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Posted - 12/05/2005 : 17:03:54
Globe & Mail
A12 Canada's standard of living hard on Earth, report says
If everyone in the world enjoyed Canada's standard of living, it would
take four Earths to supply our needs and dispose of our waste. That's
the finding of a study by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities
measuring the ecological footprint of 20 major municipalities and urban
regions.
The report said it takes 7.25 hectares of land and sea throughout the
world to support each Canadian, but the FCM said the planet has only
1.9 hectares of productive land and sea available to meet the needs of
each person living on it.
Garbage continues to pile up: Statscan (Globe online weekend edition)
Canadians continue to generate more solid waste and the bulk of it
winds up in landfills, Statistics Canada said Friday. On average, the
agency said, each Canadian produces about 383 kilograms — or about 30
green garbage bags — of solid waste a year. Only about a fifth of that
amount is recycled or otherwise diverted. The agency based its findings
on figures for 2002. That year, Canadian households produced about 12
million tonnes of solid waste, up 6.8 per cent from 2000. About 2.5
million tonnes or about a fifth of the residential total was recycled
or diverted. That figure was also up from 2000, when 17 per cent of
household waste avoided landfill sites.
(URL:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20051202.wgarbag1202/BNStory/National/) |
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