Zero Waste Simcoe asks…Do Ontarians understand “Our taxes are subsidizing the generation of waste”?

News release from Zero Waste Simcoe April 11 2011 

Citizens have been lead to believe that our responsibility is simply to keep paying the taxes

Zero Waste Simcoe Board Chair Gord McKay is concerned about the perception in Ontario that garbage is inevitable, so our taxes should be used for processing it as efficiently as possible.

 “I have heard it often… I can’t avoid garbage so the government should build disposal facilities to get rid of it.”  While the concern is heartfelt, a much better solution is available.

Most people are taken aback when they stop and appreciate that they buy all the garbage that they throw away. Garbage comes from an “unspoken deal” between the producer and the consumer that gives you garbage with every transaction. Our consumer society is not going away but can you take the garbage out of the deal?

 McKay knows there is a way to do this.

 His local grassroots organization, Zero Waste Simcoe, feels that we need a change of attitude about waste. We regard garbage as inevitable – that we are victims of consumerism. But consider, if every consumer changed their buying habits for just one product that could be reused or recycled instead of land-filled we would be well on our way. And every one of us has the power to do that.

 This change of attitude must be matched by the producers – those who make what we buy. They can be influenced in two major ways. One way is for their customers to tell them through their purchases that they do not want wasteful products. A second way is to cut the tax subsidy we give waste producers through our Blue Box and municipal garbage programs. Take the tax subsidy away and producers will make products with less waste and we will get more waste free choices for our families.

“As a taxpayer I would like to know why I should be paying for waste that I do not want? The cost of waste should be handed back to the company who decided to generate it in the first place.” [McKay]

 McKay thinks that all the talk around the coming provincial election campaign will affect the future of waste management in Ontario. Gord McKay and Zero Waste Simcoe hope that our new leaders will see that continuing the taxpayer subsidy for garbage is in reality, a move backward. 

 And ‘backward’ is not a place to be in a world increasingly forward focused on the health of our environment.