Saving our Environment

Well, today I am bitter. No different than how I usually am but today it just kinda struck a nerve. You'll know what I mean .. just keep reading.

Well, today we found out that The Town of Richmond Hill is quite picky with their pickup of recyclable materials. Cardboard boxes must be flattened and be no more than 60cm x 60cm x 30cm. If not, Mr. Recycle Man penalizes you with a nice big yellow sticker (that smells like cheap coffee, no Starbucks here) on the cardboard to remind you of the rules. On their website, no such rules exist other than a line under the garbage section that says "1 bundle of material (tied with string, maximum weight: 18 kgs and no longer than 1.8 metres)". Thus, I went according to this and now I am told differently. I called the appropriate department and they want me to pickup some garbage & recycling calendar that details out everything. Also, I have to go pickup a recycle box from some Richmond Hill facility on Elgin Mills. Since I am a new resident, could they not have just dropped off this stuff for me? Mr. Recycle Man is busy playing with stickers anyways (I swear I saw various coloured stickers near his steering wheel), I'm sure he could have done the drop off while he was here. Instead, I have to get into my car and make an extra trip to the facility to get a recycle box and go to a library to pickup a calendar. Post the information on the Internet maybe ?!?!

Living in a house necessitates such strict rules for garbage and recycling. Trust me, I got used to the garbage collection at condos and apartments. Not a bad thing to enforce garbage and recycling, but what about commuting. Everyone in Richmond HIll has to get into a car to get anywhere. Are car emissions not something that contributes negatively to our environment? Of course they do ! Has anything in the Town of Richmond Hill been done about it? Oh yeah, there is VIVA transit or what I call Very Incompetent Vehicle Addition. So you add a huge bus on the road that supposedly should take cars off the road. First of all, it would help if they had a VIVA bus stop close to our corner at Yonge Street & Stouffville Road. Currently, I would have to get onto a York Region Transit (YRT) bus to get to a VIVA bus stop. Kinda defeats the point of a quick commute. Second of all, I have yet to see one of those damn things full ! The most I have seen is maybe 8 to 10 people. Whoopee doo !! Let's spend millions of dollars to implement a bus system that works only a little better than the current YRT system. Why didn't they just invest the money to improve the current YRT instead of beginning an entirely new system? Who is the dumba$$ who authorized this decision? Probably the same one thinks cardboard boxes need to be packed 60cm x 60cm x 30cm. Should I put a nice bow on it too? Or maybe include some stickers for Mr. Recycle Man?

Anyways, if anyone is looking for me this weekend, I'll be spending my time repackaging all my cardboard since that's what people in Richmond Hill enjoy doing. Spending their time trying to ensure that the environment is saved. On that note, I'll also be driving out to the facility to pick up my recycle box, driving out to get some rope to tie the cardboard together, and driving out to get a calendar. Hopefully, all the gas emissions from my car will contribute positively to our environment ......