Tai Chi wrote:I'm wondering how much longer big green garbage bags will actually be necessary, Reyn. Ever since my city brought in the organics bin my family has been hard-pressed to put out even half a garbage bag each week. All our vegetable, fruit, meat and dairy left overs (used kleenex too) go in the organics bin. The garbage consists mostly of cling film from meat packages, cellophane and bread bags (re-used a few times first, of course
). As recycling becomes more widespread and comprehensive there will hopefully be less and less "waste" (truly non-reusable substances) to landfill. [...]
Well, let me tell you about my particular situation.
I live in a strataminium townhouse situation (owner occupied row houses). We have weekly private "regular garbage" bin pickups and also private curbside blue bag recycling.
It's tough enough to get folks to participate in the usual recyling and not throw their recyclables in with their regular garbage. I think a program like you're mentioning above would be an abject failure in our complex. So, in our case, which is probably not too untypical, I can't see plastic bags disappearing anytime soon.
Tai Chi wrote:[...] I'm of two minds about disposable diapers. As a stay-at-home mom I had the luxury of time to deal with cloth diapers, but used disposables part time too. Cloth diapers are re-usable true, but they have to be washed in extremely hot water which uses a great deal of energy and then you have contaminated waste water to deal with. Also to be fluffy and most absorbent they need to be dried in a dryer (more energy required). While disposable diapers are thrown away I have read studies that suggest they could have a positive impact on landfills. Since most diapers are changed before they reach their absorptive capacity they have lots to spare when landfilled and absorb and contain potentially dangerous leachate that might otherwise find its way into the groundwater.
I'm not sure it would be a matter of choice.
Look at the compact fluorescent bulb thing. It sounds like they want to charge ahead with this thing and ban incandescent bulbs, even though no one has a good way to dispose of mercury safely.
As for the plastic bag ban, I would not want an across-the-board ban. Let good substitutes be available first.
As for disposable diapers, I haven't heard anything positive about them in landfill. If you can find a link, perhaps you can post it.
I'm relying on memory here. It's something I remember reading in a newspaper back when we were making the big decision between cloth or disposable (20+ years ago) and ended up sitting on the fence using some of both. 