A 5,000 Step Walk to the Dump

I've been fairly lazy recently. I'm doing my yoga on a regular basis, but I haven't done as much walking as usual. I've also been very un-busy--which is quite unusual, so I've been feeling a bit sluggish.

"Time for a good walk," said I brightly!

Where to walk to? A brilliant idea came to mind.

We're in the fifth week of a garbage strike here in Toronto. Contrary to what CNN and Maclean's magazine are saying, the city is not one filthy cesspool. Actually, for the most part, it's still quite clean, at least off the main streets.

Nevertheless, the garbage is still piling up. Toronto has a pretty elaborate recycling system, so we have been accumulating various types of garbage: organic (food scraps, paper towelling, etc.), recycling (paper, plastic, glass) and regular garbage. Over the past five weeks, our family has filled one very heavy bag of organic waste, 1 1/2 very light bags of regular garbage, a large blue recycling box full of recyclables plus a regular garbage can also filled with recyclables. We have also started putting fruit and vegetable scraps in the backyard "digester". It's a composter, but since we're just throwing the scraps in without covering them with earth, we're never going to get any compost. There's still plenty of room in it, so it's just another place to put organic waste.

My husband had mentioned that there was a temporary dump not far from the house, so I decided to walk over and check it out before loading the car with the three garbage bags (you can't take recyclables to the dump during the strike). There and back put 5,000 steps on my pedometer--a decent amount for a summer's walk.

Hey, you take your steps wherever you can find them!