Originally published Aug 6, 2014 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.
When Walt Disney was designing Disneyland he decided to place a garbage can every 30 steps after watching guests in other parks and calculating how far people would walk with trash before dropping it.
Some time ago, a Board member reported talking to someone he had seen littering. Their comment was “There isn’t any place to put it.”
This spring I went on a long walk in Flin Flon with a friend. As usual, I picked up a couple of aluminium cans and was looking for a recycling bin. There were no bins of any kind for a very long time.
The Recycling Centre placed six recycling bins at the neighbourhood reunions in 2000. All but one were placed beside garbage cans. The lonely recycling bin had a lot of garbage in it while the others had very little.
I was very disappointed when a major retailer returned their bins from the Recycle Everywhere program because there was too much garbage in them. The garbage containers were 4 feet away.
The morale of these stories is Location, location, location.
There needs to be a handy place for people to put things when they are done with them. They also need to have a convenient choice.
Garbage and recycling containers need to be located together, less than one foot apart. As was demonstrated at the 2000 reunion and the retail location, when people are given the choice of garbage or recycling, they will make the right choice.
Clarification to a recent column: Smoothie cups at McDonalds are #5 plastic and lids #1. Both are recyclable. The single serve yogurt containers are often #6 plastic and not recyclable. Larger yogurt containers are.
When Walt Disney was designing Disneyland he decided to place a garbage can every 30 steps after watching guests in other parks and calculating how far people would walk with trash before dropping it.
Some time ago, a Board member reported talking to someone he had seen littering. Their comment was “There isn’t any place to put it.”
This spring I went on a long walk in Flin Flon with a friend. As usual, I picked up a couple of aluminium cans and was looking for a recycling bin. There were no bins of any kind for a very long time.
The Recycling Centre placed six recycling bins at the neighbourhood reunions in 2000. All but one were placed beside garbage cans. The lonely recycling bin had a lot of garbage in it while the others had very little.
I was very disappointed when a major retailer returned their bins from the Recycle Everywhere program because there was too much garbage in them. The garbage containers were 4 feet away.
The morale of these stories is Location, location, location.
There needs to be a handy place for people to put things when they are done with them. They also need to have a convenient choice.
Garbage and recycling containers need to be located together, less than one foot apart. As was demonstrated at the 2000 reunion and the retail location, when people are given the choice of garbage or recycling, they will make the right choice.
Clarification to a recent column: Smoothie cups at McDonalds are #5 plastic and lids #1. Both are recyclable. The single serve yogurt containers are often #6 plastic and not recyclable. Larger yogurt containers are.
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