Good lord! There’s chloroform in your reusable grocery bag! So says the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. And other nasty bacteria! Because your food is dirty! It’s true!

Because they did a study. And they found their own Dr Spaceman to step forward and tearfully explain how using cloth bags will eventually kill off mankind faster than Skynet. Their study, lead by a respected Dr. Richard Summerbell, at Sporometrics (that sounds like an informercial parent company right there – note: they’re located in a back alley off of Dufferin Street, Toronto.), shows that reusing cloth bags will give you ear infections. Some bags were found to have fecal matter in them!

“I’m sick of carrying this shit!!”

It saddens me that this “American-style” info spin is coming from a Canadian organization. To quote BoingBoing: “the regulator who traded his credibility for a consulting fee should be ashamed of himself”

More technical deconstruction via Barfblog

Dear Astral Media Outdoor:

Your garbage service, after less than a month, leaves so much to be desired. The “Oooh! Shiny” new factor wore off as soon as we saw where you were placing the new trash cans in relation to where people actually stand or walk. The one pictured below at Sherbourne and Carlton is close to 20ft away from the bus shelter. We all know the less enthusiastic will not bother shuffling over that far to toss a gum wrapper. Who did your product research? A pack of blind monkeys with hooks for hands?

Look, when the OMG people came to town at least they understood the amount of crap Torontonians love to throw away on a moments notice and made huge cans (bigger ad space!). Yours barely hold a Tims cup, diaper and a bus transfer. Oh and they emptied them on a regular basis, or at least recognized that your cans will need to be serviced more often. I realize this complaint may be better directed to the City itself, but surely someone, somewhere must have realized these cans are residential capacity, not public or industrial.

Same Old Crap

So in closing, Astral Media Outdoor, clean up your act. It’s worn thin pretty fast.

A Torontonian.