Lightening the Load of the Garbage Bag

Thursday, 24 October 2013 16:43

Families encouraged to look at their garbage on Waste Reduction Week

While the topic of controlling garbage from outside out community is dominating local headlines this week, how we handle waste in our own homes is something we all control.

The city and county are using the Waste Reduction Week (Oct. 21st-27th) to highlight local recycling and waste diversion programs.

Chair of the City's Environmental Advisory Committee Cara-Lee Coghill says local residents have more options than ever before to reduce their waste. "Really as a city we do a great job with our waste reduction and our waste diversion initiatives and we have a number of successful existing programs. At James St. they offer the toilet drop-off program, they have an electronic waste bin 24/7 now. You can drop off your computer, laptop, cellphones..."

While Coghill says the city generally does a good job of diverting waste, there's always room for improvement.

She recommends families do a waste audit to see if they can recycle more, or buy less. "Just look at your garbage you produce and not just the volume, but what type of products are in there and how can you decrease that amount of garbage. If you're noticing it's a lot of packaging, what type of purchasing practices can you change to try and reduce the amount of packaging going to waste. Simple things, such as purchasing vegetables that are loose and not on a plastic covered tray. We also encourage people to be champions and if it means completely avoiding a product because it has excess packaging, why not write the manufacturer or shoot them an e-mail and say 'I chose not to purchase your product because of this.' Consumer pressure certainly has quite an impact on manufacturers."

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For more info on waste reduction week...

To learn more about the week and how to conduct a waste audit in your household, click here.

To read more about the City of Woodstock's recycling programs, click here.

And click here for more on Oxford County's message on Waste Reduction Week.