{"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

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

But sadly, the appearance of so much garbage after the snow melts\nis a reality here in Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People have lots of opportunities for proper waste disposal other\nthan just tossing things on the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also trash bins in most plazas, at gas stations and in\nother public places like the GO station. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Out of sight, out of mind, at least until spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Although ideally it shouldn\u2019t have to, every year around this\ntime the Town enlists enthusiastic volunteers to help clean things up. \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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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 aurora.ca\/cleanup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Making people pay a little more isn\u2019t necessarily going to change\ntheir minds about littering.  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.  But presumably, the funds could go towards recycling, public\neducation and other means of tackling the waste problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-65X","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 19:34:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_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}]}}