Guelph Mercury,
8-14 Macdonell Street,
Guelph, Ontario N1H 6P7
CANADA
Recent stories including those by Chris Seto (April 21, 2014), Rob O’Flanagan (May 16, 2014) and Deirdre Healey (May 22, 2014) express what sounds like disingenuous surprise at the nasty secret habit of some Guelphites illegally to dump trash in ravines, on trails, behind buildings, etc. Why are people surprised at the revelation? All of us have a lazy, uncivil vein in our characters. And some of us tend towards such behaviour by a preponderance of the disposition in our personalities. Not me, but obviously some of our citizenry. But I don’t dig Deirdre Healey’s incomprehension that people would act thus despite the law, despite established systems for ‘convenient’ trash disposal, the availability of charity centres to receive large household items, and a system of disposal for a fee.
The point that illegal dumping speaks to is a quiet but nascent civil rejection of, or resistance to the overly bureaucratic system that Guelph has built for itself. Even in my lifetime there waste disposal policy became ridiculous. That’s what I imagine when I think of Guelph and its garbage collection and recycling philosophy. It’s a silly place. So many rules. So many changes to rules as one fad replaces another to honour/humour the pagan environmental gods. So many fees. Long ago I gave up trying to understand it. I love the environment, but I don’t care a hoot for environmentalists. The city is proud to boast its greenness. But there’s too much silliness, which is one reason why I left.
Published by the Guelph Mercury on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 as "Guelph’s waste disposal is ridiculous."
The City of Guelph’s waste separation, recycling and disposal protocols strike me as an outstanding example of a hilarious scheme dreamed up by people who are educated far beyond their intelligence. The real clincher about Guelph’s garbage recycling and separation protocol is that all of Guelph’s trash is trucked to Michigan State, burning fossil fuels to get there, where it is all thrown into a landfill the old fashioned way. So much for separation. It’s been that way for years since Guelph’s old landfill was declared full and closed, but various community protests blocked opening a new one. Guelphites are environment masturbators. Their trash protocol bears no fruit but doing it gives them pleasure.