The Hub June 2014 | Page 16

R educe, reuse, recycle: it’s been more than 20 years since we started to come to grips with the importance of cutting down on what we put into our landfills and started looking for, and implementing, ways to divert our trash. Yet in spite of vocal environmental movements, growing awareness and continuously expanding community programs, we’re still not doing a very good job. Only 23 per cent of the garbage we throw out every day is actual garbage. The remaining 77 per cent is a mixture of compostable, recyclable, hazardous and reusable items. So if roughly three out of four things we toss in the trash shouldn’t be there, what can we do about it? Beyond The Blue Box Story and photos by Taylor Busch