Revisiting the one-bag limit

Hamilton mayoral candidate Larry Di Ianni says if he is elected, he would revisit the city's garbage-bag limit policy. Some applaud the idea, while others say it would be a step backward on the road to environmental sustainability. What do you think?

Comments

[A Byron]

The question I ask to wondering is why you would think it's okay to have 20 bags of garbage? Curbside or the dump makes no difference. It's selfish minded people like you that have made this planet the garbage heap it is.

[What a waste]

I am a so called "Eco Freak". But this is the reality. Businesses say "We use the 5cent charge on bags to help the environment". Here is what I would love to see. I would love to see a list of environmental things these businesses have done with the cost per bag and how they put that money to help the environment. This so called environmental bag tax does nothing more than allow business owners to put the down payment on their gas guzzling new car.

[wondering]

Why is it ok for me to take 20 bags of garbage to the dump as long as i pay but not ok to leave more than one curbside. Is it about the environment or the money?

[colin]

For all you people who complain about the one bag limit shame on you. It is pure laziness on your part. Please tell me what is NOT recycleable, come on im waiting, oh thats right you are thinking of the 20 items oh i see. I have 5 people in my family and the Wednesday after Christmas i still put out a small shopping bag of GARBAGE. In todays world there is so much to recycle so that you dont have much garbage. I can see if you are doing work around the house then that is fine cause garbage does accumulate but for the day to day things you should never need more than 1, yes 1 bag. The best part is that my 9,12 or 14 year olds do this as a chore and we taught them you should all try it sometime. As for the people that can get away with one bag your taxes should drop. If that was the case then the whole city would be down to one bag, that would be a shame if thats what it would take to accomplish this

[Donald J. Lester]

If all it takes to get a person elected as mayor in this city..is revisiting the one garbage BAG limit...while 30% wallow in poverty, another 30% leaving daily to earn sufficient bread to cover their needs. This is a sad state of affairs, that definitely does not speak loudly of a progressive vision for Hamilton,rather it smells of the same garbage that this City has been swimming in for several decades...

[Kiki]

If I have to pay a nickel for a plastic bag in most stores which is the dumbest thing I've heard of- since it has more to do with store cash-grabs than saving the environment, then why can't I put more than one bag of trash out when I have to. Don't I do more for the environment by planting a tree, using my car less frequently, using florescent lighting throughout my house, using the water-saver gadgets on my faucets and showers, using energy-star appliances, turning off power when not necessary?
Does one more bag of garbage really make that much of an environment-friendly difference?

Also, I live near McMaster University and I can tell you from first-hand knowledge, when the garbage that is not picked up by the city on the regular weekly run it is usually flung into the backyards and sheds of these properties. We have raccoons the size of dogs roaming the area and rats the size of cats - is that better for the environment and our health?
Please be realistic with the garbage issue - one bag just doesn't work for everyone.

[anton volcansek]

any politician who floats the idea of increasing the one bag limit is revealing him or herself to being a short sighted opportunist willing to sell out hamilton's future in exchange for his or her own short term gain. the limit is in place to protect all of us from having to pay hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars to just site a new dump to replace a full glambrook dump. diianni may be quick to saddle us with this financial burden so he may score some points in some corners but I doubt he will step up to offer his neighborhood as a suitable location for the next city dump site. anyone who supports his view should also be willing to invite the next city dump in their neighbourhood. i certainly do not want to hasten the need for a new dump. i say dump any candidate who does.

[Peter Swire, CMA]

As I understand it, the concept of the one bag limit was to reduce the amount that the city collects (reduced cost) and to extend the life of the landfill site.

This is all well and good but it does not consider human nature or the make up of typical homes. Why does the city collect a plastic tray that will fit 6 items but the larger tray made of the same material, they do not? Why does the city collect only some goods that are marked recyclable but not all?

Further, the more that we recycle the less revenue the city collects. There is a finite market for recycled materials in the reprocessing stream. If everyone did close to 100% recycling, the value of the recycled glass, plastic and paper could fall to a low value or even negative.

Regarding the landfill, Hamilton had a bad experience with SWARU. Modern technology as used by the Swedes burned all household waste to provide electricity and steam heat. We should get a private operator to build and operate the site and we eliminate the dumping cost. Use other people's money to eliminate a cost item off the taxpayer's back.

[Ed2]

@ed

I agree and now Fisher-Price has another in a long procession of recalls where most people will just throw the junk out in disgust.

Now I ask you; "Let's take a guess at where the junk was made and where it will end up in the name of profit?"

Cheap garbage products do not last so until CSA and UL listings require quality the one bag limit of this and many other disposable products is moot.

[ed]

Are there any politicians looking at the junkmail problem thats spiraling out of control. Handfuls of crap mail come to my house every day and yet the city turns a blind eye and throws the responsibility on us while limiting our output. Funny the tree huggers don't even mention that.

[Realistic]

The problem with garbage is the creation of it, not the disposal of it. But the city seems to think if you limit the disposal it actually limits the creation. By putting a plug on a well it just backs it up until it explodes. Well garbage is exploding all over the city instead of making it to the curb now. Brilliant sollution.

[Gary]

It figures Larry Di Ianni is talking about garbage, just like his stint as mayor was...........GARBAGE!! Although his replacement freddy is also GARBAGE!! Is Hamilton ever in trouble this election with what is offered as a mayor. SAD

[Molly]

About the 1 bag limit...what am I supposed to do when some sneaky neighbour decides to throw their extra garbage in with mine on my curb! Now it suddenly becomes MY problem? Happens every week! Very frustrating...

[Matt. S]

I though the limit for garbage was 1 black bag and you were allowed to place a clear bag out so garbage collectors can see if you are Throwing out appropriate garbage. Personally I live with a family of 4 and I have a big golden retriever and a cat and I am capable of having 1 bag with room to spare. The whole point of 1 bag limit is to start thinking about what we throw out. If this does change than I would suggest 1 garbage day a month you are allowed to put 2 bags out also 2 bags the following garbage day after a holiday.

[Peter Michael]

myopinion; "I think we should all be issued out 52 stickers to place on our garbage bags."

Great idea! I'll auction off my extra stickers on eBay or sell them on kijiji!

[Paul]

Another backward idea from a backward thinking politician. We need progressive ideas not those banking on lazyness and petty discontent. Instead he should be thinking of helping those on the recieving end of illegal dumping. Not dumping increasing sustainable living.

[deb]

I live close to an alleyway where everyone puts their second, third bag of garbage along with matresses, furniture, and other garbage. The city has to pick it up every other week anyway so why not just pick it up at the roadway instead?

[Jim Harvie]

I think its politically brilliant to promise to look at something most people seem to want.
It is too bad we mostly seem to think we can consume and waste as much as we want, put the crap on the curb and have it all magically removed.
Besides, its not like this rule is enforced. Every illegal multiplex in ward 3 seems to get all the garbage they put out removed.
Nothing like subsidizing absentee landords.

[jim harvie]

Why do most people think it is a right to make waste?
Since no one wants a landfill near them we are going to have a tough time finding a new landfill site. But we can just keep adding to the one we have? We pay taxes so nothing should be inconvenient?

[TheNit]

I live in Ancaster. Now that my power has been restored after 27 hours, I will have to clean out my fridge and freezer and because I'm only allowed one bag I will have to take it to the dump and pay $8.25 to throw it out. Can you describe me as being "lazy" for having this extra garbage? There are legitimate reasons for people having extra garbage once in a while that allowing an extra bag or 2 once a month would be acceptable. I'm feeling that this is adding insult to injury when I have to pay this money. I could claim insurance for the spoiled food but it wouldn't cover the $8.25 dumping fee.

[ed]

Remember when hydro told us to do our laundry at 8pm, it would save a few bucks and the planet at the same time, lol..that was until we all started doing our laundry at 8pm and profits dipped threatening to turn their wine and dine to beer and hotdogs. Well of course thats not going to fly with shareholders and ceo's so its changed now to midnight. Just in case we all start doing our laundry at midnight hydro wants 350 million up front. But rest assured people, you'll be saving the world because its the right thing to do.

[ed]

Taylor-you must work for the city because thats their line to now. After being caught in yet another lie that all this stuff would save us money, now its just the right thing to do to save the planet. I don't mind tree huggers but please don't force your motivations on the rest of us. I remember governments and insurance companies telling us to buy smaller cars, it would save money and the world. But all those cheaper policies weren't keeping pace with salaries and lunch dates. So the new wisdom became, smaller cars are more prone to damage and injury so we have to raise the rates to cover that. To funny, now its cheaper to insure my truck than it is to insure my little car. The whole thing stinks, it seems to me that if we want to keep rates in check, let your hose run in the street all day, buy vehicles the size of trains, keep your air on 24/7, produce so much garbage those incinerators run overtime. If the environmental bleeding hearts want to save the planet, phone India or China, but in the west its just another excuse for a cash grab. I'm curious, is the eco fee and health tax going to pay for educating teachers on how to take care of 4yr olds, I know how complicated that must be for teachers.

[Andrew Murphy]

Thanks for the suggestion, I will look into the new cat litter. A standard box of cat litter is 17kg, which is enough to fill 3 litter boxes once a week. Add the giant dumps from 3 fat cats, and yes you are almost at 50lbs.

That being said... why does the city get to choose what kind of cat litter I buy?

I can imagine this corn stuff is a hell of a lot more expensive than what I'm using.

I pay my taxes and fill my garbage can not even half way full, but it is heavy.

I am all for reducing garbage, but forcing it on people is a joke.

As I said, if Larry changes it he has my vote based on this issue alone.

[Christine]

We live outside of the city and let me tell you, people are sticking to the one bag rule, but they are getting rid of their extra garbage out here. We are constantly seeing garbage bags. It makes a beautiful picture to see garbage bags on the sides of roads. We also see mattresses, tires, t.v.'s, etc. that people are will not take to the dump. The bag limit has to be increased so the dumping will stop.

[Jay]

Larry, will the city be able to renegotiate a lower price for garbage pickup now that they only have to pick up the one bag? Or has the additional time to place stickers of non-conformance on the excess bags on the sidewalk used up any possible money savings??

Bottom line,is it not environmentaly friendly to have all garbage collected(to burn in the incinerator council plans to build to reduce operating costs) or is it better to have it seen around our streets?

"One bag" bargaining for votes Larry is not the best platform, try something new like a 40% reduction in the mayors salary along with council and city staff and for good measure, a 25% increase in productivity expected and tracked from city employees.

[no name]

If I dont make the one bag limit i will take my second bag to the back of a stores garbage dump (illegally) and dump it there. I live in a small condo, I have no room for extra garbage! Our condos dont use the green box either, so nothing like stinky food piling up.

[Franz Kafka]

Why all the cat bashing? Litter and contents is biodegradable in the woods behind my dead end street

[Franz Kafka]

I have 2 cats and luckily I live on a dead end street near a forest. No disposal problems here.

[Taylor]

Ed: while I would like my rates to go down as well, I don't usually comply with environmental "rules" because it saves me money. To me, the two things are mutually exclusive. My main motivation is to use less landfill space and preserve our lands for other things like green spaces or agriculture rather than increasing landfill size. There are so many assoicated risks to landfills and in order to increase the size or build a new landfill, the process can be quite lengthy. I can cut down in other areas of my life like not driving as much or borrowing first run movies at the library (to save money). I don't believe in evironmental causes just to save money or benefit myself. To me, it is the right thing to do collectively.

[Hamilton34]

I don't know how the topic went from bags to cat litter, but Rawrs is SO RIGHT!, I just started buying cat litter made from corn cobs and it is really something, No stink, Not hard to clean the box and its light and renewable. My cats adore it.

[ernest]

i guess that,s why i 'm blocked from regular comments because of statements like that.

[ernest]

Here's your kitty litter fix.
That 3 gallon plastic bucket you buy the litter stuff in... is your poop can.If for some reason you can't forstand what i'm writing to you....go build bench.Maybe when Big Larry is mayor again you can ask him to put a STOP SIGN in front of your house.At least that way he will satisfying that infrastructure problem everybody is crying about.

[Rawrs]

Sounds very regressive.

Re: cats, use a corn-based cat litter. "Worlds Best Cat Litter", for example, is green, and clumps can be flushed down the toilet when used properly. Out of the green ones that brand seems best for us for smell, tracking, etc.

Hopefully some day they clarify their green waste policies on this. There's not really any reason they shouldn't take green litter products, as they are fully compostable.

(if you have 50 lbs of pet waste per week.. you either have extremely heavy litter or bobcats or something, though..)

[Dave]

Go back to the drawing board and put incinerators back to work!

There is far more benefits to burning everything than to pretend it's all gone by putting it under our feet to spoil the water table and soil for the future unlucky generations having to dig the crap up and redispose of it later.

The incinerators in use in Europe burn all but the hardest of wastes and they generate electricity in the process( a win win situation. The emissions are going to be right on par with anything else being spouted out in the air by steel mills and other chemical plants and the likes so there is no debating whether the emissions are harmfull enough to negate their proposal.

Any one capable of adding 1+1 here should be able to see that burning the garbage and eliminating the one bag issue here is not only sensible it's clearly practical and better in the long run for the lands we live on.

Do the right thing and go back to incinerators!

or spend more money on an escalator to space......

[ed]

When I read some people still saying we save millions when we use less water or put out less garbage and stuff, I realize why we have such disfunctional councils. Its the silly people voting, I'm convinced, either that or they just don't know or because they don't own a house. The whole cities water usage has gone down 3 years running, I don't know about you but my water rates keep going up, I haven't saved a nickel. Do you think taxes will go down because we all put out less garbage? Surely you can't be serious.

[myopinion]

I think we should all be issued out 52 stickers to place on our garbage bags. That way if I have 2 bags one week and none the next, I'm not stuck trying to find out how to get rid of the extra bag. If you need extra stickers then you're charged accordingly. I think this fixes any problems we've had with this system.

[Chris McLeod]

1 bag limit is a great policy. Lazy people need to be forced, unfortunately, to reduce. Instead of speaking to remove limits, why doesn't he go after packaging policies that would make it easier for us to reduce? We don't inherit the planet from our parents, we borrow it from our kids.

[Peter Michael]

A step backward. Our household struggles to fill a garbage bag every second week. That said, our recycling bins are overflowing but that's the goal. There isn't much trash that can't be recycled or placed in the green bin these days.

[I'm just saying]

Hmmm, 3 cats! I believe that's one cat too many according to the city by laws. Want to reduce your garbage..get rid of the 3rd cat!!

[Caroline]

Reducing the amount of garbage thrown out is an ecologically progressive practice. Organizing one bag of garbage a week suggests that one is recycling and reusing. Larry Di Ianni's idea of revisiting the city's garbage-bag limit policy is regressive and counter productive. Most residents have now trained themselves to accommodate this policy. Good for these residents! Bad for Di Ianni. He should use his platform for ideas that will actually help the city.

[ed]

"environmental sustainability" are just buzz words for, less services but just charged more to cover those unlimited expense accounts for the stakeholders.
The majority of people are using less water, less gas, less hydro, less insurance, less plastic bags, producing less garbage and so on and so on. What did it get us....higher rates!!!!!!
We thought people at the top would accept less under the circumstances, boy were we ever duped.

[Taylor]

This in itself is a reason why I will not vote for ex-Mayor Larry. This is a step backward in my mind. I've put out one bag of garbage for our family for the past 10 years. We have 6 family members and 4 pets. It's not tough. Can we have some forward thinking candidates please?

[Oh Larry]

oh Larry when will you learn. You can't be trusted. You start out with a topic like one bag limits, then BAM! next thing you know Gage Park has become an express way that floods when it rains and becomes a burden on the city.

We don't need you as our mayor because we know what happens when your in office.

[kevv]

ya more garbage will get
di lanni in...
the saying goes
garbage in garbage out for mayor

[ernest]

The 1 bag limit is an excellent policy.The landfill sites don't fill up as fast saving taxpayers millions of dollars.Larry Di Ianni should go away and leave politics to more honest hard working mayoral candidates.I will do my part to try and make that happen come October.

[Steve Sheen]

I think if a person or family has garbage mounting up it should be tossed out on garbage day,the idea was thoughtfull,but not necessarily logical because if garbage isn't thrown out it just stays bogged up in the basement or back yard so no matter what the garbage is there.And storing garbage can be a fire hazard.Take the limit off i say.

[charlie]

in this day and age of everything being so disposable and not all is recyclable, this idea of a 1 bag limit is rediculous

[Andrew Murphy]

If this is true he has just earned my vote.

I am very responsible with what goes into my garbage. I sort my recycling and use my green bin.

But I also have 3 cats, whose cat litter puts me right at the 50lb limit every week. If I have any household garbage that I need to throw out, or if I happen to miss a week, I end up with a backlog of cat s**t that I have to filter into my garbage for several weeks. It really is a pain. I think we can all do our part to reduce garbage, without forcing it on everyone.