Sketch It: Mountain of Coffee Cups
Sketch it! is a fun new section on The Urban Country where we feature random napkin sketches from our resident sketch artist and writer, George Pechtol (Against his will). This week’s sketch symbolizes the 1 million coffee cups that are trashed each day in Toronto that end up in landfills in a “Mountain of Coffee ...
Sketch It: Urban Food Chain 1
Sketch it! is a fun new section on The Urban Country where we feature random napkin sketches from our resident sketch artist and writer, George Pechtol (Against his will). “Urban Food Chain”, by George Pechtol
Trash Talk: Dry Cleaner Plastic Waste 2
Trash Talk is a special section where we expose the unnecessary waste that is generated by companies so that the urban country staff and readers can speak out to make a difference. I typically pay a visit to the Dry Cleaners about once a month to launder certain shirts (Let’s save the discussion about the ...
Trash Talk: Toronto City Hall loses to Lobbyists 4
(Photo by markolson on Flikr) Trash Talk is a special section where we expose the unnecessary waste that is generated by companies so that the urban country staff and readers can speak out to make a difference. March 17th marks a crucial blow to the credibility of Toronto City Hall in its battle against Food ...
Trash Talk: Toronto Rock Waste 2
Trash Talk is a special section where we expose the unnecessary waste that is generated by companies so that the urban country staff and readers can speak out to make a difference. At the end of the Toronto Rock lacrosse game I attended yesterday evening, I was appalled when I came to realize that the ...
Live, Work and Play
While news headlines broadcast dire warnings about the economy, Toronto continues to build, build and build. There are new buildings popping up everywhere, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up (yet). With credit markets drying up, I had previously assumed that some “under construction” buildings wouldn’t finish. I also falsely thought that some new ...
Recession Ready? Interview with Michael Bevins
In a series of articles entitled “Recession Ready?”, The Urban Country is interviewing people around the world who are affected by the recession to understand how different people are coping. For a complete list of interviews, choose the “Recession Interviews” category on the right navigation. Mike Bevins lives in beautiful Huntington Beach, California, just outside ...
Recession Ready? Interview with Grant Miller
Editor’s Note: In a series of articles entitled “Recession Ready?”, The Urban Country is interviewing people around the world who are affected by the recession to understand how different people are coping. For a complete list of interviews, choose the “Recession Interview” category on the right navigation. Grant Miller is a Chicago-based writer; he’s been ...
Bottled Water Debate
The bottled water debate has fired up in London Ontario, and there is talk of bottled water at Toronto City Hall as well. London voted to ban the sales of water bottles in all municipal buildings to reduce waste in local landfills and help the environment. I’ve been happily drinking tap water for over 6 ...
Measures productivity by how few people are working
I’m reading a really great book right now that my brother Tom thoughtfully gave me for my birthday. It’s called “Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the Way We Make Things“. Amazon has labelled it as a “Paperback”, but it’s not your typical “Paperback”. The book is printed on synthetic “paper” and it’s made from plastic ...