Driving down on St. Clair, west of Brimley Rd. there looked like what seemed to be a house that exploded with garbage! It was an eye sore to say the least. With a curb piled high will all types of debris, it was clear that this did not meet the bylaws of the City of Toronto.

Apparently, someone wasn’t too knowledgeable on the rules of the area or simply did not care. It was like a spring cleaning job that went horribly wrong. The mess contained everything from an old and used computer desk to an open bag of rice. The makeshift garbage dump must have violated every bylaw regarding garbage collection.

We need to keep in mind that open garbage like this that has not been put into containers can attract many different unwanted critters, such as rats and raccoons. Your neighbors will no doubt not take kindly to this type of behavior as well. To be quite honest, the garbage pile had already looked as if a critter had taken advantage of the pile and tried to get to the goods for first pickings. With a big city like Toronto, it is not difficult to acquire a rat problem, but with people strewing around garbage like this, it is like a Christmas feast for them. Leave it to the professionals to say that once you have a rodent problem, it can be quite difficult to get rid of them afterwards.

Moving Day - It Doesn’t Have to be a Nightmare!

 Have you decided to make the big move and sell your home? Cleaning out the house and packing can definitely have people thinking twice about moving. It’s a big and scary task that no one seems to take on too well. Especially for those who have lived in the same residence for many years, it can be ever harder to fathom. We naturally accumulate things over time and we don’t really realize all the property and junk we have until it’s time to move. You will come across many things that you forgot you even had! It can be an extremely stressful time with tasks that may seem impossible to accomplish. Thankfully, we have some great tips that can help you while moving:

One of the most important steps is to keep motivated and start the packing early on. A lot of people underestimate the amount of time it takes to pack everything. Doing a little each day can save you from a big headache down the road. Why stress yourself out and keep everything for the last minute if you don’t have to?

 It is no surprise that garbage has become a serious worldly issue and what’s concerning is what this means for our future environment. It is a well known theory, and a likely one at that, that by 2050 the ocean will actually contain more plastic in it than fish. Did you know that it can take up to 1000 years for one plastic bottle to decompose itself?

We need now more than ever to educate people on what they can do to limit their waste and do their part to help rebuild the environment. Take India for example. India, with a population of 1.32 billion, produces an estimated 60 million tons of waste alone each day. On top of that, about 45 million tons of this waste is dumped daily without being treated first. If this continues then they will eventually need a garbage dump the size of a huge city.

Here are a few tips you can adopt into your daily lifestyle to decrease waste:

Most importantly, we should figure out alternative ways to using paper and paper products. There are many ways we can find alternatives to paper. Instead of our daily Tim Hortons coffee we can bring our own travel mug which they will be more than happy to fill up all the same. More and more companies are also encouraging their employees to use up scrap paper when jotting down notes and such instead of using a brand-new sheet of paper. Also, many companies are including notes at the end of their email signatures that act as a friendly reminder to think of the environment and not print out emails.

 It is no big secret that there are literally millions of pieces of plastic waste floating in various bodies of water around the world. In the oceans alone there is an estimated 12 million metric tons of waste that finds its way to the water every single year. This is doing drastic and irreparable damage to our environment and to all types of fish.

How did we let our environment get so bad in the first place? Why are there so many rules and regulations with each municipality regarding waste disposal? A good percentage of the material that does get recycled does not even get salvaged to reuse again. Plastics are either deemed too dirty to reuse or the plastics themselves are too hard to break down which make the process more difficult to complete.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there was a way to re-invent all the plastic that’s being used and discarded? In fact, there is such a thing. That’s where the term upcycling comes into play!

According to Waste Watch Ottawa, the country’s capital has been recently reported to have the worst percentage of garbage and recycling waste in the whole province. At a diversion rate of 42.5 percent, Ottawa has fallen more than 5 percent below the average of 47.7 percent. This is quite alarming, especially given the fact that it has dropped even further than the 45 percent that was reported back in 2014.

Research has shown that Ottawa has spent less money on education for recycling than any other municipality in Ontario. In fact, after seven years, only 51 percent of residents are using their green bins. And what’s even more alarming is that a lot of recycling material is still being found in garbage bags and bins. Glass material seems to be the only recyclable that is hitting its disposal target while other materials such as paper, plastics and organic waste and still falling very much behind.

Not too long ago the city was dealing with a promising waste removal company, Plasco who seemed to have all the right answers. They had plans to utilize the waste being brought in by turning the waste into material that could have been used in construction. However, due to unforeseen financial circumstances the city refused business with Plasco after they had filed for creditor protection.

Have you ever heard of the term “spring cleaning”? It is what a lot of people would consider that time of the year to declutter your house and make everything feel new again. Of course, spring cleaning does not necessarily mean that it must be done in the spring. Any opportunity to get rid of all your junk and to stop living life as a hoarder is probably a good opportunity, no matter what season it is. There are a lot of garbage disposal companies that focus all their expertise in just this area and are there to make the process as easy as possible for you.

Before heading this route, you will want to do your research and compare companies to see what they offer in relation to services and pricing.

If you have major items that need disposing of, such as furniture, then you will want to find a company who will also lift these items out and into the disposal bin for you. Nobody wants to seriously injure themselves when just trying to clean out their house. Having this service will also not procrastinate you from removing these unwanted big items from your house. How many times have you passed an old bookshelf, or an old truck and say to yourself “maybe one day I should get rid of that old thing.” Do it now, why keep putting it off when there is no need to?

 Are you planning on renovating your house or doing a deep cleaning anytime soon? If so, you’re going to want to hire a junk removal company to get the furniture, appliances, and many chunks of uprooted material out of your house. Sure, you can do it on your own, but do you really have the time and energy for all that extra work? Probably not, and that’s okay.

 You may want to keep some of the pieces you originally planned to discard if they’re still fully or partially intact. Odd parts can come in handy for home reno or redecorating jobs in the future. That doesn’t apply to everything you own, however, which is why knowing the number of your local junk removal company is useful in the event that you need lots of garbage out of your house quickly.

 Prices and quotes for each junk removal company can vary depending on the region you’re located in, the type of job you need done, and the expertise of the company’s employees. Check out the websites of a few different companies before making your final decision to avoid paying too much. You can also see if the company you’re considering recycles or donates viable items, if that’s something you’re interested in.

 Once you’ve chosen the company that best suits your needs, contact them over the phone or by email. Ask them any questions you have and let them know of any issues that may arise during the removal process, like a pre-scheduled appointment or meeting you have to leave the house to attend. If the company can adapt to your situation, they’re probably the right choice for you.

 A group of waste reduction contributors recently walked along Kenya’s coastline and collected more than 6,000kg of plastic waste from the sea that had washed up on shore.

 The event, which aims to cut back out on the large amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans, was created and executed by Kwale County, Base Titanium, World Wildlife Fund Kenya, and more than 300 eager volunteers and waste removal organizations from nearby areas. The officially proclaimed International Coastal Cleanup will occur at least once every year.

 Not only does the event directly improve the state of the ocean, but it also draws attention to the reality of environmental pollution. People are learning how bad it really is and how much it’s affecting the plants, animals, and people that depend on natural resources for survival. Local communities in particular are getting involved in the earth-protecting initiative, helping the organizations reduce marine waste.

The West Hants region of Nova Scotia is finally adding compost to their waste collection list, and the relief towards the September 12th council decision is tangible. Those who had been advocating for the program for more than five years were especially excited about the new development.

Since 2012, the area’s council members have debated back and forth about their stance on implementing a composting system. Although it is indeed a lot of work to put into place, it can be done, and it already has been in the majority of the province. Even the smaller areas nearby such as East Hants, Hantsport, and Windsor had green bins for a while before West Hants decided to discuss the idea of introducing the program to its residents.

In April of next year, the region will employ a new waste management company to take care of the green bin implementation. The contract with Royal Environmental Inc. will last until at least 2023, a five-year guarantee that the new system will run smoothly. There may be other changes to waste collection as a result of a new waste management leader as well.

In the near future, the waste floating around space could be collected and disposed of at a quick rate and a low price. It’s all thanks to the NASA-approved spacecraft design created to clean up loose garbage orbiting the Earth and reduce it to a fraction of its size once brought back to the planet’s surface. The intriguing machine is being funded by NASA for the second time, and may come to fruition sooner than we think.

The proposed tool looks much like an super-thin space rug, three feet long and less than 17 micrometers deep. Developers plan to equip it with microscopic digital capabilities and some sort of propelling mechanism for easy placement when in orbit. It could truly be revolutionary in the way waste collection is dealt with in outer space.

Even before completion, this creation has been dubbed Brane craft, and it’s not hard to see why. The Brane craft would naturally drift towards manmade debris every so often and would push the debris out of orbit, causing it to enter the Earth’s atmosphere and fall freely to a specialized garbage collection area.

It was back in June that Toronto’s Executive Committee received a letter containing an official request to label fraternity and sorority houses as multi-tenant properties, and it was then that the committee began to seriously consider how they would go about it.

Toronto officials will soon turn out a comprehensive list of multi-tenant properties in the city and possible alterations that could be applied to those properties. The City Council will review and vote on this list at the end of the month. It would come as no surprise if the maintenance of those houses - including parking spaces, waste management, and maximum tenant capacity - must abide by a set of unwavering rules.

Huron Sussex, Bay Cloverhill, Grange, and Harbord Village are just a few of the neighbourhoods that have recently encountered problems related to the behaviour and waste production of the tenants in fraternity and sorority houses. This is precisely why many officials feel that new rules about house conduct that preserve the health and safety of everyone in the area need to be introduced. The university houses will have to undergo a licensing process to continue their work and follow the regulations that come with the license.

If Waterloo Region production plants are forced to cover all costs associated with the production of recyclable materials, citizens will continue to go about their regular recycling routine. There will be no noticeable changes in the beginning, and any changes that do occur in the future will likely be for the better.

With this shift in cost liability, taxpayers will have the added benefit of saving money. Right now, the city pays up to $4 million every year to gather and process recyclable materials. The money produced by the process doesn’t make up for the money spent on it.

The biggest difference between the new setup and the old one is that currently, the region as a whole takes care of half of the costs, while producers are given the other half to deal with. In line with the rules of the Waste-Free Ontario Act, waste producers must pay for and complete full production of the packaging process. This closely mirrors the waste removal and reduction infrastructure of both British Columbia and the majority of Europe.

While the Waste-Free Ontario Act is written up and ready for use, the provincial government hasn’t yet outlined a set of rules to make sure this Act is followed. It shouldn’t be long before this happens, however, as the city already has enough on its plate in terms of costs and requires a quick shift in cost coverage. The change should be implemented before next year’s June provincial election. Delays could rack up an annual $130 million for cities across Ontario.

Everyone’s living space needs a thorough cleaning at least once a year. Most choose to do it in the spring after the cold winter weather has passed, while others have the option of doing it during any season in their more temperate climate. Regardless of your home situation, it’s important to know how to properly clean the place you spend most of your time. Below is a comprehensive waste removal guide to restoring your home to the fresh state it was in when you first moved in.

Cleaning every nook and cranny of your home is something every homeowner should do one or two times annually to keep the people who live in it happy and healthy. From the hard-to-reach chandeliers to the ground-level corners of furniture, no spot should go untouched. Wiping down surfaces with towels and disinfectant works just about everywhere. If you’re living on your own in a fairly big space, you may need some professional help. Contact a house cleaning company for a quick, well-done job at a fair price.

You probably vacuum on a weekly basis, but you may not clean your carpet as often as you should. Professionals recommend having a thorough carpet cleaning done every year or year and a half to remove the deep-seated stains, dirt, hair, and dander living between the fibers. Hire a company that has been approved by the Carpet and Rug Institute for the best results.

Britain recently put a new waste collection system into place to save several regions a significant amount of money, and some residents aren’t too happy. Over 75% of the country must now wait two to three weeks to have their garbage collected by waste management companies. Although this decision has effectively reduced garbage-related costs, it’s brought with it issues of sanitation.

As British citizens get used to the new system, some of them have had their household waste sitting at the curb for nearly four weeks, and the bags of garbage have begun to attract maggots, rats, and other unsightly pests. In an attempt to combat the sanitation problem, homeowners have resorted to stuffing trash into their bins to take advantage of their full volume and incinerating the waste in their own backyards.

This is a problem for over 200 of the country’s regions - the ones who are forced to wait more than one week for their garbage collection. Each area is gradually being transitioned to a waste collection frequency of once every three weeks. In the summer of 2016, only 66% of the country’s regions had bi-weekly pickup, demonstrating a big jump in waste collection waiting time.

In an attempt to rescue the planet from all the waste we’ve subjected it to, many large cities are considering opening up mixed-waste facilities to deal with the materials their citizens discard. To accommodate the new system, each homeowner would put all non-toxic waste into a single bin: compost, garbage, and recycling. It may sound like a terrible idea, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. In this article, we’ll explore the good, the bad, and the dirty of a mixed-waste system.

Schools and city waste pamphlets put a lot of work into making sure regional residents know what can be recycled and what must be thrown away. With an all-in-one waste disposal program, there’s only one bin for each citizen to choose from, so there’s no confusion about what goes where. Not only does this save landfill, recycling, and compost employees the time it takes each entity to manually sort the materials, but it also saves money previously spent on the posters and educational programs the city creates.

Unfortunately, tossing every used product you have into one bin will inevitably contaminate things that could otherwise be reused. Many recyclable items that are placed in the correct bins and sent to the appropriate facilities or waste removal companies cannot be recycled simply because they have too much food, adhesive, or unrecyclable waste on them. This is especially true when it comes to paper products, which must be clean and dry to be safely recycled.

A farm in Caledon, Ontario, has been using red wiggler worms to handle organic waste for the past four years. The establishment started with 500 of the hungry little guys, and today, that number has grown to a whopping 250,000.

The company, called Wastenot, collects compostable matter from businesses in Toronto and its surrounding municipalities and hands it over to the worms to create manure that gives crops all the nourishment they need. This process keeps more than 4 million tonnes of organic waste out of Ontario’s landfills annually and produces 5 lbs of manure weekly.

Fortunately, the worms love to eat and reproduce, the two most important things the farm needs to thrive as an environmentally-friendly business. One pound of worms consumes the equivalent of their body weight in food waste daily, and the entire worm population doubles about twice a year. Red wiggler worms are especially useful for dealing with food waste that’s been accidentally combined with pieces of plastic, metal, and other inorganic materials because they’ll simply leave them behind.

Keurig’s coffee machines have become extremely popular in Canada and for its neighbours, taking a place in millions of homes across the nation. While the coffee brewing process is convenient for users, the huge amount of waste it leaves behind is not.

The used coffee bean pods made specially for the company are beginning to pile up in North American dumps everywhere. To combat this issue, Keurig is now introducing pods made from recyclable material. It sounds like the perfect solution until you dig a little deeper.

The polypropylene No. 5 that makes up the majority of the pods is not accepted in all Canadian blue waste bins; larger cities tend to refuse it. This can pose a problem, especially because more than half of Keurig users are legitimately concerned about how their machine will impact the environment once its life is over. Of course, the coffee pods are still being purchased by most consumers simply due to their simplicity.

Unfortunately, even the new recyclable pods still produce some waste that is neither recyclable nor compostable, and each used pod must be deconstructed before the polypropylene portion of it can be recycled - if your city accepts the material in its blue bins. It’s very likely that consumers won’t bother taking apart their used pods, opting to toss them in the trash just as they did before.

Buying the cupboards, tile, paint, appliances, and any other materials you need to renovate your kitchen can be pricey, but any demolition work you need done won’t be cheap, either. Hiring a worker to do it for you can be quite pricey in some cases. That’s why many homeowners opt for DIY, which can be great when done properly. Unfortunately, less knowledge creates the potential for more mistakes.

A handful of DIY mistakes can be fatal when it comes to kitchen demolition. You could accidentally remove a supporting wall, cause damage to pipes or wires, or hurt yourself through the incorrect use of tools. Although these things happen less to professionals, they still happen, which is why any contractor you hire should have insurance.

Nevertheless, if you still think you can handle the task of kitchen demolition on your own, educate yourself first. Consider hiring an engineer who can determine which of your walls are safe to tear down. Most of the time, outer walls act as major supports and should remain relatively untouched, so avoid those ones as much as you can. When you start, be aware of the electrical wires, plumbing pipes, and heating ducts within your walls. Stud finders can locate wires with decent accuracy, but to be sure you won’t hit anything, knock a few holes into the wall in different places and peer inside.

You may be looking to renovate your cold, empty, cement-floor basement in the near future, which can be a great idea. A finished basement can act as a second living room, games room, personal bar, or simply a spot for some occasional downtime. But don’t jump right into it without first learning how to do it properly; it could have some serious consequences, including structural weakening and damage liabilities. We’ll walk you through underpinning your basement.

First, determine whether your basement has enough headroom or not. If it’s full-height, renovations should be relatively simple. If not, you’ll have to add some headroom. When you go to increase the height of your basement, avoid putting pressure on any of the structural foundations. If you can’t avoid it, put pressure on one at a time. Hire an expert to identify how much weight the footings are holding and how well they’re doing so.

You’ll then have to inspect the layout of your house’s heating and cooling system. Sometimes, contractors can work around them, but other times, they have to be temporarily removed. If the boiler needs to be replaced soon anyway, the whole system can be demolished and left for the duration of the construction. Once the plumbing system has been checked as well, workers can start digging to increase the basement’s headroom.

Nearly all home renovations require demolition at some point during the project. Old things go out, new things come in. If you’re a do-it-yourself kind of person, you may be eager to destroy that dividing wall you never needed or uproot the carpet that came with your house when you bought it. Although enthusiasm is great, so is safety. Save money and avoid injury by following these demolition tips for your next home reno.

Demolition is a task in and of itself. The change may be small, but it’s still a change. Getting rid of the materials you no longer have any use for is part of the renovation, so be sure to exercise patience and caution when removing large and potentially dangerous materials. Better yet, reserve a good chunk of time for nothing but demolition. Concentrating on one thing at a time prevents you from rushing through it and hurting yourself or damaging something as a result. When you’re doing demolition work, don’t think about what you’ll do after. Focus on the task at hand.

Close off areas that you don’t plan to touch. Not only should you close the doors leading into nearby rooms, you should also seal any openings with plastic film and tape or a premade temporary sealer. While you’re at it, turn off any power sources that could be affected by the demolition process. Never toggle with a light bulb while there’s still electricity flowing through it. Shutting down whole systems with the controls on your master board is the safest option.

Excavation sites pose many of the same health risks and dangers that confined spaces do, which isn’t all that surprising. Even sites that aren’t completely isolated can be hazardous to the employees that work in them. Although not all excavation sites fit the definition of a confined space, anyone who enters must take the proper protective measures to avoid injury.

Different provinces have different requirements for naming an isolated area a confined space, though a confined space is usually a closed-off, hard-to-exit, temporary-shelter area. Much like confined spaces, the poor air quality in excavations can harm workers. These chemicals are typically carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, and nitrogen dioxide. Most of these chemicals either severely affect respiration or are flammable.

It’s important not to forget about the earth around the hollowed area. The poisonous components of gasoline from nearby fuel stations and leachate from nearby landfills can make the air toxic to breathe. This is especially harmful when the released gases are heavier than air and fall into the excavation site where they can be unknowingly inhaled by workers. A construction or excavation company should also consider the possible presence of harmful substances from sewage systems and the equipment used to create the excavation, both of which can produce dangerous fumes.

Ants continue to impress with their amazing feats of strength and innovation. One of those newfound innovations is a discovery by the University of Liverpool and the Natural History Museum that ants in rainforests pick up over 50% of the organic waste on the grounds of these forests, contributing an enormous amount to the lives of the many flora and fauna that thrive in those areas.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool conducted an expansive study of the Malaysian Borneo rainforests and discovered that larger animals like mammals and birds collected less than half of the organic materials on the forest floors, leaving the majority of the grunt work for the ants, who are happy to complete this waste collection task, so to speak. Most of this waste was composed of rotting fruits, fallen seeds, and animal corpses.

Reusing dead organic material is an important part of keeping any ecosystem healthy, as it deposits essential nutrients in areas where they’re needed and speeds up the decomposition process of the material. The ants that play the role of waste management also bring some of the material they collect to their homes, which creates an area of mineral-rich soil where plants and microorganisms can live long and healthy lives. All species benefit from this system.

North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality has given the go-ahead to three of the state’s landfills and one of its coal-ash dumps to take the leachate produced from their garbage piles and release it into the air with a special spraying technique. The permits issued to allow this operation are valid for 90 days.

In June, a bill to approve of the leachate spraying in landfills that keep waste liquid from being absorbed by the ground underneath was passed and quickly vetoed. This spraying process would release leachate into a separate area of the landfill it came from, hopefully evaporating the water and leaving the waste molecules to be re-taken by the garbage dump.

Although the technique is low-cost, citizens and environmentalists are wondering how the mist will be kept in one place, worried that its toxic fumes could be carried through the air and into residential areas. Despite these legitimate concerns, it may be the best option for North Carolina’s coal-ash dump, which produces up to 11 million litres every month that must be delivered to a waste treating facility otherwise.

niagarathisweek.com

Many reusable things still end up in landfills despite the recent boom in green bin distribution across Canada, but Niagara’s waste management innovator Walker Environmental has found another way to put loads of discarded materials to better use - and it’s starting with its retired landfill.

The Niagara region has begun to compost its organic waste, mainly yard scraps and leftover food products, with its ongoing green bin program. Residents put their biodegradable garbage into their green bins and put it out with the rest of their trash on garbage collection day. From there, the green bins are picked up and their contents are brought to the Niagara-Thorold border compost facility to be turned into soil. This is just one of the many renewable resource businesses in the area.

The region’s newest concept, however, is certainly the most interesting. Ontario’s environment ministry has given Niagara the green light to use its old landfill area as a harvesting site for reusable materials, keeping more things out of landfills and preventing damage to other open spaces. Because the waste pile at the site is almost at full capacity, its use has been discontinued until now.