Results tagged “plastic”

Photo by --richelle-- from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

The TTC management and its workers' union have agreed that the TTC is not an essential service. However, they are saying this not because they are saying, "Yes, we are useless," but because they both want to avoid contract arbitration. However, since management wants to pay workers less than they would receive through contract arbitration, and the union wants workers to get more than they would receive through contract arbitration, one side or the other has really, really not thought this whole thing through.

Gift cards may make convenient presents for Christmas, but they're a lump of coal for the environment. According to the Consumers' Association of Canada, Canadians will spend $3 billion on gift cards this year, which means a lot of rectangular pieces of plastic will end up in the garbage. Gift cards can be reloaded to extend use, but a person who receives multiple gift cards for a retailer usually keeps only one to reload and throws away the rest. (For example, 96 million Starbucks cards have been activated since 2001 and the cards have been reloaded more than 38 million times. That's 58 million Starbucks cards either unused or used and tossed in the trash.) In addition, most gift cards are not recyclable, says Givex, one of the largest providers of gift cards.