Great advice. I try to keep my garbage as compact as possible. First, I compost anything organic in my yard. Second, I separate anything recycleable-glass, paper, metal. And, finally, I crush paper products like half-gallon milk containers. My goal is to fill only one garbage can a week.

In parts of Texas, garbage is considered yard art!

If I were a business owner, I'd be happy to accept the shipping packaging, and probably only charge you 10%-15% more. I have a strong feeling that the notice given will be soon forgotten once the garbage strike is over. People have short memories when it comes to ecology in my experience.

Of course people should break down and fold cardboard and paper, but seldom do. I like the idea of putting compost on fields, but unless Canadians are far different than Americans, that poor farmer will have a field full of aluminum and steel cans, old paint, drain oil, a few assorted sizes and styles of toilets and yes, even the "kitchen sink", assorted stoves, mattresses, box springs, refrigerators, water heaters and other chemicals, foil and whatever other items that aren't needed in a field. I also would not be surprised to see the road ditches filled with bags of garbage and appliances. Call me selfish but I'd have some good sized dogs and a 12 gauge with rock salt and bacon rind ready for when they bark. Why should it be the responsibility of the farmers to deal with peoples' trash? People can certainly bury their table scraps moldy leftovers and dead dogs in their own back yards. Fire up the grill and burn the paper that is contaminated and can't be bundled and recycled. Some paper could be shredded and composted too. And the question remains, if the packaging is offensive now during a strike, why wasn't it offensive before the strike? Then that begs the question, if it was offensive before, why did people buy it?

Where are the composters? To me, it's a far better suggestion to start taking responsibility for oneself than try to blackmail a business into financing one's extravagance. Perhaps this strike could accomplish something positive if people start PROPERLY recycling and composting.
Having been involved in small businesses for decades I have a special affection for them. The small businesses are truly what built our countries. I take offense when I see an overlysimplistic view of hold the small guys' feet to the fire and try to force them to change the big guys attitudes. Do you do the same thing with car dealers? Threaten them if Detroit doesn't make all cars mauve from now on? Or the mom & pop store if Hershey doesn't put one more almond in their candy bar? I'm especially sensitive when someone tries to hold an employee responsible to change corporate decisions. It's naive and offensive to me.

There's a pretty simple solution to the strike issue. Hire an independent company. Or two or three or however many are needed. I'll gamble that you can find people to come in and contract the trucks and get the trashball rolling rather quickly. We contract our own trash service here and I can choose from I think it's five different haulers. Somehow I don't think this is a very good time for someone to go on strike. Especially when there's one very simple alternative that would end it. Then the strikers can go apply at the independents. I doubt they'll get hired.

I was pleasantly surprised to be offered a $2.00 discount on my purchase at Cotton Ginny if I DID NOT take a bag from them. I happily shoved my new shorts and T shirt into my purse and walked out with a smile on my face. I wish more retailers would do this instead of offering to sell me a bag which I don't need. A shoe store I was in told me if I didn't take the box the sale would be considered final. I told them they could consider this the final time I would enter their store!

I appreciate the small store people - as cynic says, they're the ones who built the eceonomic system in which we've been operating.

When I recommended that the person speak to the owner, I used a term which was not what I intended - I meant, "manager", as I was assuming that that person had a choice as to whether s/he accepted the packaging ... but when I suggested that I'd see a refuser after the strike, I intended it as a message to be passed on to corporate decision-makers, somewhere far away.

They wouldn't pay much attention to half a dozen such requests - but a dozen or two, or, better yet, 100 or so, and they'd start to pay attention.

Also ...

... take a walk down any aisle in most general merchandise, grocery, hardware, etc. (not clothing, etc.) stores, and you'll find that a large quantity of the packaging materials used are plastic ...

... which is petroleum-based ...

... and I think that a good case could be made for the claim that such uses are stealing gasoline from my car's tank (though they may use a different fraction of the petroleum).

If you think that petroleum is scarce now ... wait till a few scores of millions in the third world get their $2,500. Tata cars fired up.

Get ready for not only scarcity of, so pricey, petroleum ... but stinging eyes and raspy throats.

As for the kitchen waste, to be taken to an individual farmer, I assumed that the farmer would agree to its being left only after inspection - and that it would be only kitchen waste ... the stuff that not only causes the stink during a strike, but attracts the nocturnal four-footed visitors (with the exception of rats, who don't mind doing predations in the daytime). And the inspection would be involved for each visit.

Which is the reason that about five of six farmers would tell the waste carrier from half a dozen homes to get lost.

Good wishes for seriously dealing with the Reduce ... Reuse ... Recycle challenge, whether during a stike or anytime.

Always.

ole joyful

The first day Toronto workers were on strike Toronto wanted the Province to step in. Our MPP laughed and called Toronto a "bunch of babies" since Windsor was already in their 10th week of the strike and it's citizens were handling it well and getting rid of their own garbage. Of course she had to apologize for the remark. Kinda reminds me of the Military coming into Toronto to clear the streets of snow. LOLOL

My neighbour took my garbage to the city transfer station despite the pickets. He used to be a outside city worker himself. I did not have him take my recycling because I did not want to see it go into the landfill. He didn't take his either.

I have all the papers and cardboard stored in banana boxes and since my blue boxes were full I have a trash bag of cans and plastic containers and milk cartons which I am saving to put out when the strike is over.

I wish I could compost like I used to but with a rat infestation getting closer to my house I was advised by the City Rat Patrol a year ago not to use the bin because all my neighbours were ezperiencing rat problems and I was not. I also don't need skunks around my house either.

Unfortunately for Windsor the Google Street Level Mapping car has been around the city and we aren't looking our best. Some people have trash piled up on the curbs of their homes in the west end. I love though how our manicured city parks have turned into meadowlands. Some homeowners are going out and harvesting the free seed from the overgrown grass that is everywhere on city property to seed their own lawns.

I love how the citizens of Windsor are standing up and taking care of their own trash or hiring someone to take it away.

Anne

It seems that in my original post, I referred to "manager" rather than "owner of the store - as I was assuming it to be a branch of a large octopus with far more than 8 tentacles.

Hi Miss Fomenting Cherries,

So your councillor had to apologize for referring to Torontonians as less than mature adults, ready to pick up their own marbles as adults do, did she?

And Windsor has their own problems apart from the garbage: you have that large - and empty - Chrysler plant near your street, don't you, Anne?

What do they often call that, "mothballed", isn't it?

Maybe they could spare a few of the mothballs for you to use to deter the friendly nightly visitors that love the smell of recently deposited garbage - shouting to one another, "dinner!".

Have a delightful nub of this week yet remaining unused: when one gets to 80, one becomes (just slightly) concious of wondering just how many weeks may remain ... so one had better get one's chores done!

Which reminds me - my recently expanded garden is calling - there are half a dozen jobs there needing doing in this still-cool morning.

'Bye, now.

ole joyful

Hmmmm Chrysler plant near my street? Let me think. No

A couple of miles away there is the old GM/Lear plant that closed down but has now been almost torn down and the new civic arena complex built behind the old building.

Another few miles away is the Ford Aluminium Plant that I believe was closed last year or the year before.

Then farther away is Chrysler Van plant that closed down more than 20 years ago I believe. I can't remember ever seeing that plant.

Few miles past the Chrysler Van Plant - GM

On the street near my rental house where my brother lives is the Chrysler Assembly Plant that is now up and running again thanks to the sale to Fiat.

Further east is the Ford Engine plant which is still in operation.

Windsor is hurting, highest employment rate in the country and the city workers are on strike not for themselves but for future hires. Ruining the summer for kids because camps and baseball diamonds and soccer parks are over grown and and booby trapped, letting the working poor down because the city day cares are shut, hurting the image of their city, forcing charities to move from the city to hold their events as well as other festivals and money making events to cancel taking money out of the local economy.

Striking workers are complaining they can't pay their bills, are in danger of losing their homes, they can't put food on the table and their food banks are empty. Saying this to the citizens of Windsor who have no jobs to go back to. Bad timing for a strike folks. Few are feeling sorry for these strikers and after some of the stupid hijinks some of the strikers have been up to I just want to write 2 words in the editorial section of the paper Grow Up! I can't do this for fear of retaliation because your name is published as well. Some of these strikers have "allegedly" become so hot headed they have been doing damage to property not their own.

Anne

There's talk of the 3-month-old Windsor strike being near agreement.

Now that it's been just over a month for Toronto, I repeat my suggestion:

-compact the non-stinky stuff as tightly as you can, to take to the garbage assembly points (if you can't store it at home). And don't take bags to the assembly points until they are full.

-if you plan to leave the city, save up your compostable stuff, mainly the stuff that causes the stink and attracts the scavengers, to take out to offer to someone where it can be put to good use without being a nuisance.

That does not include dumping it along some roadside or in another public place.

-talk to a dozen or so neighbours, friends, etc. about collecting your compostables together and someone taking turns hauling it out to such an appropriate location for disposal.

I assume that if it were to be with a farmer, it would be only stuff that could be incorporated into a field without detrimental effect ... and that the farmer would examine each offering on its arrival.

This should not reqire making special trips during summer, as thousands of Torontonians travel to a cottage or resort most weekends during summer.

I hope that you'll give serious thought to reducing the total garbage load over the long term, and now's a great time to give serious thought to how to do that.

As I said before ...

... I live within two miles of your newly acquired garbage dump ... so have good personal reason for making that request.

Don't forget - it cost you 220 Million Dollars ...

... and the longer that you can keep that one running, the longer you can delay forking out no doubt a larger fee for acquiring a new one.

In someone else's back yard.

You haven't disposed of garbage in Toronto for some years now.

ole joyful