Toronto Real Estate Agents | Julie Kinnear

Pipeline by Ray Bodden

Imagine a pipeline carrying oil from northern Canada all the way through the United States down to the Gulf Coast Refinery Hub in Texas. Sounds like a particularly boring science-fiction? Well, it‘s not. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has recently announced the government’s decision to build a huge transnational pipeline exporting raw bitumen to a petrochemical plant in the south of the U.S. Here, the unprocessed material will be turned into finished fuel, chemicals, or plastics.

Pollution by
NASA Goddard Center

Even though Canada boasts some of the strictest and most elaborate environmental protection laws in the world, it is not immune to the environmental threats that trouble all the industrialized countries. Big cities themselves pose a risk to natural balance, as it is almost impossible to control the amount waste produced by factories and households and to keep all the pollutants away from people. Today’s article will be predominantly focused on the state of air pollution in the city of Toronto.

It can be very confusing trying to figure out what goes into the blue box and what doesn't. I didn't realize that the plastic containers that your eggs or cherry tomatoes come in CAN NOT be put in recycling. Takeout containers and the moulded plastic trays that muffins and tarts come in are not to be put in the blue bin either. The thing is, if we don't recycle properly, the City can't recycle properly either.

For more information on what you can recycle, use WASTE WIZARD (toronto.ca/recycle) or Call 311 - the City of Toronto's hotline for information!!

Got Milk by Vengel Crimson

Recently, news spread through the media that a dairy farmer living just north of Toronto has been selling raw milk to his customers, earning him a criminal trial.

Photo by Philippe Put

The Toronto Star had a fascinating story about how both The Junction in Toronto’s West End, and Riverdale in Toronto’s East End are both vying for community supremacy for enviro friendly idea – to become the first carbon – neutral urban community on earth.

(Toronto Neighbourhoods compete to be Carbon Neutral – Junction & Riverdale continued...)

First Impression Prototype
Recycled Island

It’s great when someone takes something ordinary and turns it into something extraordinary — but when someone finds a way to turn waste into something useful again, it’s truly amazing. So, consider this idea: let’s take all the plastic waste floating around in the Pacific Ocean and build a fully habitable, sustainable island from it! Sound crazy? Believe it or not, the project called Recycled Island is very real — at least on paper.

Spring is a time for wet clothes and wet towels-which means your dryer definitely gets a workout! Studies show that only 3 percent of dryers in Canada are natural gas-which means that 97 percent of Canadians are missing out on significant savings.

Natural gas dryers offer faster drying times, and can save you money on your energy bills over electric dryers. Lifetime appliance cost estimates indicate that, even if you have an existing electric dryer, replacing it with a gas dryer is likely an economical option. (Check out Natural Resources Canada's handy savings charts.)

Photo by Pulpolux

Have you ever found yourself thinking about what possible purpose some random piece of junk from your home could serve before throwing it out? There are many things we’re used to throwing into the trash without hesitation. Nevertheless, some of them can be reused in quite original ways — all you need is a bit of creative thinking. Let’s take a look at some interesting, simple recycling ideas!

Photo by Anastacia Haddon

Fluid milk is one of the most popular and common beverages in the world. In 2006, Canada made it to the top ten per capita consumers of cow’s milk and cow’s milk product. The consumption of fluid milk alone reached 81.28 litres per capita in 2009. Unfortunately, this number doesn’t only represent a lot of milk — it also represents a huge amount of waste. How can we contribute to reducing dairy product related waste?

When you throw that soup can into recycling, does it just become another can? Yes, but it doesn't stop there! Thanks to recycling, steel can be transformed into concrete reinforcing bars, chains, pipes, and car parts. This greatly reduces costs, pollution and energy used - reusing steel cans alone reduces energy use by 74%! Every tonne of recycled steel cans saves 1.36 tonnes of iron ore. Think of that next time you have soup for lunch!

Green Living Show 2011

Canada’s largest green consumer show dedicated to educating the public about easy and workable solutions for leading a sustainable lifestyle is happening in less than a month (April 15-17). Why should you visit Toronto’s Direct Energy Centre to attend this year? Read on!

Photo by William Murphy

After months of delays (the first launch was scheduled in Spring 2010) the bike sharing program BIXI proved to be on its best way to reach the new target – launch in May 2011. The number of subscribers climbed over the 1,000 line (ironically also thanks to the 100 subscriptions bought at AutoShare party on this Monday) and the main condition set by the City was met.

(BIXI Bike Sharing in Toronto Ready To Roll continued...)

Photo by Olof S

As a part of our Green Lifestyle initiative, we decided to bring you every month five instant tips, how to make your life more environmentally friendly. Most of the actions can be done virtually instantly and with minimal cost – all you need is to decide right now!

You can contribute too – we welcome your own idea in the comments and will include them in the next month’s list.

(5 Instant Green Changes: September continued...)

Photo by Juan Vidal Daz

One of the latest innovations on the field of green technologies is slowly spreading in Toronto. The Toronto Zoo installed first three units if Ice Bear power demand management units, and nine more will be deployed in Ontario in following months. If it is proven working well in southern Ontario’s climate, we can expect it meets growing demand from commercial and residential sector.

(Ice Energy For Greener Buildings continued...)

Toronto Humane Society’s River St. shelter was finally reopened this Monday, thanks to the new board of directors.

The shelter was closed on April 12 this year after shocking accusation of animal cruelty from Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Former president Mr. Trow and five senior managers were previously arrested on animal cruelty charges.

(Pet Shelter Reopened continued...)

Recycling is green is love by Jon Wilson

Check out the locations for July to drop off unwanted household items!

(Community Environmental Days continued...)

Photo by Christopher Woo

For the first time, Mercer consulting published its annual Quality if Living city ranking with a new brand new chart included called Eco-City Ranking. While Toronto placed on solid 16th place in the world and on the third place in North America in terms of general quality of living, our position in the Eco-City chart is not so optimistic.

(Eco-City Ranking: Toronto Needs More Effort continued...)