As a foreigner living in Japan, naturally I tend to compare certain things and one of those being the way Japanese and Canadians treat the environment that we live in on a daily basis.  Back in the day, electronics were made to last several years- decades, even!  Sure, they’re cheaper now, but they might as well be disposable at the rate you have to replace them.  Natural Resources Canada estimates that Canadians dump more than 272,000 tons of computer equipment, phones, TVs, stereos and small appliances in landfills each and every year.  Between 1992 and 2000, Canadians ditched enough computers to fill 953 Olympic-sized swimming pools, says Environment Canada.  To make matters worse, all those gadgets are teeming with toxic heavy metals and chemicals, such as the nasty endocrine-disturbing fire retardants found in outer plastic casings and circuit boards, the 50 grams of mercury in your flat screen and the 2 to 4 pounds of lead in traditional cathode ray tube TVs.  Environment Canada says computers alone are responsible for about 1.1 tons of mercury, 4.4 tons of cadmium and 4,750 tons of lead in the trash.  Bottom line: it’s time to think twice about kicking your old gear to the curb.

This season seems to be a good time to eat lots of tangerines for a quick boost of vitamin C. However, they seem to be getting more expensive everyday so if anyone knows where to get cheap tangerines please let me know-thanx.