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Is the city being coy or are they just toying with us?

The city says they are thinking of improving the dump by creating two areas there, one for salvageable stuff and the other for general garbage. Salvagers will be allowed to go into the salvage area but not into the general garbage area.

One argument for this move, which they have run up the proverbial flagpole, is that salvagers ripping open bags of garbage causes a bird problem. I think I dispelled that argument adequately in a previous column so let's look at the ramifications of this move on the fine and gentle art of salvage and salvaging.

If you create an area for salvage only and another for general garbage I can pretty well guarantee you that there will be a lot less stuff going into the salvage area than planned and that a lot of perfectly good salvageable materials will end up in the general garbage area and consequently get buried in the dump. So, the overall net affect of this move will mean less salvage and more stuff going into the dump.

That is the opposite of what should happen.

It is true that some people, bless their hearts, do go to the dump with stuff that they purposely set there for others to salvage. However, most people go with a load of stuff they consider garbage that they just want to dump.

They could care less whether or not it gets broken when loading it or whether or not it gets salvaged. So they would take that stuff to the general garbage area and none of it would get salvaged. People who salvage beverage containers would find few of them in the salvage area because they would all end up in the general garbage area and thousands more than now would get buried. A lot of people leaving town would dump their stuff in the general garbage area and none of it would get salvaged. Also businesses and individuals who don't want their stuff salvaged, and there are some, would dump it all in the general garbage area to prevent people from salvaging.

So creating a salvage area and a general garbage area does sound like it has some merit, but it is a negative move unless you allow salvagers into both. People who just want furniture and clean stuff would go to the salvage only area and those wanting to salvage beverage containers and other stuff would also go to the general garbage area. That would be a win-win situation.

If the city is serious about salvaging, recycling and stopping good stuff from ending up buried in the landfill then they have to change the way they and the majority of people view garbage. Only a small percentage of the population goes to the dump or takes stuff to the dump. This means that the majority of people put their garbage, recyclables and salvageables into their general household garbage or into apartment dumpsters. This material then goes through the bailer and gets buried in the dump.

Every week, thousands of beverage containers that could be returned for the deposit go through the bailer. Books, clothes, toys, surplus materials and no end of other things that could be salvaged end up in the garbage and go through the bailer. The city could license someone to salvage this material at the bailer or they could put salvage bins around town where people could put the stuff. We have recycle bins, why not salvage bins?

It is something to think about and the motto in all decisions should be "How do we encourage more recycling and salvaging?"

- Walt Humphries is a well-known Yellowknife artist and prospector