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® An \sland Publishers Newsmagazine

OXIC
STEW

By KERRY READSHAW
This Week Staff

ill and Mary Handy-Dandy had a busy
day. They expected company, so they
scrubbed and rubbed their house. When

the rubbing and scrubbing was finished,

wood furniture gleamed, floors shone with two
vigorously applied wax coatings, and an especial-
ly tough stain (on the basement floor) had been
bleached away. Streaks on mirrors and windows
had been squirted and sponged until the glass
sparkled and various powders and liquids had
been sprinkled onto the stainless steel kitchen
sink and the porcelain bath-tub. Even the toilet
bowl got a swishing — its water became a clean,
fresh-lake blue.

The weekend’s activities finished, away went the
bottles and jars of cleaning supplies. Bill chucked a
furniture-polish tin into the garbage can. It was
joined by a container of paint dribbles he found in the
basement and by a spray-can of weed killer that had
been rusting in the garage. The bleach and the
bathroom cleansers swirled down the kitchen sink
drain, along with some old darkroom chemicals the
Handy-Dandy children had been storing in a closet.
By the time Mary and Bill picked up their hostess and
host clothing from the local dry cleaners, before they'd

even decided upon which dinner they’d serve to the

family guests, their disposables had blended with
disposables from thousands of other households.
While they served dessert to friends, Mary and Bills
waste — toxic wastes — mixed with the wastes of people
who had poured their car’s old oil into a storm drain, tossed
a litre of unwanted pool chlorine into a trash pail, or
sloshed a bottle of home-permanent solution down the
toilet instead of onto a head of hair. While Mary and Bill
chatted with company, their discards became part of a
toxic stew bubbling in area waters and landfill sites.

Continued on Page 3

A WHOLE LOT OF COLOR in the world and the chemicals used to make that color are
dangerous. Government is thinking green and looking for a safe way to dispose of special
wastes, like paint — here, workers deal with discards brought to Victoria’s first hazardous
waste weekend.

INSIDE

 VISITOR’S CALENDAR
Where to go. / Page 12

i BASIC BLACK:
While examining the logis-

LORRAINE JOHNSON a
FOREWORD BY FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

Jool; — |@REEN

How to Make a World
of Difference

MISS MANNERS:

There's no need to snarl
because someone wishes

i DR. TOMORROW:

“Give me a mushroom bur-
ger” assumes new meaning

TRIPPING DOWN THE AISLE Can
be a nightmare — Silver
Screen reviews this truth in its
discussion of the season’s best
and worst movies. Page 15.

tics of car theft, Arthur
Black longs for his old beat-
er. It’s not a case of loving
the ugliest child, its that
ugly cars can be left unat-
tended but the beauties need
sitters./ Page 9.

in a world which grows mu-
shrooms that look, cook and
taste like burgers. Dr. To-
morrow checks out how
high-tech agriculture prac-
tices will affect consumers.
/ Page 2.

you a good morning... and
future brides shouldn’t ex-
pect to get the prizes guests
win at wedding-shower

games. Miss Manners clar-

ies matters of common
courtesy. / Page 7.

CHANGING TIMES complicate
even the once-simple task of be-
ing an environmentalist. In Books
West, reviewer Mike Steele takes a
look at the books which can help
save the world, Page 6.