John Jordan is a freelance writer from Chatham and co-owns a Bed and Breakfast at the family farm.	Garbage...No Laughing Matter

 

It was 50 years ago that the world was introduced to fast food as Ronald McDonald thought it should be. Well, that's not quite true, Ray Kroc and his first so-called 'store' was the start of the world's most copied franchise fast food outlet in the Chicago suburb of Des Plains, Illinois. It was also the start of an attitude toward waste. When I say waste, I mean both the noun as in 'garbage' and the verb as in 'to be wasteful.'

What are we supposed to do with all this stuff?

And more to the point, why do we have all this stuff? Now thinking about our fast food outlet, have you ever looked at just how much packaging goes into just one meal? First it is the waxed paper wrap, then it is a card board box the same general shape as the burger, then it is the big paper sack that also has two or three almost impenetrable envelopes containing the mustard, ketchup and relish, plus a ream of paper serviettes and if you are good, a plastic toy. Also add in the paper pail for the pop, its plastic lid and straw and a card board container for the fries.

All of this is presented to you and all you have to do is hand over a five dollar bill plus tax (you used to be able to buy all this and get change back from a buck). So now what do you do? You eat the quarter pound of grilled ground beef wrapped in a sesame seed bun, munch the chips and wash it all down with the quart of carbonated fizz. Once you are done, the trouble starts. You throw all of the trappings covering this meal into a garbage can (we hope). This amount of what we call garbage would easily fill a factory worker's lunch box without the help of a compacting machine.

Now if you believe what it says on the signs around the golden arches, there are billions of these burger meals served around the world. So that means there are billions of lunch box sized units of garbage that need to be disposed of.

So what is the alternative?

Let's not take Toronto as any example. The folks in Hogtown think they have found the way to handle it. From what I see, there are people running that mega city who think they can do what they did in the 'good old days'... throw it over the fence and let someone else take care of it. In this case, the garbage service in the Big Smoke has a real hefty arm and they can fire that stuff all the way to a Grand Canyon sized hole in the ground in Michigan. Too bad some of the trucks hauling the stuff manage to slide off the 401 and 402 leaving a scattered trail of refuse along the way.

Like I said earlier, the golden arches are the most imitated franchise going and there are fast food shops everywhere serving food in packaging which gets turned into landfill faster than you can say Jack Robinson.

As I sit here on the verandah watching those garbage trucks head down the 401 to Michigan, I can't help but think that there is something terribly wrong with this picture. It is like we humans were placed on this earth just to waste resources and help fill up land-fills.

I read with interest that a town not far from where I sit, has initiated a user pay garbage pick-up program. "What a great idea!" "Why don't other communities do this?" I ask.

Apparently garbage (that is the stuff going to land-fills) was cut by 60.5% and recycling of materials such as glass, metal and some plastics is up by 28.2%.

That means the growth of these new ski hills around the land-fill sites could be slowed by 60.5% over a period of time.

Can someone tell me why other municipalities aren't doing this?

At the rate we are eating those hamburgers and throwing out all the wrappings, I'd say we are soon going to be smothered in our garbage.