Sitting in downtown Toronto, there is nothing more that I would love than to see a sea of green. I crave green space while I'm in this city.
A future Toronto utopia, in my eyes, would include a greener Toronto. Although I know this may sound naive of me, I think it can be done. I'm not saying that tomorrow we'll all wake up and the dispute over where Toronto's garbage will be dumped will be over, but I think Torontonians are realizing green is better.
The other day I saw an interesting fact among the pages of the Toronto Star as part of their new "Ask why" campaign. The fact stated that "A comparison of seven Ontario municipalities has shown that Torontonians are by far the most diligent recyclers in the province, faithfully recycling over 90% of their newspapers, aluminium cans, plastic beverage bottles, and glass."
Even the number of smog days is down considerably from the last year. This year, according to the City of Toronto website, there were 11 smog alert episodes as opposed to 48 in 2005.
I also recently read about Toronto's "Task Force 2010," a City initiative started in 2001 when it was realized that in 2000, Toronto households created 920,000 tonnes of garbage (approx. one tonne per household). At the time, 76% went to land fill sites and 24% was recycled. The City decided to put a plan into action that would see 30% diverted from land fills in 2003, 60% by 2006 and 100% by 2010.
This goal is becoming increasingly more achievable especially with more and more households getting involved in the Green Bin Program, which began in 2002 in order to recycle organic material. Last year alone, 124,000 single family homes took on the green bins bringing the total to 510,000 single families who owned them.
There are trials currently being undertaken to see how feasible it is for those residing in apartment buildings to take part. I can only hope that the hundreds of thousands of people who live in such residences will be able to contribute to making the city a little greener.
Slow but sure, I can only hope that the future of Toronto holds a little piece of green space with my name on it.
A future Toronto utopia, in my eyes, would include a greener Toronto. Although I know this may sound naive of me, I think it can be done. I'm not saying that tomorrow we'll all wake up and the dispute over where Toronto's garbage will be dumped will be over, but I think Torontonians are realizing green is better.
The other day I saw an interesting fact among the pages of the Toronto Star as part of their new "Ask why" campaign. The fact stated that "A comparison of seven Ontario municipalities has shown that Torontonians are by far the most diligent recyclers in the province, faithfully recycling over 90% of their newspapers, aluminium cans, plastic beverage bottles, and glass."
Even the number of smog days is down considerably from the last year. This year, according to the City of Toronto website, there were 11 smog alert episodes as opposed to 48 in 2005.
I also recently read about Toronto's "Task Force 2010," a City initiative started in 2001 when it was realized that in 2000, Toronto households created 920,000 tonnes of garbage (approx. one tonne per household). At the time, 76% went to land fill sites and 24% was recycled. The City decided to put a plan into action that would see 30% diverted from land fills in 2003, 60% by 2006 and 100% by 2010.
This goal is becoming increasingly more achievable especially with more and more households getting involved in the Green Bin Program, which began in 2002 in order to recycle organic material. Last year alone, 124,000 single family homes took on the green bins bringing the total to 510,000 single families who owned them.
There are trials currently being undertaken to see how feasible it is for those residing in apartment buildings to take part. I can only hope that the hundreds of thousands of people who live in such residences will be able to contribute to making the city a little greener.
Slow but sure, I can only hope that the future of Toronto holds a little piece of green space with my name on it.
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