Earlier this week I paid the second installment of our property taxes in person at Kingston City Hall.  I suppose I could have sent it in the mail, but that would have wasted a stamp, and made me worry that my sizable cheque was in the hands of Kingston’s version of either Newman, or Cliff Clavin.  When I was called up to the counter, I noticed a slew of brochures promoting everything from the Grand Theatre’s 2009 Season, to what goes in your Green Bin.  I also noticed a display containing packages of Pay & Display Receipt Clips, as well as the association instructions.  These doodads seemed extremely counterproductive to me.  If Kingston is truly aspiring to be on the top of the list of the greenest cities in Canada, why is City Hall churning out these useless pieces of plastic?

The clips can be stuck to your windshield to keep your parking receipt  in place.  These small rectangular pieces of plastic come with a piece of paper, which displays a diagram as well as the following, hilarious instructions:

1. Ensure your inner windshield is clean.
2. Peel off protective backing from adhesive strip.
3. Affix the clip, adhesive strip towards glass, to inner windshield of passenger side.
4. Slide your parking receipt into the clip.
5. Confirm your parking receipt is visible from outside your vehicle.

To add insult to injury, a small bit of text on the bottom corner of the paper proclaims that the clips were “made and printed in China”.  Although the clips are small, I’m concerned with the overall amount of plastic being distributed, and eventually dumped.  Even if that amount seems small to you, isn’t reducing our overall consumption and waste one of the core elements of environmentalism?  Honestly, placing a piece of paper on your dashboard isn’t an overly onerous task.  Furthermore, the clips do little to ensure that you put the right side of your receipt facing up, nor do they make the inspection process faster for parking attendants.