The garbage strike: Ideas on reducing garbage

I’ve just returned to Toronto from Tokyo, and after visiting an enormous yet pristine city where you’d find it a challenge to spot litter anywhere, it’s particularly sad to see my home sullied by garbage. It’s only been 11 days since the start of a municipal strike that’s caused the shutdown of garbage, green bin (compost) and recycling services, among other city services. And already, city parks have become designated dumping zones. It really bugs me that we create so much waste that we can’t hold on to it for a while. Eleven days is nothing – not even two garbage collection cycles. I thought I’d share a few ideas to help control the amount of garbage we produce, and I’ve love to add your ideas to the list.

Ideas for reducing garbage volume:
- Eat more fruit and vegetables that don’t have waste. There’s little if any waste in (unwrapped) broccoli, snow peas, strawberries and mushrooms… compared to bananas, oranges and corn.
- If you eat meat, buy it from a butcher so you can get it wrapped in paper instead of on a foam tray, wrapped in plastic.
- Buy milk in bags, rather than cartons.
- Buy juice in concentrate rather than in cartons or plastic jugs
- Head to the bulk food section for foods such as nuts, snacks, cereals so you can skip the boxed goods.
- Still have an air popper? Switch back to it and save the packaging in microwave popcorn.
- Look for paper or foil alternatives to plastic tubs, such as foil-wrapped butter and cream cheese in cardboard.

How do you cut down on waste?