Sometimes one sees a well accepted solution that simply does not work. Having the public purchase large paper bags in order to dispose of yard waste is at best a bad idea and at worst simply a waste of money. Yet here in Toronto, Canada, these bags are almost universally used for yard waste.
If you live in the suburbs as I do, you know that trees are really nice because they provide shade, clean the air and look very pretty. As in nature trees also shed dead branches, resulting in what we here call “yard waste“. During the spring, summer and autumn there is a bi-weekly garbage collection specific to yard waste. Put your yard waste by the curb and every other week the dead tree stuff gets hauled away and used to make compost by the City of Toronto. This is all good for the home owner, the environment and the city.
Like all garbage pickup here in Toronto, yard waste pickup has specific rules. Follow them and your yard waste will be picked up. Break these rules and you’ll have to wait another 2 weeks before you get another chance for pickup. Branches can be bundled up but cannot be longer than 4′. There is also a weight limit of 20kg/44 lb for each container. Containers can be no taller than 95cm/37″. Tree limbs that are wider than 3″ diameter are not picked up. Cut grass will not be picked up.
The City of Toronto recommends home owners use “kraft paper” yard waste bags, which cost $4CAD for 10 bags, available at local stores. I found out last autumn that when these stores run out they get no more.
While you might think that using paper bags to throw out yard waste, made mostly of wood, is a good idea, you might think again. Yard waste can be heavy, and during the spring and fall there is often rain. Combined with the every other week yard waste pickup and you might see my problem. If you simply pick up your yard waste and put it by the curb, if your timing is not right and it rains before the garbage guys get to your house, the paper bags weaken, break and make a mess in front of your house. Collect your yard waste the day after your yard waste pickup and you will have a 2 week wait. Paper bags, no matter that they are a double thickness of thin paper, when they get wet are insufficiently strong enough to hold heavy loads of branches, leaves and twigs. Once wet when the garbage guys try to pick them up they break, leaving a big mess for you to clean up. There were a couple of weeks where just by coincidence we had rain every other week which coincided with our yard waste pickup, rendering all paper yard waste bags a waste of money, resources and useless. After the multi week rain, the paper yard waste bags started to mould, further reducing their strength.
I have some issues with buying low quality paper bags to throw out yard waste. This is simply not environmentally friendly in the long run. Paper needs to be created, cut and glued, bundled and transported to retail stores. You then have to purchase them and transport them to your house. All this in order to dispose of yard waste? It is not rare that these paper bags get wet and break, and the home owner needs to repackage them in new bags, all in order to dispose of yard waste?
While not optimal, the City of Toronto used to sell yard waste plastic containers. These sturdy containers can be reused for years, are impervious to water and perform without trouble. Sadly very few home owners use these containers.
The only real benefit I see to using kraft paper bags for yard waste occurs in the autumn, where the weather is close to or below freezing. Yard waste placed in plastic garbage containers, when it gets wet and freezes, can stick to the sides of the container. When the garbage guy tries to dump it the yard waste does not come out. In this case the paper bags may be a better solution. Another possible solution, which may not work, is to no let your yard waste get wet and frozen. Depending on the environmental conditions this may not be possible.
I am sure that the early Canadian forefathers would not have used paper yard waste bags. Twigs and dead wood would have been sheltered for a couple of years, after which they can be used to start and sustain fires. Leaves would be collected and stored in order to break down and become compost. Are we so far removed from the past that these methods no longer apply?
We try to be environmentally conscious and not scorch Mother Earth, but as a society I think we really need to think harder about the solutions we use. It does not matter that “everyone does it”, because if we all take individual steps to think on our own, the better solutions will come to the fore.
