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Clear garbage bags are coming to Halifax on August 1, and you know what? You are going to love it.
No. Really.
In 2010, my partner and I moved to Coldbrook, Nova Scotia, where the clear bag policy was already in place. The thing is, I didn’t know about this before we moved. At the time I thought this was total bullshit. You want me to do what? Sort?
Why would I take my time to sort all of this stuff when I can just throw it all in one place and let all of life’s problems drift away? Well, mostly because it was now against the rules. It was time to start sorting for real. No more cheating. As it turns out, this whole “sorting” thing? It actually kinda rules. So I’m here to reassure you because, like Hole, I live through this. Here is why you’re going to love the new bag clear policy.
1. No more dirty-ass garbage. You know what I’m talking about. When you haul your dirty-ass garbage to the curb, there might be a hole in your dirty-ass garbage bag leaving a dark/slimy trail in its wake. Let’s all close our eyes and imagine the combination of food and liquid that must have festered to produce that smell and colour and…oh no, it’s on my leg. Yes, you have to start composting everything. But this means a less smelly garbage in your home and no more dragging those filthy wet masses around.
2. Way less garbage. When you can’t cheat on sorting, you will be shocked—shocked!—by how much less garbage you produce. It might actually make you feel good. The result is more recyclables (plastics, paper, refundables) and less actual garbage in your clear bags. Once you get the rhythm of sorting, you’ll be a natural and more likely to sort out all those refundables so you can get. Paid.
3. Your horrible secrets will still be hauled away. Great news! You are allotted one black privacy bag. This should be big enough to hold whatever horrific secret you’ve been keeping. You know, a garbage bag is pretty big, so really, there’s enough room to throw out multiple unspeakable atrocities. Hey, I’m not here to judge! And neither is the privacy bag. Get crazy (but not too crazy)!
4. Goodbye, decision fatigue. Did you know the president of the United States has his clothes picked out for him simply so he has less decisions to make in the run of a day? This is to help ward off something called decision fatigue. The idea is, if you make too many decisions, you’ll eventually make bad decisions. With the clear bag policy, there’s no more “I know I should recycle this, but maybe I’ll just throw it out. No one will ever know.” Instead, you just recycle it, no questions asked. Now you’re the president (of recycling).
5. Obligatory “it’s good for the environment” message. I know what you’re thinking. That’s only the most obvious thing in the world. OK, I deserve that. It’s lazy to list this, but in my defence I did say “obligatory.”
Who likes change? Pretty much no one! Especially when you’re being told what to do by Big Garbage Bag. But if you embrace the clear bag policy, you’ll find it’s worth the little extra effort. And if you don’t embrace the clear bag policy? Too bad, these are the new rules and you have no choice.
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This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2015.
people’s view on this has gone to extreme. It just is not a big deal. At all. I’m also from the valley originally we sorted everything anyways. There will be 0 difference except we are now buying clear bags instead of black
I bet your municipality doesn’t tell you how much they are losing trying to get rid of paper and cardboard.
‘Cept, if it weren’t for those of you that were lazy with separating to begin with, there would have been no need to bring in clear bags. This change is because of people like you.
Except that living in the boonies you don’t have houses every 40 feet. Now on garbage day here in the Big City you will be treated to a literal shitshow of dirty diapers and other unmentionables on your walk, on display for all to see. Not to mention the unpaid labor downloaded onto the residents, the amount of time required to work through these byzantine rules, and the odds of your handiwork being arbitrarily rejected by the geniuses collecting the trash that week. No, this is A Very Bad Thing all around, thanks to a unrealistic and unsustainable solid waste disposal model that HRM bought into years ago. It’s garbage. They need to just pick it up and deal with it.
Even by the Scroat’s elasticized standards, this is condescending smarm on a Fort MacMurray scale of toxicity – I’d guess, at least 40 Boons per Billion (the Boon has replaced the Bousquet as a unit of measuring potentially lethal amounts of superciliousness) well above currently stated Health and Safety limits for short term human exposure. Mr. Brand has indeed motivated me me – to dump my used needles, coffee grounds, land mines, Brazilian fart porn, and Condor egg shells (from this morning’s frittatta) in the same receptacle. This week’s copy of The Scroat, goes in the privacy bag.
I might have taken this article seriously if the author wasn’t so douchey looking.
In the 30 years we have lived in our home, we have NEVER used plastic garbage bags for trash removal. We purchased two large plastic cans and in a normal 2 week collection period, we routinely only ever put out one. If they get a little smelly, rinse them with the hose. I will continue to do so as I would consider my can to be equivalent to my allowed one nontransparent plastic bag.
We recycle and compost. We also have hardly ever put kitchen waste into our green bin. We have two large compost barrels that we put our waste into and compost onsite. Grass clipping stay where they fall. Leaves compost SLOWLY in the back corner.
I absolutely refuse to pay Mr. Glad for his products, whose only use is to be thrown into a landfill. Talk about a waste of money and an insult to our environment. I use grocery bags for my recycling and if the city ever decides not to pick them up, they and the recycling in them will be in my trash the following week.
I do regret the picture
Such bullshit this clear bag crap. Now I have four different bags on the go-clear, blue, green and grocery. I’m leaving the cat shit in the clear bag and green bin stuff will now be in the green bag. Fuck you Halifax!
Lots of negativity for a cleverly written article with good intentions.
MacDuffVirgo911 you may need to change your ways. According to the Halifax website, there will be no loose trash allowed inside cans. You’ll have to put your garbage in the clear bags and then put them inside the cans.
I honestly can’t understand why this is such a big deal. We’re a family of four humans and a large dog. We only put out one bag of trash every two weeks anyway…so we just use a single privacy bag. If you sort properly you probably won’t even need clear bags.