Saanich delivered our new rolling garbage and kitchen scrap bins on Thursday.
We’re not supposed to use them until April, when Saanich households will be required to put kitchen scraps in one bin and garbage in another. We got the bins this early because it takes time to deliver them all; it might be a few weeks before you get yours.
Here’s the first draft of our operating procedures when the new garbage era arrives, crafted after skimming Saanich’s website and at least 10 minutes of mulling.
Continue to put raw fruit and vegetable scraps into the backyard composter. We’ve been doing that for roughly five years, since installing one of those cone composters.
Continue to put meal scraps that include meat, bones, fish carcasses, greasy parchment paper, food-and-grease stained paper towels, and cooked food into bags that go into the freezer. It’s basically any food that shouldn’t go into a household composter, plus foody paper.
On collection day, put all the frozen scraps into the newspaper-lined kitchen scraps bin, and roll it to the curb, with wheels facing the house, arrow on the lid pointing to the street. (The arrow is a nice touch.)
We’re still debating what kind of bags to use. With the new bins, Saanich delivered samples of Glad compostable bags (as opposed to biodegradeable bags and plastic bags, which are not acceptable.) At our local bit-of-everything store, plastic kitchen garbage bags are $6.99 for 40; the compostable version, slightly bigger, costs $6.99 for 10. I’m a penny-pincher, so I’m hesitating about this.
An untested alternative: use paper grocery bags lined with newspaper.
Or, go the origami route, and fold newspaper sheets into bags. Here’s a video on YouTube that the Saanich website directs you to:
You can download a PDF of Saanich’s report on its pilot project for kitchen scrap collection. The comments from participants are entertaining.
Saanich has a section of its website devoted to Greener Garbage Collection, with many details about the kitchen scraps collection project. I like the part where residents are urged to be patient with their garbage bin lids. Because of cold weather and shipping method, the bins of some lids don’t close properly. The lids should get better when it gets warmer, the website says.
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Out in the world of Facebook and Twitter, a news release from the Ontario Medical Association is making the rounds. The title is: Please Stay Home if You are Sick. But it’s the aside that’s catching attention: “Employers should encourage workers to stay home when sick - not require sick notes which has a discouraging effect and forces patients into the doctor’s office when they are sick, which only encourages the spread of germs to those in the waiting room, who in some cases are more vulnerable.” Here’s the full news release.
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It’s time to ride Vancouver’s SkyTrain without wearing pants. That’s what a story at straight.com is reporting.
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Beginner violin lessons for adults are on offer at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.
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