{"id":23433,"date":"2019-04-04T19:30:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23433"},"modified":"2019-04-04T19:30:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:30:44","slug":"inside-aurora-meltdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-meltdown\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Meltdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The signs of spring in Aurora are all around us; birds singing,\ngrass getting greener, and melting snow revealing cigarette butts, coffee cups,\nplastic bags and other unsightly debris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think I speak for all of us when I say that from the above list\nwe much prefer seeing the former natural wonders over the latter unnatural\nones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But sadly, the appearance of so much garbage after the snow melts\nis a reality here in Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People have lots of opportunities for proper waste disposal other\nthan just tossing things on the ground.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even in the winter months, there are many municipal garbage pails\non our streets and in our parks for residents to use. Except in extreme weather\nconditions, these are emptied regularly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are also trash bins in most plazas, at gas stations and in\nother public places like the GO station.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or if they\u2019re out and about and can\u2019t find a proper receptacle,\nunless the item to be disposed of is melting ice cream cone, or something\nexceptionally malodorous, people could just hang onto it a little longer and\ndispose of it at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although careless littering is a year-round activity, it is a\ngradual process, and things tend to be picked up eventually in the warmer\nmonths, so is less noticeable then.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What makes it worse this time of year is that everything has been\naccumulating untouched for months since late the previous year, continually\nbeing hidden under a blanket of freshly fallen snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Out of sight, out of mind, at least until spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then, like some sort of alternate universe Advent calendar,\nvarious surprises are unveiled by the melting snow, each seemingly more awful\nthan the last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although ideally it shouldn\u2019t have to, every year around this\ntime the Town enlists enthusiastic volunteers to help clean things up.&nbsp;\nProvided with a kit containing bags, gloves and what I hope is litres of hand\nsanitizer, they\u2019re assigned a specific public area of Town, and spend the\nmorning bent over picking up whatever they find.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019ll know where they\u2019ve been working not only by the\nsubsequently tidier appearance of the area, but also the many garbage\/recycling\nbags and larger debris left by the curb for pick up. Shopping carts, sports\nequipment, tires\u2026 you never know what they\u2019ll find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year\u2019s Clean-Up Day is Saturday April 13. If you\u2019re\ninterested in lending a hand, and partaking in the thank you BBQ afterwards,\nfurther details can be found at&nbsp;aurora.ca\/cleanup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the most common items casually tossed away is the coffee\ncup. A recent news item suggested that the government may be looking at levying\na five-cent surcharge on these containers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Making people pay a little more isn\u2019t necessarily going to change\ntheir minds about littering.&nbsp; After all, by the time they\u2019re ready to\ndispose of the cup, they\u2019ve already paid the extra nickel, which is a\nnegligible amount on top of the $4 already spent on a tall soy mocha latte with\nextra foam.&nbsp; But presumably, the funds could go towards recycling, public\neducation and other means of tackling the waste problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But that plan isn\u2019t in place, yet, and this is a big problem. So,\nuntil such efforts begin to take effect and make a difference we will have to\nrely in part on our more thoughtful residents doing that one-day blitz each\nApril to pick up after our less thoughtful residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Again, I think I speak for all of us when I say we much prefer\nand appreciate the efforts of the former Aurorans over the latter.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Scott Johnston The signs of spring in Aurora are all around us; birds singing, grass getting greener, and melting snow revealing cigarette butts, coffee cups, plastic bags and other unsightly debris. I think I speak for all of us when I say that from the above list we much prefer seeing the former natural [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}