Humphries proposes litter report card
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 23/01) - Yellowknife's litter committee is still months away from any concrete proposal to fight the huge wave of garbage that hits the city every spring.
But little by little this small group of citizens is taking control of a problem that many feel is hopelessly out of hand.
At their second meeting, the anti-litter and civic pride committee came away with little more than a set date for a third meeting -- May 31. Garbage guru and Yellowknifer columnist Walt Humphries came up with the group's first concrete proposal: a litter report card.
Humphries proposes a community group like the anti-litter committee or a group of high school students rate neighbourhoods and businesses on cleanliness.
"You could embarrass them into cleaning up," said Humphries.
"It's a way of showing who isn't living up to their potential," he said.
Humphries' report card rates a site from zero to 100; zero being excellent and 100 being a site that "should be destroyed."
Humphries breaks the report card down into five different sections from condition of garbage to overall appearance, each with a score ranging from one to 10. The final tally would be multiplied by two.
"I think it would spark something," said Humphries.
The committee is currently hashing out a way to hang an anti-litter campaign on one solid concept like a gimmicky garbage can.
Carmen Gobeil, co-chair of the committee brought a ceramic bear cookie jar --complete with cookies inside --as a possible template for garbage cans.
Yellowknife entrepreneur and city market promoter Matthew Grogono warned that the committee should not reinvent the wheel and suggested consulting garbage strategies from other communities in the country.
The fruits of discussion are still a long way off, but according to Jennifer Marchant, co-chair of the anti-litter and civic pride committee, the issue is entering the sphere of public debate.
"People are coming together and actually contributing," said Marchant.
"We need more people to get involved," she said.
Around 25 people attended the last meeting.
Humphries said the committee needs to hit critical mass before any real change happens.
"We need about 20 to 30 per cent participation before littering becomes socially unacceptable," said Humphries.
"Here littering is accepted and that is the problem," he said.
