It doesn't seem to matter how clean and tidy a garbage transfer area is kept. Beyond the fence, there's always stray garbage strewn across the ground, with plastic bags caught in the bushes. Ravens may have something to do with it, as many of them fly into the garbage transfer building looking for something to eat which they carry out to munch on.

A truck sits inside the building, waiting to be filled with Banff's garbage so it can make the 370 Km trip to Camrose. Around 250 of these trucks haul Banff's garbage this long distance every year. These numbers give me an idea of how big Banff has become. It produces a lot of garbage. And sends most of it away for someone else to deal with.

Everytime I see a garbage receptacle I have have mixed feelings. There's a good feeling that garbage is being taken care of, but the fact that they are needed everywhere dismays me. I'm sure parks puts garbage cans wherever tossed garbage is a problem, but the fact that it can become a problem is the problem. The result? Hundreds of garbage cans everywhere, they themselves littering the landscape like the garbage they contain.

But without them, the problem of strewn garbage would be unmanagable. So bring them on!

Garbage receptacles