That's the message the City of Hamilton has placed on its website in a bid to convince citizens to comply with the municipality's one bag garbage limit, which will be enforced in April. See full Spec story here
In the midst of the worst economic downturn in recent history, and in the throws of the economy being stimulated, Hamilton's message appears wrong headed and mis guided. , despite any noble intent.
Hamiltonian, Paul Martini took exception to that message, adding: "I found this interesting at a time when we are trying to stimulate our economy," he said in an e-mail to The Spectator.
Mr. Martini's views are supported by John Dolbec, Executive Director of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, Dolbec said : "Why not just have everyone live in a cave and that will really cut down on purchases?" "To encourage people to become almost hermitlike doesn't strike me as being terribly productive," said Dolbec, adding the chamber supports recycling efforts and reducing the output of what ends up in landfills. "But there are other ways of doing it other than asking people to slow the economy down."
Councillor Maria Pearson, despite being the outgoing chairperson of the city's economic development and planning committee, doesn't seem to be connecting the dots or, at minimum doesn't appear to be fully recognizing the adverse trade-off. . "I don't have a problem with them trying to encourage residents to think about what they are doing on a day-to-day basis," said Pearson.
Is this an example of backward thinking in Hamilton? At a time when people are struggling to get or keep jobs, should we be encouraging consumers to buy less? As John Dolbec said, aren't there ways of being responsible with our waste management without hi-jacking our economic recovery? Or as blogger WRCU2 suggests- buy smarter, not less?
I totally agree with the approach and the intent but the message itself is vague and incomplete. People need to make smarter purchases not less. We consumers can send a clear message to all those who profit from our spending by what we buy rather than how much of IT.
ReplyDeleteI go out of my way to buy Made-In-Canada and vehemently resist the Made-In-China brand. This is how I send the message to retailers that I encourage job growth in my community. I am committed to NOT buying garbage that breaks prematurely.
I support anything that affects the bottom line of greedy, exploitive business practices and encourage everyone to do the same. This is the primary reason I have no desire to borrow from banks. At least not yet.
It seems to me that the business world, the capitalist society we have has not done a lot of thinking about the waste, garbage, pollution, nor does it want to change, but it must.
ReplyDeleteThe air, water and land are poisoned and it is going to get a lot worse. The seas are dying, the animals, birds and other creatures are dying off. We keep taking the land from the wildlife, just so we can build more houses, I mean one has to ask, when is enough, enough?
The world is finite but the capitalist way of thinking is opposite, look at the crap we buy, which breaks down, fall apart because of globalization, where cheap labour and materials rule the wrold, it is a drive to the bottom, with only a few at the top being the winners.
Something has to give, let us hope that fresh new ideas, really green ideas come into play. We must stop what we are doing and change our ways.
I agree with WCRU2. Buy smarter. Telling people just to buy less is misleading and causes more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteThe one bag per household will just result in more garbage being dumped in alleys, parking lots and along the mountain brow. How can a family with 4 children follow this. Charging them for the extra bags will just stress the family income more. I'm sure the City will not come to clean up garbage dumped on private properties but will issue work orders and hand out fines to the owners.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to "buy less" in Hamilton - our stores are pretty crummy, and half the time, I end up having to go to Toronto to buy anything.
ReplyDeleteOur grocery stores, where everyone has to shop, can't even get stock in, with holes galore, and half the time, they are out of their "specials" on the first morning of a sale.
Anything less common, like clothing, just results in frustration. Try to buy a bathing suit in the summer? Try to buy a winter coat in the winter? You get the point. A mall like Limeridge, with like 200 stores, has exactly ONE store for men's clothing, and exactly ONE store in which someone can buy something for a computer or a stereo.
For all of the complaints people make about Wal-Mart; all I can say is that they pretty much own the market because no one else bothers to compete or even get into the game.
Hamilton is an excellent location for "buy less", since we have so little of worth to actually buy...
I agree with the concept of what Tom Robertson is saying. Garbage allowance should be based on the number of residents residing in each household, with special allowances for those with special circumstances. I reside in a house hold of 4 and have managed to limit our garbage to one small grocery bag size of garbage per week.
ReplyDeleteI question Councillor Pearson's abilities as a councillor. Especially in light of the fact of her experience as chair of the economic and development committee and that the fact that she is a councillor and should be thinking of ways to grow our economy. Pearson is trying to solve one problem by creating a much bigger one - which is short sited. Surely there are better means to convey this message without slowing down the economy. Someone please wake up this women as she always seems to be asleep at the wheel.
Ralph
Ralph, someone is going to wake-up Councillor Maria Pearson. In case you haven't noticed, quite a few candidates have [thrown their hats into the ring] already. A fella named Jose Pablo Bustamante will be running in the tenth. Curiously, someone has also stepped forward to shake-up the Mayor as well, a guy named Michael James Baldasaro.
ReplyDeleteI am also happy to report that a [similar posting] at the Hamilton Spectator's Have Your Say blog has garnered only half as many comments as Cal's blog to date. Way to go Cal!
One of the biggest problems is all the packaging the various companies produce for some of the products they sell. Sometimes it's just overkill when the size of the box the product comes in is 4-times bigger than the actual product and this doesn't even include all of the wrappings, plastic, styrofoam that comes along with it.
ReplyDeleteRick Cordeiro