True Patriot Love - Canada’s Litter Problem Is Out of Control

00:00:00.000 They put trackers on the trucks, and they found that they only spent less than 20% of the time in the parks.

00:00:10.380 They spent more time at Tim Horton's dog rug and shopping malls.

00:00:16.520 So for those of you who think there's a bystander or a public service employee coming to pick up your garbage at the on-ramps, it's not going to happen.

00:00:30.000 Now, I am a calm, peaceful, easygoing kind of guy, except when it comes to littering.

00:00:36.460 Now, there are certain things in life that will make me upset.

00:00:39.680 And the sight of people in Canada throwing their garbage out the window at the drive-thru

00:00:44.360 or throwing it at an off-ramp on a highway really sends me over the edge.

00:00:48.640 As a matter of fact, according to the U of T, I can't believe this.

00:00:52.240 Over a nine-year period between 2012 and 2020, the equivalent of 15 billion plastic bottles and 14 billion plastic grocery bags became litter in the Canadian environment, and we have to stop it to talk more about it.

00:01:07.600 Thrilled to be joined by a very clean man, Paul Micucci.

00:01:10.180 How are you, Paul?

00:01:10.780 Good, Jim.

00:01:11.260 How are you, man?

00:01:12.060 Good.

00:01:12.400 I love this show, by the way.

00:01:13.980 I told you when you came up with it, I'm like, head peeve also.

00:01:18.140 We were with the family a few weeks ago at a family event,

00:01:22.220 and we stopped at this city of Toronto.

00:01:23.980 It's a beautiful park right in the Scarborough Bluffs,

00:01:26.420 and the landscaping is groomed, and, I mean, it's beautiful.

00:01:31.700 And there's the recycle bin and garbage bin,

00:01:34.220 and there's a nice brick building for family washrooms and everything.

00:01:38.360 And we go by the fence, and for people who've never been seeing the Scarborough Bluffs,

00:01:41.660 it's almost the Lake Ontario's version of the White Cliffs of Dover.

00:01:45.500 And it's beautiful.

00:01:46.560 and I look over the fence, and there's heaps of garbage.

00:01:50.000 People walked up to the fence at the Scarborough Bluffs

00:01:52.840 with Lake Ontario and all the stature and birds

00:01:55.280 and threw garbage down there.

00:01:57.040 When the garbage can, I'm like, why stop it?

00:02:01.040 And that's why we had to talk about this, Paul,

00:02:03.140 because I've had it with littering in Canada.

00:02:06.040 It's got to stop.

00:02:07.380 Yeah.

00:02:07.960 Well, there's a number of reasons which we're going to talk about today.

00:02:10.740 But, you know, I wanted first, I'm an expert, by the way, on garbage.

00:02:15.440 I got my Ph.D. in garbage in high school when I was actually taken over by my parents,

00:02:22.560 and they made me apply for a job to be a sanitation engineer.

00:02:25.920 That's all right.

00:02:26.560 So I was for three summers going into my first year of university.

00:02:30.600 I was a garbage man.

00:02:31.520 You and Denzel Washington.

00:02:32.760 Yeah, thank you.

00:02:34.160 Thanks for the comparison.

00:02:35.460 I'm feeling good today, Denzel.

00:02:37.840 But, you know, it was interesting because I learned a lot.

00:02:41.500 Number one, you know, I learned how to drive a garbage truck.

00:02:44.260 Which ain't easy.

00:02:45.440 it ain't easy and quite frankly i learned how to tolerate heinous smells but frankly when you go

00:02:51.860 into the dumps you know they're they're awful the landfills it is brutal but i i was lucky enough

00:02:58.460 because we used to work 10-hour shifts and so to get overtime i used to work the recycle days which

00:03:04.580 in etobicoke in those days were on wednesdays and i always remember because recycling was a new

00:03:11.400 concept and my mother you know was so proud we had her little blue bin in the kitchen with the

00:03:16.400 paper and the cardboard and the bottles yeah she she went for it she was doing it she you know give

00:03:21.360 us a hard time make us do it and we do it and so we go out fill up the blue bin put it at the curb

00:03:27.320 you know in those days we had to pick up garbage so we didn't have the big forks that lift yes

00:03:31.720 we'd uh run behind the trucks or right on the back and sling it into the back right sling it

00:03:36.320 into the back so i had my own crew and i'm working away on the first wednesday i did recycle

00:03:41.720 i get to noon and i get a uh i go call in because in those days you had to find a pay phone

00:03:47.300 you had to call in so i call in to the dispatch and i said okay we're full where do we go now and

00:03:53.580 he goes go back to the landfill he says we're full recycles done for the day right and i'm like

00:03:58.400 so we're done i said so my mother's making me really say go all this and quite frankly it's

00:04:04.200 probably not getting into the recycle plant we've had this problem and it exists today that a majority

00:04:12.280 a large proportion of our garbage which we do recycle for those good people are good enough

00:04:18.440 to put in their blue bin does not make it to the blue but okay that's people being responsible

00:04:24.440 putting at the side of the road yeah the u of t did an in-depth study over years over decades

00:04:30.040 and found that young adults in canada between the age of 18 and 24 are the demographic

00:04:35.640 most likely to litter with 17 admitting to littering at least once a week that surprised me

00:04:41.560 i thought the younger people were more apt to use the recycle bin when they're out or put it in the

00:04:46.520 garbage but it's become more and more commonplace in canada people just throwing their garbage

00:04:52.360 whether they're walking or driving yeah well you see uh you know in my business quite frankly or

00:04:58.120 one of my businesses i see a ton of cigarette butts you know still on a smokers gum i see all

00:05:04.600 those small debris items and quite frankly you know the reason is over the years that i've kind

00:05:09.800 of noticed and people write about uh you know there's the bystander effect which i find very

00:05:16.440 interesting so someone else will pick it up so you know i i it it's interesting if you have a

00:05:23.240 business for hospitality it's interesting as soon as you have it people think that they have the

00:05:30.680 right to litter so whether it's um entertainment entertainment movie you name it yeah so you know

00:05:39.320 it's interesting people will leave a restaurant um and they'll just take something out of their

00:05:44.920 pocket and they'll throw it on the ground thinking your staff who does cleaning will go pick it up

00:05:50.600 Really?

00:05:51.180 Oh, yeah.

00:05:51.600 You should see.

00:05:52.080 You know, it's interesting.

00:05:52.800 I go into our bathrooms at one of our business, and after the event's over,

00:05:59.340 and quite frankly, it's like a bomb one.

00:06:02.680 Like, people unload their, the women, especially in the women's bathroom,

00:06:07.800 the women's bathroom literally is like wall-to-wall garbage.

00:06:11.300 And I'm like, oh, my goodness.

00:06:12.900 Like, these are ladies who are at home.

00:06:14.500 You think they're, you know, taking care of their house.

00:06:16.980 Second thing is lack of ownership.

00:06:20.660 So as soon as people get outside, which I find interesting,

00:06:25.120 and this is something that we never used to do.

00:06:27.160 This is a new cultural issue that I've never thought about before,

00:06:30.460 but I notice it more.

00:06:31.900 So as soon as they leave their living rooms, leave their homes,

00:06:34.780 leave their personal properties, they start to discard things, which is weird.

00:06:39.900 Do you not find it at the off-ramps?

00:06:42.160 Oh, yeah.

00:06:43.080 A lot of the off-ramps and highways in Canada have a little green space at the light,

00:06:49.060 but I see garbage, people throwing it out all the time.

00:06:52.320 So why?

00:06:53.240 Well, so here's a stat that, you know, you hit on.

00:06:57.720 Our disposable containers over the last few decades have increased astronomically.

00:07:03.680 So whether it be coffee cups, whether it be takeout containers,

00:07:06.880 all those plastics that we get things in.

00:07:09.280 So as people are eating them in their cars, people are busier,

00:07:12.120 they're in traffic more now.

00:07:13.340 You know, we know we talk about traffic all the time.

00:07:15.220 so you know i know myself i always have to go food moving with me because i know i'm going to

00:07:19.900 be on the road for an hour and a half i'm always nibbling on something unfortunately when those

00:07:24.380 people stop the window goes open and and they're just like okay i don't so i don't have to go home

00:07:29.820 and put it in my garbage at home and then take my garbage to the curb i'd rather throw it out

00:07:33.480 because you know why the the the bystander effect which is basically someone else from the city is

00:07:39.360 going to pick it up but guess what here's the interesting thing and this was they did a tracking

00:07:45.160 study on the parks and rec people for the city of toronto last year i don't know if you followed

00:07:50.120 this and for those of you you know you probably know who worked there they put trackers on the

00:07:55.460 trucks oh yeah and they found that they only spent less than 20 of the time in the parks

00:08:04.320 They spend more time at Tim Horton's dog lunch and shopping malls.

00:08:10.080 So for those of you who think there's a bystander or a public service employee

00:08:17.200 coming to pick up your garbage at the on-ramps, it's not going to happen.

00:08:21.280 So the U of T to that end, further to your research there,

00:08:25.860 they came up with something called the friction cost.

00:08:28.780 So in their study, they did this over a number of years.

00:08:31.160 they found if the garbage can was more than 30 steps away from you yeah it was too much effort

00:08:36.240 to carry the trash and led to them dropping it more and more which is a messy sidewalks as you

00:08:42.820 said the cigarette butts so i'm i was raised this way my father was in the royal canadian air force

00:08:49.180 yeah and old air force freddie god rest his soul if he ever found out that i threw something at

00:08:54.680 the window and i was in another part of the country he'd fly over it and grab me by the air

00:08:59.080 like what are you doing yeah like and so i know and to this day is that like we're driving around

00:09:05.240 i i keep the garbage in my car i park my car what a concept and i put it in my garbage can at home

00:09:11.720 it's not that much it's just a simple thing but it makes a difference you know what i find

00:09:15.960 interesting and it's the overflow effect so it's for convenience people nowadays if a garbage bin

00:09:22.920 is overflowing so when you go to a festival or yeah yeah or arts and music and whatnot as soon

00:09:30.460 as people see the garbage overflowing they don't think of okay how do we get someone to change the

00:09:35.140 garbage they actually just throw it so now it's like they don't so it really is and it it is at

00:09:42.420 concerts and events and festivals but it's de-individualizing the actual littering so as

00:09:48.800 As soon as you see someone doing it or you see someone overflowing or something else,

00:09:52.800 it seems people seem to think it gives them the carte blanche to actually just keep literally.

00:09:58.800 And it's a weird theory.

True Patriot Love - June 05, 2026

Canada’s Litter Problem Is Out of Control

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