Despite all of the emphasis over the past few years on the environment and saving Mother Earth, Canadians are wasting more than ever. According to a StatsCan study, between 2004 and 2006 we threw away eight percent more garbage. The study also states that Canada only recycled about twenty two percent of its garbage, while most experts agree that about eighty percent of our waste can be recycled. Forty percent of Canadian garbage is from yards and food and could be turned into compost.

Some of the blame is to be put on the general public and some of it is to be put on the government, both provincial and federal. According to Susan Antler, executive director of the Composting Council of Canada, when the government shows a vested interest in composting, the amount of waste that is composted rises. The government of New Brunswick supports composting resulting in a thirty six percent recycle rate of garbage and 1.2 million tonnes of waste being composted.

I know for me, there are a couple of areas where I could be reducing my waste. I am a big paper towel user. With a house full of animals, I am constantly cleaning up messes and paper towels are the easiest. But what if I used face cloths or cloth towels? While not as convenient for me, it would be less wasteful. Hand washing them and hanging them out to dry would increase the environmental benefits. I am also bad for forgetting to bring cloth bags when I go shopping. I have about a dozen of them, but they really aren’t doing the environment any good sitting in my kitchen.

Composting is something that I am sorry to say I never gave much thought to. I don’t have a garden, so why compost? Fortunately where I live we have a composting facility. As long as I separate my waste it gets composted. It’s just remembering to separate my organic waste from my non-organic waste that sometimes is a bit hard. But that’s the problem, isn’t it? Most of us don’t want to put the little bit of effort required to be more environmentally savvy. In our all or nothing way of thinking, if we can’t go big, we should go home right? But sometimes baby steps lead to huge leaps. Small changes can and do make a difference. So I think I will go to the used clothing store and buy some towels to use as animal rags. And I’ll try to keep at least one cloth bag in my purse for when I pick up groceries. If everybody made just one or two simple changes to their lifestyle, there would be a lot less garbage in our world.