He thought about the box, outside of the box...
He was a bit eccentric in his day. Friends tell stories about how he'd sort trash for you, and how he would offer to collect your recycling and run it to the already established depots in Toronto.
You've probably used the invention of " hippy-dippy chain-smoking environmentalist" Jack McGinnis, as the globe puts it. He had a hunch people would recycle if it was made easy, and so that's just what he made it. He invented the bluebox that we all take to the curb today (if you're reading this in Ontario,British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Quebec or Manitoba; Otherwise you probably have a different system.)
Unfortunately Jack is no longer with us. I suppose the "hippy-dippy chain-smoking" lifestyle caught up to him at the age of 64.
Fortunately however the blueboxes are still here and we thank Jack for his contribution to environmentalism and social change.
I'd like to take this opportunity to deliver some fun and random facts, in honour of Jack's design:
-BlueBoxes are Blue because it's the colour of plastic that resists the weather most.
-96% of Ontario residents today have access to a blue box program
-870,000 tonnes of materials now diverted through blue box programs
-4.7 million Ontario households use blue boxes
Not bad for a guy who started with a couple bins and a pick-up truck.
You've probably used the invention of " hippy-dippy chain-smoking environmentalist" Jack McGinnis, as the globe puts it. He had a hunch people would recycle if it was made easy, and so that's just what he made it. He invented the bluebox that we all take to the curb today (if you're reading this in Ontario,British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Quebec or Manitoba; Otherwise you probably have a different system.)
Unfortunately Jack is no longer with us. I suppose the "hippy-dippy chain-smoking" lifestyle caught up to him at the age of 64.
Fortunately however the blueboxes are still here and we thank Jack for his contribution to environmentalism and social change.
I'd like to take this opportunity to deliver some fun and random facts, in honour of Jack's design:
-BlueBoxes are Blue because it's the colour of plastic that resists the weather most.
-96% of Ontario residents today have access to a blue box program
-870,000 tonnes of materials now diverted through blue box programs
-4.7 million Ontario households use blue boxes
Not bad for a guy who started with a couple bins and a pick-up truck.
Cheers to leaving a legacy of honour behind your. Jack McGinnis will forever be known as the father of the Blue Box and as the founder Recycling Council of Ontario and a non-profit environmental foundation called Is Five, taken from a phrase by poet e.e. cummings, “2 times 2 is 5,” meaning the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
-D-
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-D-
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