MCC Daily Tribune

Sustainability Canadian Style

As part of the MCC Sustainability Committee and as Earth Day approaches, I am reflecting on the practices that we do in our own lives to lessen our footprint on the earth. I wanted to share a story of how my friends and family members who live in Canada not only adapted to a new way of managing waste but have thrived doing it.

The Ontario government years ago developed a ‘green bin’ and ‘blue bin’ system to help manage waste. Each home has a large green bin that diverts biodegradable organic waste that will be composted and a large blue bin that is for recyclables. Any items that do not fit in these two categories and are considered trash go into an average-size clear garbage bag. Many areas limit households one bag to be picked up every other week!

Can you imagine doing that here? How do they do it? Overwhelmingly well, according to all of the people I have asked. When asked to reflect now on how they feel about only being able to put one bag of garbage out every other week, every single person said they could barely remember generating that much garbage. They are astounded by the amount of trash I can throw away each week if I choose to.

Although we don’t have such a mandate here in the U.S., my Canadian friends and family prove it can be done! I am not suggesting we get there right away, but there are some steps we can all take to ease toward that goal.

With this in mind, I did some online research, and we do have a great service available that is worth checking out through the ROC City Compost Program website. If you are already involved in composting and have stories to share about how you started and how it’s going, contact the MCC Sustainability Steering Committee, as we are always interested in sharing new information.

Judith Wilson
Sustainability Steering Committee
03/17/2025