As the Great Garbage Strike of ‘09 enters its 12th day, an increasingly piquant odour is  in the air. Pretty amazing when you think about it- we produce so much refuse as a city that, in less than two weeks, we’re already starting to stink ourselves out. It’s rather frightening how dependent we really are on timely municipal services. It’s the thin green line between civilization and…well, some dirtier, smellier version of civilization.

Recently, I finished a great book by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler called Nudge. It argues that people are subject to a series of biases that produce bad decisions, particularly when the decision in question is complex, provides little feedback or imposes delayed costs. To correct for these biases, Thaler and Sunstein recommend “nudges”, or improved choice architecture that helps people make better decisions about health, money, and the environment. It’s a nifty idea.

As I rode my bike through downtown this morning in a garbage-tinged breeze, a funny thought occured to me: the garbage strike is creating a big, foul-smelling and difficult-to-ignore  “nudge” for Torontonians. Waste is a classic example of a human activity subject to routine biases. People are wasteful because, when all is working as it should, they are not confronted with the consequences of their wastefulness. Trash doesn’t pile up and things don’t start to smell. Most importantly, you aren’t required to haul the remnants of your daily activities away in your family car.

The trash strike turns this all around. Every day, all over the city, people are coping with the rather urgent problem of an increasing quantity of garbage and dwindling space to store it. And no one wants to put bags of waste in their new Nissan. There are a variety of responses to this situation. Impotent rage seems to be a popular choice. Neighbourhood garbage collectives and for-profit trash removal are another. I suspect – and I have no empirical evidence to support this, but it seems reasonable – another response is behavioural change. People may begin to change their consumption patterns and opt for products that produce less waste. Perhaps they will be more conscientious and waste less food in the kitchen. Whatever the new behaviour might be, the outcome is reduced garbage output. That’s good for the city (as it takes some pressure off our overburdened waste infrastructure) and it’s good for the environment (less trash in landfills). We’ve been nudged into a (slightly) more responsible way of living.

Obviously, a garbage strike is not a sustainable or desirable form of nudge. But it does hint at the possibilities of employing more nudging strategies to reduce waste and promote more responsible consumption. In fact, pre-strike Toronto employed a very mild nudgewith its garbage bin program. Requiring homeowners to purchase a garbage bin of a specific size does two important things: it visually demarcates the available space for garbage, and imposes a direct cost on over-cosumption (more garbage = a bigger bin = more money). In other words, garbage bins increase feedback and may help encourage better choices.

No question, waste is always a significant problem and more expansive solutions may be needed. What other nudges might be employed in this area? I’m no expert on waste removal, but a few spring to mind:

1. Even more infrequent trash collection (say every three weeks);
2. Private or user-pay (with an appropriate reduction in property tax) trash removal, where fees are levied on a per-bag or even per-pound basis; and
3. Increased social sanction. The technology exists for garbage collectors to collect real-time data on garbage output by house and neighbourhood. Perhaps each house could have a curbside “garbage flag”. Dwellings that are under the neighbourhood average would have their flag set to green, those at the average to orange, and those over the average to red. That way, everyone knows who produces too much garbage. And that kind of recognition can drive significant changes in behaviour.

All of these ideas provide more direct feedback to consumers, making it easier for people to recongnize their performance and adjust their behaviour accordingly. And, they all avoid direct regulation that limits personal choice.

Do you have any ideas for garbage nudges? Or do you think I’m full of garbage? Let me know in the comments.

We humans are an arrogant lot. We go about our daily lives, content in our apparent biological superiority and totally unaware of the seething insectoid threat lurking beneath our feet.

Scientists have discovered that the Argentine Ant rivals mankind with the size and reach of their colonies. They’re found on every continent except Antarctica, and rather than forming hundreds of thousands of individual communities, they actually belong to a single, face-meltingly scary SUPER-COLLOSAL MEGA COLONY. According the BBC:

…whenever ants from the main European and Californian super-colonies and those from the largest colony in Japan came into contact, they acted as if they were old friends.

These ants rubbed antennae with one another and never became aggressive or tried to avoid one another.

In short, they acted as if they all belonged to the same colony, despite living on different continents separated by vast oceans.

The most plausible explanation is that ants from these three super-colonies are indeed family, and are all genetically related, say the researchers. When they come into contact, they recognise each other by the chemical composition of their cuticles.

“The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society,” the researchers write in the journal Insect Sociaux, in which they report their findings.

It’s very clear what has happened here. Content with our position at the top of the food chain, humans have grown complacent and lazy. This has given the ants time to organize in the shadows, breeding a parallel super society poised to wrench the Earth from its human masters. Well, I say this ant menace must be stopped! We must (quite literally) stamp out their insidious plot wherever it might appear, from the deepest jungle to the most unassuming suburban lawn. Ant sympathizers in our Government and civic institutions must be rounded up and imprisoned. The musician Adam Ant must be summarily executed. Two legs good, six legs (and antennae) bad!

Thanks to EM for the link.

If you spend any time on YouTube, you’ve probably noticed the overlay ads that now appear at the bottom of the video. Annoying, sure. But great if you’re an advertiser. Thankfully, the video-sharing site is now empowering regular users with similar functionality. Instead of a banner ad, users can now direct viewers to a website of their choice.

It’s amazing we’re only now getting this feature. But now that we have it, there are all kinds if fun implications for social marketers, politicians, and third-sectorites. You can post up a high-impact video and ad a link to a campaign or fundraising website. And if your video happens to get posted on a variety of sites, or even goes viral, that’s some traffic payola right there.

It took them long enough, but this small change will make a big difference to YouTube’s efficacy as an advocacy and marketing tool.

If you’re in Toronto tonigh and looking for a cheap-yet-highly-entertaining evening, may I suggest the Bad Dog Theatre’s neweset all-improvised parody show WEIRDOS? It’s a spoof of Heroes, and features some on Toronto’s finest improvisers. I’m also in it, but don’t worry- I mostly stand at the back.

Best of all, it’s only $10. That’s cheaper than a movie! And the theatre is air-conditioned! Failure to attend can only be construed as a form of mental illness.

See you there! Well, I mean, it’s hard to see people when you’ve got stage lights in your face. But I will sense your presence. I can do that. I have powers.

WEIRDOS!

So, the city just announced 19 temporary dumping sites across the city. I’m pleased to note one will be located in my neighbourhood, right in the middle of Sunnyside Park.

After at least seven minutes of feverish brainstorming, I have come up wit the perfect name for what I can only assume will be a majestic pile of garbage:

MOUNT ST. SMELLINS

I think the comparison between a festering pile of trash and a smouldering volcano is entirely appropriate. Plus, the catastrophic 1980 eruption of MSH is nice little metaphor for the state of labour relations in Toronto.

If you think you’ve got a more clever name than mine, leave it in the comments. And we’ll get people to vote on the best one, because Web 2.0 rules! Spread the word!

First: for the love of God, don’t panic. It has been three and a half days and people have gone bonkers. When the streets run thick with garbage and we bow before the gilded throne of a new Rat King, by all means go bat-shazbot insane. But in the meantime, perhaps we should just suck it up. After all, it could be worse. You could’ve had this guy’s week.

There are lots of other things you can do to mitigate the effects of what promises to be a long and highly irritating strike. Reduce the amount of garbage you produce. Organize neighbourhood trash trips to the nearest transfer station, complete with themed snacks (Mmm. Barbecue flavoured detritus mix!) and obnoxious road games. Pay an exhorbitant fee to grey market profiteers to haul your stinkables away. Or, dedicate a week’s worth of writing on your slightly popular blog to the vagaries of trash removal in this fine city.

But, as a wise man once said, “leave no crisis unused.” Perhaps the best way to survive this crisis is to clear a small patch of open ground of banana peels and coffee grounds and used tissues, and consider what has led us to this unfortunate juncture. In a rare insightful and clear-headed column, Christie Blatchford provides some helpful advice: “you have to know who to be mad at.”

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