Ever thought about how much many each year you spend (directly and indirectly) on plastic bags?

Well, I'm procrastinating again (as the topic might suggest)

One thing that I was reflecting upon a short while ago was the amount of money and resources spent on plastic shopping bags each year. I've been trying to cut back on the number that I use by avoiding them when possible (and I've come to like Superstore's method of charging you per bag - makes you think a little more explicitly about the cost). Even then it seems like there's still quite a number that end up filling the townhouse.

This might also be due to Calgary having a slightly different recycling service than is found in the GVRD. Basically, here you get to collect stuff and then have to drop it off at a number of central collection points (perhaps its a little less convenient, but these things do accept a larger variety of stuff than you can blue-box in Surrey). I think that curbside recycling service is targetted for 2009 here.

One other change in recycling practices that I've noted in Calgary is that a lot of electronics items carry a recycling surcharge. It seems a little easier to recycle some of these electronics this way.

Comments

One thing that I was reflecting upon a short while ago was the amount of money and resources spent on plastic shopping bags each year.

Been a while since I've had any excuse to use some of these words, but I think this is officially sad. (Not the emotional sad, the pathetic sad.)

In Edmonton they had juice box recycling before the GVRD did. Here in the GVRD, there are other things that can be recycled that aren't covered by blue box. There are even some things that MUST be recycled, such as gyproc. There are a few recycling centers, though probably not as many, and certain items must be taken to specialized recycling centers of which there is only one or two in the entire Fraser Valley.