Still, as with so many best laid municipal plans, there appears to be a flaw with this new edict. By placing a per house limit rather then linking it to the number of households per civic address, the process becomes blatantly unfair and environmentally unsound in the long run.

Let me explain. Come November, a person living alone in a 3000 square foot house will be allowed to throw out the same amount of garbage as a family of eight. The same person will also be allowed to throw out as much garbage as five families living in five separate apartments located within the same building. 

In light of this, two segments of society will be disproportionately affected. Lower income families, who are more likely to live in rental apartments then in their own house, will potentially bear the brunt of any cost that their landlord might incur as a result of this new law. It is highly unlikely that five separate households can be limited to six garbage bags every two weeks, meaning that landlords will have to pay an outside contractor to remove the rest.  Since land-lording is a business like any other, at least some of the cost will be passed on to the tenants.

The second segment that will be punished under the law will be those Haligonians who, for environmental or other personal reasons, choose not to live in 4000 square foot home. In this age of inconvenient truths, the trend away from suburban sprawl towards a more densely populated downtown area should be encouraged by all means possible. The new law, however, achieves the exact opposite by penalizing this segment of society much in the same manner that it penalizes the poor. Thus, families choosing to live under one roof will have a disproportionate burden placed on them by these new restrictions. A five family commune, for example, will be allotted a fifth of the amount of waste disposal services when compared to five families living in five separate houses.

Clearly then, the law must be adjusted so that it applies to individual households rather than individual dwellings. Anything else would be unjust and short-sighted.