Terms and Explanations
 Zero Waste - Zero Waste is the goal to
decrease the amount of material going to landfill.
Product
Stewardship - Product Stewardship occurs when companies take
responsibility for the whole life of their products and packaging. Instead
of consumers (us) paying for products going to a landfill (through taxes),
manufacturers should. They should be responsible for the resources used
for the product and for where the product ends up. That would encourage
them to use less resources and more recyclable ones.
Recyclables -
Recyclables are items that are sent to factories, melted down and made
into new products. Recyclables should not be put into the garbage. An
example of a recyclable item is a pop can. The aluminum from the pop cans
is melted down and used to make new cans.
Recycling Codes - On the
bottom of many products there is a number from 1 to 7. This is a recycling
code. In Toronto, there is recycling pick up for only numbers 1 and 2.
This means any items that are numbered 3 to 7 have to be thrown into the
garbage. We think Toronto should pick up all products numbered from 1 to
7.(The Blue Box 2000 program in Belleville, Trenton, and Quinte Region
already does this)
The reason the city will not pick up items with codes from 3 to 7 is
because it says it would not make sense to recycle these (too expensive
and no market for them). In our minds, this says that either companies
should stop making products using 3 to 7 type materials, OR companies
should help pay for machines that can affordably recycle them.
Government legislation will be needed for this last point to become
law. That's why we've made a petition asking for this to happen.
Residuals -
Residuals are just garbage. They cannot be recycled, composted, or reused.
An example of a residual is a chip bag. The only place it can go is
straight into the garbage can.
If a product can't be recycled, composted, or reused, zero waste
principals say, "Why make it?"
Organics - Organics
are items that can be composted (this means items can decay or rot on
their own). They shouldn't be put in the garbage. An example of an organic
is an apple core.
It's important to keep organics separated from other waste. When
organics are buried in a landfill, air isn't allowed to get through. When
the organics decay without oxygen, methane gas is produced. This
contributes to the Green House Effect, which is a big cause in global
warming.
 In Toronto, we have garbage, blue boxes and grey boxes. This
is good but there is no way to separate organics. We end up putting
organics in our garbage bag. Emphasis on blue boxes takes away chances of
reducing organic waste in the landfill.
Zero waste promotes systems that keep organics apart from regular
garbage (residuals). Read about Guelph
or Nova
Scotia's system to find out more about systems that eliminate organics
from the
landfill. | 
