• How your household uses the blue box system
• What you like and don’t like about it
• How much you currently recycle
• What would make you increase your recycling
• What you think of the proposed bins (pictured) and whether you would use them
• Whether you support other curbside recycling initiatives (composting/”household organic”)
• Whether/how much you’d be willing to pay for household organic recycling

There are also several places where you can leave general comments about the system. I gladly took the opportunity to tell the city how much I appreciate our current system, and my suggestions for improving recycling for apartment dwellers, and of course, my thoughts on beverage container recycling. (Shoot! I forgot to mention how much I love that “garbage day” is now called “recycling day”!)

Take the survey here: http://guest.cvent.com/SURVEYS/Welcome.aspx?s=888e2273-6322-46eb-a8bc-27174377945a and I’d love to hear your thoughts on recycling in Winnipeg by commenting on this post.

WO’MH-isms:

Fancy Place (from the post Roadtrippin’): A bar or pub that has more than one draught beer available. These are typically public houses in larger centres where beer drinkers enjoy selections beyond Coors Light. Ergo, if there’s only one type of beer on tap, it’s not a fancy place.

Manitoba street cred (from the post Curling): The valuating system by which new Winnipeggers (and in our cases, new Manitobans, too) are judged as integrating into the local culture. In joining a curling league, drinking slurpees in the wintertime, or apologizing to newcomers about the weather (despite the fact that you can’t control it), you raise your Manitoba street cred. You’re becoming an authentic Manitoban.

‘Pegiversary (from the post Roadtrippin’): The anniversary of a new Winnipeggers’ arrival in the city. Emma’s 1st ‘Pegiversary is quickly approaching on July 8th; for Aaron it will be January 5th, 2010; and Laurel just likes to celebrate hers on the 2nd of every month.

Social Time (a comment to the post Socials): Submitted by regular commenter, Michel, “Social Time is the acceptable time at which you should arrive at a social” and it directly correlates to the attendees’ age. The social arrival approximation scale is available in graph form, and strict adherence to these guidelines will prevent one from decreasing her or his Manitoba street cred.

Water-peg (from the post Water-peg): In the springtime, melting snow and swelling rivers transform Winnipeg into its always latent, ulterior character, Water-peg. The sidewalks are wet, the potholes are filled to the brim (and deceptively deep), and every story on CBC radio is somehow (magically?) spun to include a flooding-related angle.

Weatherpeg (a Winnipeg O’ My Heart post category): So much of Winnipeg’s mystique involves the extremes of weather at this geographic location of the continent. In this way, whenever a post includes significant content relating to the weather in Winnipeg, it will be categorized as a Weatherpeg post.

A sloppy Winnipeg Wrap

Winnipeg Wrap (from the post Wrap it Up): You know when people use lame clichés like: “If I opened the dictionary to the definition of goofball I’d see a picture of your face”? Well in this instance I will simply provide a visual example of the Winnipeg Wrap, and for a more detailed explanation you really should read all about it in the original post. Sadly (for fans of the Winnipeg Wrap), sightings of WWs around town reduce during warm seasons when it’s less likely that a Winnipegger will need an extension cord to plug-in the car while at work all day.

WO’MH-er (from the post Roadtrippin’): A Winnipegomyhearter is a member of the Winnipeg O’ My Heart blogging team. Although we haven’t yet invited guests to post their reflections about Winnipeg or Manitoba (we will), these persons would be considered honorary WO’MH-ers.

Terms unique to Winnipeg or Manitoba:

Caribou: The deliciously potent fortified wine that is intrinsically linked to the Festival du Voyageur. If you’re lucky enough to enjoy this drink at Festival, be sure to try it from an ice cup. We did. It’s a reeeeal good time.

Dainty: A small, sweet treat that is typically made in a large baking pan, then cut into squares or rectangles. In other parts of the country these are referred to as “squares”; however, in Manitoba the general term for a tray of assorted squares is “dainties”. When referencing a specific item on the tray, you should call the dainty by its appropriate name. Usage: “Just look at the fancy dainties at this bridal shower!” “I know…delish! I think I’ll have a Nanaimo bar.” A note about shape: in our limited experience, dainties are square; yet, we cannot corroborate that dainties are always square. This requires further (mmm…tasty) exploration.

Social: A traditional Manitoba fundraiser, usually held by friends (and sometimes family) of the engaged couple, meant to offset the costs of establishing a family home or farm. The social may have extended from this province into north-western Ontario and parts of Saskatchewan. “Classic” or “Traditional” socials feature a midnight buffet that always includes rye bread, cheddar cheese, and mustard (NB do not lick the knife). Some modern “Fancy” socials are catered, have professional DJs, and offer a combination of conventional auction items (the lottery tree) alongside new favourites (the spa package).

Social Table: So far as we can decipher, the rest of the country simply refers to this as a table with folding legs. These tables are aptly named according to their frequent use at socials held in community halls. The tables are rectangular in shape (probably 8’ x 3’?) and most likely either wood- or plastic-topped with folding metal legs. Usage: “I’m wondering if there’ll be enough seating at the social this Saturday.” “Oh yes, there will be. The hall provides 25 social tables.”

“LC”, the: An abbreviated slang term for the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission (MLCC). This phrase omits the “M” and last first “C” from the initialism (“LC” stands for “Liquor Commission”). Not to be confused with the initials of Lauren Conrad, star of the popular MTV show The Hills. She has probably never been to Winnipeg or Manitoba in general; what a pity. Usage: “I’m going to stop by the LC on the way home from work. Would you like anything?”

Of course this list is but the tip of an iceberg floating down the Red River following an ice jam breakup in April. Our goal is to keep the glossary updated with our own terms as well as those submitted by our readers. We surely welcome your feedback about our list and additions to what will become the Glossary of Terms Unique to Winnipeg or Manitoba. We appreciate attributions whenever they are available (in order that credit is given where due), and we also strongly discourage plagiarism. Let’s have some fun developing the glossary to define our shared Winnipeg and Manitoba experiences.

Please submit a comment to this post if you have a term to add. We are currently creating the glossary and will tweet (@winnipego) with a link once it’s up and running!

ALSO: Listen to CBC Manitoba Information Radio this upcoming Monday and Tuesday mornings (May 18 & 19, 2009) around 6:40AM (Central time) in order to hear the WO’MH blogging team in our very first discussions about blogging in Winnipeg and our distinct outlook on moving to this fair city from Vancouver. There is a link to live streaming of the broadcast on the CBC website, and we hope against all odds that our friends at Information Radio will consider podcasting these segments!

One of the consequences of living in lots of different places is that you start to compare them to each other. I’m sure everyone I know is sick of hearing me say,  “Well, in BC, we…” and “Actually, Alberta does it like this…”, but this is one topic where I think it’s fair to make comparisons.

Aside from the beer deposit, there is no deposit system in the province.

There is a refundable deposit for beer bottles, but as far as I can tell, the only other fee is a two cent/container WRAP levy. Seriously!

Well. I was appalled to learn the other day that Winnipeg restaurants generally throw their wine bottles in the garbage. They don’t even recycle them! Apparently, they have to pay for recycling service, so that’s the consequence. (Seriously. We drink a lot of wine in this house, but all those bottles either get recycled or set aside for use in homemade wine bottling. If what they say about Winnipeg having the most restaurants per capita is true, I can’t even begin to fathom how many wine bottles are being thrown into the garbage every day.)

In BC, you’d put your empties in the lane and they’d be gone in the blink of an eye. Why? Binners scoured the neighbourhood regularly, because each container was worth at least five cents. The bottle collecting phenomenon in Vancouver was actually pretty inspiring (see the self-sustaining social enterprise United We Can). You paid a deposit on alcohol containers as well as tetra packs, water bottles, etc., and it was no big deal because you could either take your empties back, or know that someone would do it for you. And guess what? I don’t remember anyone ever entertaining the idea of throwing a bottle into the garbage.

I remember, as a child  in Alberta, exciting trips to the bottle depot, where we’d take boxes of empty pop and beer bottles, and in exchange for helping, sometimes get a cut of the refund (a couple bucks is a big deal to a little kid!). Likewise, bottle drives are a very popular fundraiser amongst youth groups and sports teams.  (Bonus: our local bottle depots were run by the Rehabilitation Society of Southwestern Alberta – which meant that on top of giving people a chance to get their deposits back, they give people with disabilities job opportunities.)

The City of Winnipeg has an excellent and convenient blue box system. It is coordinated with garbage pickup, so you only need to remember one day to set your stuff out. You can recycle practically anything (milk cartons included), you don’t need to sort your recyclables…pretty much anything goes. It took me months to accept that I don’t need to remove the labels from cans before blue boxing them – but you don’t (in fact, they tell you NOT to remove them). Just toss ‘em in! The City has a whole page of FAQs to tell you how to best use the blue box service.

So, if you can recycle almost anything (which from the sounds of it, you can) why are Manitobans the worst recyclers? At a mall food court the other day, we witnessed a guy toss a plastic pop bottle into the garbage bin, when there was a recycling bin literally two feet away! The only explanation is that it isn’t in most people’s routines or mindsets.  As fellow Winnipeg blogger Prairie Topiary puts it, “There’s a lot more we can do – more of our public institutions and big corporations stepping up to the plate with public awareness advertising and leadership by example would be a great start.”

City Hall only just got on board with full recycling, and I hope that now that this fact has hit public consciousness, that local and provincial government will do more to make recycling attractive, convenient, and not without incentive. Fingers crossed!

You see, my car-less life had had a big helper: car sharing. Vancouver has both a car co-op and Zipcar (which I was a member of). Having an occasional car was a huge help for running errands, the occasional big grocery trip, or when people were visiting. In a new city, driving around is also a great way to orientate yourself – all I’ve managed to learn about Winnipeg so far is that Cityplace is kinda that-a-way, and not to try to find the Legislative Building again without a map.

Maybe this is the Vancouver Island hippie in me talking, but I’d love to avoid car-ownership, but at the same time not become a ride-sucking-vampire to all my friends. Because of all this, I was pretty psyched to hear there is a car-sharing feasibility study happening right now to figure out whether a car-sharing program in Winnipeg – the largest Canadian city without one – would work. Granted, a study doesn’t guarantee a program, but it’s hopeful!

If you’re interested at all in car-sharing, come out to one of the two upcoming information meetings to show your support!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
7:00-9:00 p.m., River Osborne Community Centre (101 Pembina Hwy) – map

Thursday, February 26, 2009
7:00-9:00 p.m., Millennium Library, Buchwald Room – map

Pick a day that works for you, and RSVP by Feb. 24 to wpgcarshare@mts.net.

You can also hit up the Winnipeg Car Sharing Feasibility Study website and take their survey to show your support, as well as find out more information.