What simple things can you start to do to waste less?
Browse the links below for lots of small ways to make a big difference
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Lethbridge is a beautiful city
with tremendous community pride
But as a resident...
You might be one
of the most wasteful
people on the planet
YES, YOU
As long as large numbers of people have lived together,
we have struggled to deal with our waste
But it wasn't always like that
Historically, we were far better
at reusing materials
than we are today.
With fewer resources available,
we needed to be more resourceful
about what we threw away.
As human populations grew,
so did the amount of waste we produced
We now consume more than ever
because we produce more STUFF than ever.
Unfortunately,
our thinking on how to dispose of waste
couldn't keep up with the pace of manufacturing.
Our cities
became clogged
with garbage
As our waste continued to grow,
we created dumping grounds
People often tossed garbage
down the side of the coulees
Modern landfills are engineered to better protect the environment
from the garbage we throw away
But it can still linger
for thousands of years
Even with recycling, which helps combat the problem of mounting garbage,
it's still a struggle for us to put waste in the right place
This is very apparent in Lethbridge's landfill
In 2019, after implementing Curbside Recycling, our residential waste consisted of:[1]
TRASH
RECYCLABLES
ORGANICS
31%
10%
57%
Many of the materials that we are
burying in our landfills are simply
TOO
GOOD
TO
WASTE
Future generations will wonder at our behaviour.
Surely Lethbridge is not as wasteful as
other Canadian cities,
right?
Actually, we produce more waste in Lethbridge than almost
anywhere else in the world
Living in Lethbridge, the average household of 4 people throws away
over 5 pounds of waste
EVERY DAY [2]
We also waste at work...
... and in our free time
There are 101,482 of us in Lethbridge.[3]
Imagine how our waste piles up.
All together, it's enough waste every year to:
Fill the water tower 68 times...
... cover the deck of the High Level Bridge 7 1/2 feet high...
... or fill Galt Gardens 11 feet deep
Not very pretty, is it?
We can do better to preserve our beautiful city.
Lethbridge must waste less.
So what is the solution?
You already know the answer.
If we want to have less garbage, we need to:
Reduce
the number of
things we buy
Reuse
what we can
Recycle
wherever possible
Compost
organic material
(57% of our waste)
All of us must do our part to help Lethbridge waste less.
We're not asking you to do it all.
We're simply asking you to do your part and change
one thing that creates less waste for our landfill.
Browse the links below for lots of small ways to make a big difference
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