Trash

On a related note, the black trash bin is a new addition to the family. We inherited the green compost bin and blue recycling bin from previous owners. We bought the grey bin when we moved in to act as a trash bin, and leaves and trimmings were placed in a paper bag bought at the store in packs of 5 for I guess around 3 dollars. A few weeks ago we were informed that our street has been chosen to take part in a pilot programme to test out new black trash bins. The city is planning to charge for trash disposal to encourage recycling and composting. Collection of the smallest bin will be free, while larger sizes will be charged on an annual basis..basically they have yet again found an indirect way to tax us. We chose the medium sized bin as the smallest would have been ridiculously small for 2 weeks worth of garbage. The neighbours are however not very happy with this. It seems this street almost always gets chosen for pilot projects. Like when they introduced the large blue recycling bins. Before that they relied on small blue crates. And before that, grey crates. So if you have been living here long enough, you have all these outdated containers that you cannot get rid of. Yup, the city gives you all these bins, but dont tell you how to bin all the other bins. Try putting them on the driveway..you will be told off for not having rubbish out. This is especially inconvenient as most of the houses only have mutual driveways so you have up to 8 bins lined up in a narrow driveway. We are lucky as we have a private driveway but we still have a line of bins standing at attention, providing a playground for pesky racoons. Did I mention that TO is the racoon capital of the world? We have to secure our bins with bungee cords as they have learned to get to the garbage regardless of whatever clasp you have on the bins. Trash is such a messy issue....





This is how Sasha goes to day care on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Poor kid loves being outdoors but hates being bundled up. And I hate spending 10 minutes coaxing her into snow pants, sweater, scarf, hat/hood, jacket, gloves, socks and snow boots. Then after putting on my gear, and arriving at day care, taking them all off again. And we do this when we go out in the garden too..