That’s right Mr. Premier, I cycle to work, so that you can have lower premiums. it all comes down to economics.

Regarding Dr. Suzuki’s comments on Sweden, I spent last year there, and so have a good idea about what they’ve done. The new numbers – their carbon tax is now $150/tonne, their emissions are down 12% from 1990 (in 2008), and economic growth was about 44-45% in real terms (total, not annual) between 1990 and 2008 – which would be closer to 2%/year in real terms, inflation taken out (might be 4% with inflation in). It’ll be interesting to see what effect the recession, which dropped Sweden’s GDP by 5% in 2009, will have on GHG emissions there.

I think the business community recognizes that there needs to be change. Yes, it does seem a little odd that David is at this summit in front of as Walmart banner. But, if he doesn’t talk to Walmart and other CAO and CEO’s, then we can never get onto the same page. Walmart may be onto something here and we applaud them for this effort. Maybe next meeting, the big business leaders should mingle at the same summit as small innovative business people. If we saw the WM CEO on the back of one of his garbage trucks on TV, we saw that he was touched as to what goes on in the trenches. The next Green Summit should involve all those who have innovative ideas to share? Ours is a franchise style Resource Recovery Park next to the shopping areas of every community. If citizens are able to get to a store to pick consumables up, why not drop off their organics and recyclable next door, at a convenient clean site? Not 4 items but dozens.

It is time to think outside the box and as a small business, I urge those who move and shake things to not think this to death. This is simple. Recovering the resources buried in our discards is another useful tool to help reduce GHG emissions. Maximizing a persons vehicle trip when shopping by dropping of their recyclables makes sense. We all need to carry some of the load. We have to do better, whether we like it or not. Convenient is not recycling. Cheap is not recycling. This ain’t rocket science. Common sense needs to meet innovative business leaders. I have a Resource Recovery Park in Gibsons British Columbia but there are no contracts to bid on. It’s all about cheap collection. For 6 years we have run on a shoe string budget. In our community of 5000 people, we started recycling Styrofoam. In a short period, we have diverted over 15×40′ trailer loads of loose EPS from our landfill. But, all contracts in our (and most) communities take only 4 or 5 items.

Maybe it is time for less yaking and more action. Our forefathers knew the value of discards during the last depression. The 2 world wars were all about gathering and utilizing the natural resources embedded in discarded items. We need to look at Resource Recovery as the beginning point for getting to Zero Waste. With packaging changes, making more durable products, EPR programs and reusing materials such as glass again, the solution is not all that difficult. Just takes the will and raising the standard. We can’t become more sustainable with a “fast food style” collection system. There must be programs that uses a system whereby there is less contamination of the recyclables, not more. Job creation from the clean recyclables in North America is not all that difficult. We need jobs at home. Exporting our recovered materials exports jobs. One day, there were no solar panels, no wind generators. When these 2 eco friendly products started being produced and considered as options to help our planet, it was awkward at first. Resource Recovery is at that stage on some levels. But, if viewed as a Reverse Shopping Center, the landscape could look a whole lot different in a few years, eh?

What we are doing now is not working. So, a new approach is ended. The 3rd option to incineration and landfilling, has to be Zero Waste, Resource Recovery and common sense.

Buddy Boyd
Gibsons Recycling Depot
Gibsons BC
http://www.gibsonsrecycling.ca