Tangled Up in Blue
Twenty years later, we’re still not sure what to do with our boxes By Stacy Lee Kong
When Blue was first foisted upon us in 1988, the concept of reducing, reusing, recycling or anything else that didn’t involve Lycra-spandex seemed difficult to grasp (note the instructional, if inane, nature of the ’90s newspaper ad at far left). But we embraced the third R with surprising speed. Two decades later, sorting out what to put in the mounting hierarchy of colour-coded boxes and bins is as natural to Torontonians as breathing smog. City officials hope the honking new bin (the XL holds the equivalent of six old blue boxes) will inspire an even greater commitment to separation. (We’re now diverting 42 per cent of our waste, with a goal of 70 per cent by 2010.) As the last of the new blues is delivered to homes this month, the challenge for seasoned recyclers won’t be what to put in them—we’re all over that—but where to store a bin the size of a battleship.
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