin.

By visiting our website (www.sierraclub.ca/bintalkottawa), each volunteer will have access to all the materials necessary in order to give a successful Bin Talk.  Presenters will then have the benefit of being able to practice on their own schedule and the flexibility to arrange to lead their own Bin Talks. The aim is make each "Bin Talk" as customizable as possible to the needs of the individual presenter.

To sign up or to learn more, contact us either by phone at: 613-241-4611 ext. 235 or by email at wastediversion[at]sierraclub.ca.

Cheers,

[christopher tidman]

I honestly knew nothing about green bins until they were left on my doorstep. I really can not support the program.

I was raised in a family that recycled just about everything. We did not need plastic bins made from oil or diesel trucks to cart the stuff off to fancy processing facilities. I now see bins with frozen contents that can not be emptied.

Why do we not encourage people to learn how to feed the waste to a barrel of worms. My mother had a barrel in her apartment that had a round top with cover that looked like a coffee table. She just threw in the waste and covered it with the dirt in the barrel. Worked fine -no smell. There are numerous other ways to compost this waste and it could be done by local gardeners (one on each block) instead of a fleet of trucks and a lot of fuel and tax money.

[Sierra Club Canada]

Hi Christopher,

I disagree with your assessment. The fact is this program allows 200,000+ households in this city to recycle organic waste that was otherwise being thrown in the garbage. It is estimated that 45% of the average Ottawa household's waste (by weight) is organic and can be diverted from the landfill.

Initiatives like composting should of course be encouraged, but the fact remains that a very small proportion of people will actually do this year round (about 10%). The green bin allows people to easily dispose of their organic waste in the same way that people already dispose of their paper and plastics.

Regarding the trucks, while there may be more trucks on the road, there is no extra tonnage of waste. The savings from diverting waste from landfills (thereby extending its life and preventing the very costly process of developing a new one) more than offset the extra diesel that will be used. This is not to mention the savings in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the fact that a usable product (soil) is being created from the Green Bin product. Many municipalities already have a green bin program in place. Ottawa is only now catching up, but has a chance to become a leader in this regard.

All power to you for your recycling efforts. I too come from a family that recycles as much as possible. With the green bin, we now put out less than one bag of garbage a week. It is quite remarkable to see the difference.

I share your frustration that this program has not been explained as well as it could have been (hence our campaign). I'd advice you to check out our website: www.sierraclub.ca/bintalkottawa and take a look at some of the material we have posted.

Cheers