Recycling Issues

[clasher]

Yes, garbage collection is done by WM. But where would the sorting be done? Certainly not done at collection, rather at the landfill site. Those workers are indeed Region of Waterloo unionized staff.

I would welcome any news of the Region of Waterloo successfully reducing union roles/replacing them out. I'm skeptical, but would welcome information.

Why? So some people that have a crappy job make a few more dollars an hour and can afford to live an okay life. I think in the big scheme of things it's not really going to be any massive savings if you can get rid of the few jobs at the landfill that involve sorting recyclables.

I looked it up and it seems the majority of the commercial stream is not recycled in Canada, particularly organics.

This is starting to change, most of the grocery stores in town now have big "organics" bins beside the compactors and wal-mart has green bins aplenty behind the stores for all the food that isn't quite perfect enough to sell anymore. Most small places still just chuck it all in one dumpster, I know we did when I worked in a restaurant about a decade ago. A friend of mine that works at florists just tosses all the trimmings and other organic waste into black garbage bags for collection. I do think getting commercial and big buildings into the organics system would save way more landfill space than any bag tag scheme would.