Canadians produce more garbage than anyone else

[steaky]

Canadians use far too much energy and water, and they produce more garbage per capita than any other country on earth, a report from an influential think-tank says.

The Conference Board of Canada gave Canada a C grade on Thursday and ranked it in 15th place among 17 developed nations studied across a host of environmental-efficiency metrics.

"Our large land mass, cold climate and resource-intensive economy make us less likely to rank highly on some indicators of environmental sustainability, but many of our poor results are based on our inefficient use of our resources," said Len Coad, the board's director of energy, environment and technology policy.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/01/17/business-canada-waste-garbage.html

 

[scylla]

I saw that headline flash on the elevator news today (small tv screens on the elevators of my office tower that shows news and other information). Pretty embarrassing.

 

[amikety]

It surprised me. This is the first place I lived to have recycling bins along with trash bins.

There seem to be a lot of renos - complete top to bottom renos - at least where I live. I wonder if this has anything to do with the waste. A man next to my friend's old house went through 3 big bins just for one floor.

 

[scylla]

There seem to be a lot of renos - complete top to bottom renos - at least where I live. I wonder if this has anything to do with the waste. A man next to my friend's old house went through 3 big bins just for one floor.

My husband and I are guilty of that. We finished lowering our basement just a few months ago and have other renos on the go.

 

[Leon]

One building I lived in just started to use recycling bins shortly before I moved out of there. The other places I've lived have not had them. If they want people to recycle, they have to make it easy for them and they also have to restrict people from producing a lot of unsorted garbage, for example by charging per bin.