Get ready for carts!

I've been falling down on the job when it comes to sharing news about those three important Rs and waste reduction lately... my Master Composter/Recycler hat got put on a shelf for a lot of this past pandemic year as it's hard to get out and volunteer when we're not supposed to be meeting in person... and I haven't been a very motivated moodler, either...

But lately, there's lots happening for Edmontonians when it comes to how we deal with the garbage that our living produces. I'd like to note that even, maybe especially with the changes that are coming, it's still incredibly important that we reduce, reuse and recycle as much as we can, with an emphasis on reducing. 

The pandemic has helped us reduce our waste in many ways because it's more challenging to safely go shopping, and many of us are learning that we can live just as well with less. I'd like to think that once COVID passes us by, we won't be off on a consumerism binge, but will continue to swap, share and keep our waste to a dull roar. Maybe we can go back to refilling our containers, carrying our travel mugs, and using our reusable everything (I've been trying to do those things as much as possible anyway, but it's definitely been more of a challenge thanks to the corona virus).

I'm excited to share a couple of videos today about Edmonton's new Waste Strategy, which is beginning its roll out this month. Our city rested on its laurels a bit too long while some of the municipalities around us already adopted garbage and green carts, but we're finally catching up, and it's a good thing! It means that our waste collectors will be able to use automated trucks rather than having to lift thousands of bags of garbage each day, saving their sore muscles. 

It also means thousands of tons of organic waste can be diverted from the landfill and turned into compost, and I hope it also means that more people will Go Bagless, that is, stop collecting grass clippings and choose to mulch for the sake of healthier lawns. And hey, if home owners are sorting things into their green carts anyway, it only takes a phone call or text for a Master Composter/Recycler volunteer like me to pay a socially-distanced visit and help set up a compost bin with the contents of a green cart. That compost will do wonders for your lawn or garden patches!

It's all good, really, it will just take a bit of getting used to. So if you haven't heard much about the new carts, and would like to learn more, consider attending an online cart rollout session so you know what's up. Have a peek at the short videos below. And if you want some hands-on help or you have questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment in the box below -- I'd be happy to help. That's what Master Composter/Recyclers are for!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVIZNF4WT_4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLmzMNuvF24

Fei's lions

Yong Fei Guan is a local artist, City of Edmonton Master Composter/Recycler since 2015, and a delightful person, period. My first exchange with her was on a warm October afternoon in 2017, when she was looking for some red wigglers for her vermicomposting efforts and I had a few to spare. We had met briefly once toward the end of her MCR course, but time had passed and I couldn't quite picture the person who was coming to get composting worms.

She texted to announce that she was parked outside my house, so I went out to meet her, but I wasn't sure how to pronounce her name. "Just call me Fei," (Fay) she said, and handed me a small container to fill with worms because her baby had fallen asleep in the car seat on the way.


Remembering what that was like, I took the container to my compost pile to get the worms while she stayed with her wee one. When I came back, we stood on the street and chatted for quite a while, and the little one woke up just in time to give me a heart-melting smile before they went off on their next errand. Busy lady!

I've seen Fei a couple of times since then. One cold evening about a year ago (or is it two?) she had a little well-attended gallery gathering around a children's board book about composting that she was creating. More recently, for Edmonton's 2018 The Works Art & Design Festival, she created Su Jiao Shi, a pair of plastic lions, to commemorate the stone ones that used to guard our city's Harbin Gate before it was removed from near the Chinese Seniors Centre due to LRT construction. Fei wanted to bring more awareness to environmental issues and our world's over-dependence on plastic, much of which is not recycled and which takes hundreds, if not thousands of years to biodegrade.

Su Jiao Shi are made of plastic milk jugs, PVC pipe, chicken wire, and some little toys her children no longer play with form the lions' eyes. Their luxurious manes are quite the collection of six-pack rings, many of which came from the City of Edmonton's ReUse Centre -- definitely a mixed-media artwork. It's taken a few cans of spray paint to keep them colourful, and I have to say they were pretty impressive when I saw them up close. Like the stone lions, they each have a ball in their mouth to touch for good luck.

Fei's lions are residents of City Hall at the moment as part of a celebration of Chinese culture, and last night they were in the spotlight at a reception featuring art, music, Tai Chi, and the delightful Fei herself. I stopped by to see her before the reception, we took some pictures, and I asked her about her next project.

She's thinking big for it -- an eight-foot figure related to this Lunar New Year that will be made of non-recyclable materials. I'm not going to let the cat completely out of the bag -- but I'll be sure to moodle about it in the future. I love bumping into Fei.

In the meantime, if you're in the vicinity of City Hall, be sure to visit Fei's lions, which are showing until Feb 15th. And if you'd like to learn more about Fei, click here for an excellent article from the U of A's Gateway online magazine, or check out her artist profile by clicking here.

Simple Suggestion #256... Give back to the Earth

Our planet provides us with everything we need to live... but how often do we think about helping it out? We have the ability to return the favour, maybe not on a grand scale, but there are definitely things we can do...

Last week I spent several hours at my composter, good tunes playing through my headphones as I turned over unfinished compost and sifted out a full cubic metre of gorgeous black humus. It will be turned back into our garden this autumn to replenish the soil's nutrients for next year's plants. It's not that difficult, really -- and it's the least I can do to replenish the fine layer of soil that supports life on our planet, if only in my own back yard.

Composting requires a bit of space, plant-based kitchen and garden scraps for a nitrogen source, brown materials like leaves or wood chips to provide carbon, and air and water. Basically, I throw down a half bag of leaves, spread a bucket of kitchen/garden scraps on top, and cover with more leaves, repeating the cycle until a fair pile accumulates. I try to "stir" or "fluff" the pile every two weeks or so to give it enough air so that anaerobic bacteria can't make it too smelly, and keep it damp enough that everything will rot. I'm helping the earth by reusing the nutrients in plant leftovers to enrich the soil, and turning 55 bags of last fall's leaves into soil amendment right here instead of having it trucked away. Here's my stack of last year's garbage bags... with fall garden cleanup beginning, they'll soon be piled with organic garden waste in the other two bins of my three-bin composter, and I'll have more compost in the spring!

I realize that many people don't have the ability to make compost because of their living situations, but really, we give back to the Earth every time we make an effort to reduce our impact on its ecosystems. Edmonton's recycling and composting facilities ensure that the waste of those who can't compost at home goes to a process to either recycle glass, plastics, cardboard and metal from our blue bags, or to turn any compostable items that end up in the trash can into compost that is used by the City or sold to gardeners. So everyone is actually giving something back to our planet every time the City uses compost in our parks and gardens, or around road construction areas and boulevards.

Some other simple things we can do to help the Earth rejuvenate its life systems include grasscycling -- leaving our clippings on the lawn when we mow (the nitrogen from the clippings feeds and protects the roots of the grass), leaving our autumn cleanup until spring (so trees and plants can drop green nutrients into the soil), and avoiding the use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides so that toxic chemicals and salts aren't being absorbed into our food chain.

Everything we do to contribute to the organic health and wealth of our planet's soil is something we ultimately do for ourselves. So giving back to the earth only makes sense. Especially when I eat an heirloom tomato and cucumber sandwich!

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Simple Suggestion #250... Wake up your compost!

Did you know that May is a good time to wake up your compost? Are you saying to yourself, what's that supposed to mean?

Hopefully, the title of this suggestion elicits a few different responses in readers:

1) I don't have compost. Fact is, everyone has material that works for making compost, and it's easy to go from there. If you eat, you create food waste -- kitchen scraps (greens) like fruit and vegetable peels, stalks and leaves, eggshells, apple cores -- anything except bones, meat or greasy stuff (I also avoid large fruit pits/stones just because it takes them so long to break down). If you live in a single family dwelling, you likely also have some yard waste -- grass clippings (though those are better left on the lawn to protect its roots and give it natural nitrogen), plant prunings (skip the weeds and woody branches), and the all important autumn leaves (browns) which provide necessary carbon for breaking everything down and preventing odors.

We human beings all create compostable materials simply because we don't often eat entire plants, and about 29% of Edmonton families use kitchen scraps and the other compostables mentioned above to create black gold for their gardens and lawns. Composting is pretty easy, and here in Edmonton, although most of our organic waste is eventually composted by the City's amazing Waste Management system, it saves a lot of greenhouse gases, energy and money if we do it ourselves. Plus, you'll never find anything better for topdressing your lawn or feeding your plants and soil!

2) I've always wanted to compost. Well, I have great news for you! All you need is an inexpensive compost bin (or you can make your own pile or pit with a bit of chicken wire if you have an out of the way spot for one) and a quick lesson on how to do it. I'll bet there are books in your local library with all sorts of information, or if you live here in Edmonton, you can attend excellent workshops offered by the John Janzen Centre's Compost'S Cool workshops to learn all about composting with some hands-on experience. You might also consider applying for next year's Master Composter/Recycler Program, which I highly recommend! (Applications are accepted year round.) There is also a lot of info on the City of Edmonton's webpage, which you can access by clicking here. Contrary to what you may have heard about composting, if the basic rules are followed, it does not create odors or attract varmints...

3) I have to wake up my compost?? I know, it seems like a weird idea, but if left alone for long periods (like over winter) compost piles become rather dormant and their processes slow to less than a crawl -- because the bacteria and microbes that work in a loose, damp and healthy pile run out of the air they need in order to function properly. Now that we're into Spring, it's time to get those processes revved up again.

I've actually been wanting to write this moodling for weeks already, because I woke up my compost on May 7th. That was the day that I revisited the compost bins that I filled last fall and over winter. I had so much garden waste to compost last October that I filled all three bins almost to the top with layers of green garden waste (chopped stalks, vines and plants), browns (autumn leaves and broken up soils from planter pots) and plenty of water. Over winter, I added my kitchen scraps and more leaves (I keep a few bags close by, as you can see in the first picture).


On May 7th, those three full bins had shrunk to only half full, so I "fluffed" them up by combining them into two full bins, one with the older, more finished materials, and one with the fresher stuff that didn't compost much in winter's cold. I was delighted to see that some of my vermicomposting pets, the red wiggler worms that I also keep in my indoor compost bins, had survived the winter -- that means my compost piles were still warm and working in the coldest months.

As I moved everything around, I added water because compost piles need good moisture in order to function well. Since then, I've used my compost stick (basically a long skinny stick with a bit of a blade at the bottom) to stir up the piles every two weeks or so, just to add some air.

If this sounds like too much work, it's also possible to compost without shovelling, stirring or watering -- basically, you just make a pile with layers of greens and browns and keep adding to it, allowing it all to rot without any interference. Unfortunately, it will take a lot more time and space, and it might attract unwanted critters. I frequently poke around in my compost bins because I want to produce the maximum amount of compost in a season. It's better than the bagged stuff money can buy, maybe because of those red wigglers.

If you have any questions about waking up your compost -- or even starting the composting process, feel free to leave comments and I'll be happy to share more details. As a Master Composter/Recycler volunteer for my city, I love to help people learn how to give back to our earth by feeding the fine layer of soil that supports us all.

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

51,000 TVs

Last night I visited the City's 2016 Master Composter/Recycler class -- a room full of marvellous people who have volunteered to learn about composting and recycling and to share what they learn with their neighbours to reduce waste in Edmonton. Walking Shadow-pup around our neighbourhoods, I am often appalled by the litter and dumping that I find in ravines and back alleys, so for me it's good to balance that frustration by spending time with other like-minded folks who care enough to keep our world clean.

It's also wonderful to have the opportunity to have a little update of my own training as an MCR, and to learn about how our city adapts its waste collection as neighbourhoods and seasons change. Right now, we're in a heavy time for waste collectors, some of whom load ten tonnes of garbage on their trucks in a day (twice!) with stops averaging between 28-36 seconds per home, believe it or not! Last night's class was all about what they do -- and a good reminder of how hard they work and how important it is to set garbage out so that it's safe for them to do their jobs. Here's a little reminder that I've shared before that's especially important in a heavy waste time of the year...

And here are five things to consider for the sake of your trash collector:

1. Ensure easy access to your garbage area. If in an alleyway, keep the path between truck and cans clear. If on a street, put trash on the curb and try to keep vehicles parked away from collection points so the guys and gals don't have to walk extra steps. (They get enough exercise jumping on and off their trucks thousands of times a day!)

2. Make sure your cans have fixed handles and no wheels, both of which can cause injuries to collectors.

3. Keeping bags under 40 lbs (20 kg) also saves backs. And no cans larger than 77 litres...

4. Sharp things should be packaged in a way that they can't cut collectors. Put broken glass and other sharp items into labelled, puncture-proof boxes or containers.

5. Grasscycle and compost if you can. Our collectors really don't mind picking up FEWER grass clippings and leaves.

And what about the 51, 000 TVs that Edmontonians throw away every year (yes, you read that right -- 51,000!)? They need to be taken to an Ecostation -- as does any other other electronic item. Sean, our speaker last night, showed a few interesting pictures where people left large flat screen TVs sitting in the alley (along with various and sundry large furniture items) for their lone collector to pick up. Of course, that's an impossibility! It only brings a visit from City staff to let the owner know that a single garbage collector can't load a home's contents onto his truck, and that really, it's the owner's responsibility to take large items to the dump or Ecostation. The Ambleside and Kennedale Stations in Edmonton have Reuse Areas for furniture that's in good condition and shouldn't really go to the landfill. So I'm guessing that maybe some of those 51,000 TVs could be saved!

As I shared with the new Master Composter Recycler class last night, waste is actually a Social Justice Issue. With 7.4 billion of us on the planet, we all need to think more deeply about the impacts of our resource use. As consumers and human beings, every choice we make matters -- not only to the fullness of our landfills, but to our human and non-human brothers and sisters in this web of life that we share.

When we use resources poorly, the people who work to make the things we use are not being properly honoured. When we throw things away before their time, we are needlessly adding to the pile of trash that our planet has to try to reabsorb. And when we ignore the impact that our lives and our waste have on species around the globe, we are damaging our relationship with our earth and everyone in it. We are being unjust and unfair. It's that simple.

So when it comes to our trash, mindfulness is key. I suspect that if we all had to live with all our garbage around us on a daily basis, we would be pretty careful about what we buy in the first place! And we'd find more ways to employ the seven Rs (originally shared by MCR Gerda, translated from the Portuguese)...

For the sake of our planet, how many R's can we make a part of what we do today?

The palest shades of green

The early leaf time of year is my favourite. Trees do the most amazing Spring things, putting out foliage of intricate shapes and ethereal shades of green. In some pictures from my walk with Shadow this morning, you almost have to strain your eyes to see the palest shades...

* * * * * * *

On another note, tonight sees the graduation of the 2015 crop of wonderful Master Composter Recyclers! The MCR clan is amazing, made up of people who are all about reducing waste, turning organic material into compost, and trying to recycle everything else. The clan gets bigger all the time, with 34 joining the ranks just this year. I got to meet and congratulate them on Tuesday night after they wrote their exam, and to hear some of their plans to share their knowledge with Edmontonians. It was, as usual, a very inspiring evening, and I wish them all the best when it comes to reducing, reusing, recycling, and helping others to do the same. 

Go, MCRs, Go!