Mar 31, 2009

ITS 1988 ALL OVER AGAIN IN CALGARY



...guess what these two things have in common?

they were both rolled out in 1988 - curbside recycling in edmonton and bon jovi's awesome hairstyle.

to be frank, this is sad commentary really. what this shows is how far calgary is behind the times - and in a bigger sense - how self-absorbed people in this city are. we have more in common with big US cities like houston than we do with edmonton. even though we now have these great blue bins - we are still lagging behind edmonton in that recycling in edmonton also includes organics - and calgary doesnt, yet.

dont get me wrong - i am stoked to finally have a curbside recycling program here - its just that even after waiting 21 years to implement this program, the city of calgary still cant go the whole way and do something truely comprehensive. all of that is not surprising, especially when you look at it from a macro-planning level: the city is just now realizing that constant expansion of the suburbs is not a good strategy (duh, welcome to the 90's) and that alternative transportation strategies are needed quickly (duh, welcome to the 21st century) to deal with traffic problems that are brewing all over.

ok - enough complaining. time to go fill up my blue bin with all the recyclables i have been stockpiling since last fall!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ahh Calgary, they do like to be stubborn about these kinds of things! Even in regards to plastics recycling -as in the plastics for margarine containers, etc- both Red Deer and Lethbridge have a recycling program for these!

I remember seeing in Winnipeg (and Vancouver, I believe) three-slotted bins sectioned for garbage, cans/bottles/ organic material.

In a way it's better late than never, but I really never feel like recycling of any kind is a priority in Calgary, although I really wish it would be.