[taken during Vancouver's garbage strike last summer]

i realize i haven’t posted in the “Living Lightly” category for some months now. my environmental concerns have gone from attempting to reduce my ecological footprint in a metropolitan city to figuring out ways to prevent donkeys and goats from spreading my garbage all over a neighbourhood that is too backcountry to even warrant street names.

i’m sorry i’ve let you down, David Suzuki.

still, in my own special way, i’ve been helping to reduce waste at the local landfill: i have refused to take out the garbage for the last 2 weeks or so. by “garbage” i mean piles of empty Ensure meal replacement cans and by “out” i mean to the rickety wooden frame at the bottom of the lane by my house. the garbage truck is supposed to come by once a week, but i haven’t seen them in awhile. which means the donkeys and goats are having a hay day spreading Q-tips everywhere in their search for something spoiled-yet-edible. cleaning up garbage from you and your neighbours at the crack of dawn might sound like a blast, but with exams, i was just too tired to keep up.

when even our nicely bagged garbage continued to go uncollected, i started to wonder if there was some sort of shortage or strike going on. or maybe the truck had broken down and they were waiting on parts. all over Nevis, tall garbage bins with lids and rocks on top were being knocked over and trash spewed halfway into the main road in a lot of places. i was no longer worried about the potholes on my morning bike ride because they were filled with garbage. swerving around chickens and goats and dogs was another story.

so, i just let the garbage start piling up in my kitchen bin. and squished it down. and sprayed Febreeze on the grapefruit rinds that started to smell. and stopped eating in general so i wouldn’t make any *new* garbage. which left me sort of hungry and with an always-almost-full bin.

this morning, i heard the dogs barking and stood up from the computer too look out the front window. the garbage truck! was here! and they were taking away the bags in our rickety wooden frame! i literally RAN to the kitchen to tie up my saved garbage and was planning to run out in my pajamas yelling “WAIT!”, but i was too late. the giant green truck pulled away and picked up speed even as i was tying the top and pulling the front door open.

my mission over Christmas holidays (now that i have several left-behind student vehicles at my disposal) is to find some giant garbage bins with snap-on LIDS that will fit in the wooden frame. and to buy more Febreeze.

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