90 Ways to 90%

http://www.90waysto90.com

The City of Edmonton has this really cool thing going on. Besides already having an amazing rate of 60% waste diversion from residential sources through recycling and composting at its state-of-the-art Waste Management facilities, it's started a new program to encourage all Edmontonians to get our residential waste diversion up to 90% through simple, personal initiatives.

It's called 90 Ways to 90% Less Waste, and there's a website with 90 possibilities that individuals can adopt in their daily lives -- sort of like some of my more environmentally aware 200+ Simple Suggestions, but even cooler, because of the snazzy website, AND there's a contest! People are invited to choose from the 90 Ways and send 30 second videos illustrating how they've incorporated those ways to reduce waste into their lives. And there are great ideas among them -- like grasscycling (11 ways), composting (14 ways), using ecostations (12 ways), reducing consumption (13 ways), reusing (24 ways), and recycling (16 ways). I'm not much of a videographer, but I couldn't resist making a little reuse video and sending it in. #9, in case you're curious.

So if you're interested in some Simple Suggestions for reducing waste where you live, take a peek at 90waysto90.com by clicking here. It's got great interactive possibilities if you're creative, and even if you're not, the 90 ways are worth reading -- and adopting. Waste is a justice issue on our planet, whether we realize it or not. Carelessly using things up, tossing them and making a mess of creation isn't good for our earth, ourselves, or the interconnected web of life within which we live. But if each of the seven billion folks on this planet tries to reduce our waste of resources as much as possible, hopefully, the ecosystem's health will improve.

I'm with Margaret Mead when she says: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Let's all be thoughtful and committed when it comes to reducing our waste. 100% less waste would be even better, but I'd take 90% quite happily! So, after reading the City's Ways, I have some work to do...

Simple Suggestion #143 -- Revisited -- Give a thought to your garbage guys and gals

Today is garbage day in my neighbourhood. On our somewhat snowy morning walk, Shadow-puppy was rather excited by the collectors making the rounds with their trucks, though what he'd ever do with a truck once he caught it is beyond me! Anyway, that's what brought about this moodling...

It's that time of year when people start to clean up their yards, and our waste collectors find themselves inundated with bags and bags and bags of leaves, grass clippings, bundles of pruned branches... and much heavier and more dangerous items. May and June see the biggest spike in residential waste, and would you believe that our garbage gals and guys pick up and toss garbage weighing the equivalent of 17 to 27 smart cars into their trucks in one day? Imagine that for a minute, and then imagine what your body feels like after hoisting that many cars, one piece at a time, in a week. Then tell me that you agree with the ads I'm posting below. They're images shot from truck mounted cameras that give a small peek into what our garbage guys and gals face every day.

Today's suggestion (in three parts), taken seriously, will make our collectors' days much better: make your garbage easily accessible, keep those bags light, and safely package and label your sharp items.

Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Simple Suggestion #167... Visit/tour your local waste and/or recycling facility

Did you know that this is Environment Week? It's a time to think about ways to live more lightly in our environment and reduce our ecological footprint... in particular, the things our lives leave behind, a.k.a. waste.

Recently, my hubby and daughter ran into a garbage parade in St. Petersburg. They probably would have missed it but for the drummers who created a soundscape that Lee and Christina followed, only to find a group of people dressed up in all sorts of garbage-y looking costumes (a plastic bag-wearing lady on stilts, some men dressed in piles of newspapers or recycled bottles, and a host of others) pushing a great ball of glued-together trash down the park path.

The green squad, as Lee called them, seemed to be doing their best to get their community to think about waste. I remember reading somewhere that Moscow's landfills were supposed to be full by now, so it would have been interesting to find out about the waste situation in the Russian Federation. Of course, Christina and Lee were too surprised by the whole thing to think to ask questions. They took it all in, and took a few pictures just for me, because they knew I'd find it interesting.

Here in Edmonton, we have our own green squad of sorts -- a group of volunteers known as Master Composter/Recyclers who do their best to reduce waste and to educate others to do the same. As one of that crowd, I'm always rubbing shoulders with other MC/Rs who have done some pretty amazing things in order to cut down what goes into their garbage cans each week. They go beyond the usual composting and recycling in order to have less waste before they even start an ordinary day. As far as I know, the group hasn't tried a garbage parade yet (though the City's Michael Recycle mascot makes appearances at different events). Hey, a garbage parade could be fun, and get folks thinking...

But there's nothing to get us thinking about reducing waste like people who know how to do it... or like a tour of our local landfill and waste management service. Just seeing the amount of stuff that gets "dumped" in a short period of time makes a person think about how terrible it is to have to throw away anything at all. If we want a healthier environment, reducing waste is key... and if we want to reduce waste, buying less is critically important -- less packaging, fewer chemically compounded items, and nothing that we don't NEED.

The City of Edmonton actually gives tours of its recycling facilities and transfer station, especially this Environment Week. And there are lots of other Environment Week activities going on, that you can read about by clicking here.

So, this week's simple suggestion is to educate yourself about where your garbage goes and how you can reduce it by visiting local waste and recycling facilities. Our environment will thank you.

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

#9 of 100 Simple Suggestions... Learn about and participate in recycling programs

Have you given any thought to what happens to your garbage? How does your community Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover? Or do you just Refuse to buy anything that is over-packaged and unlikely to be Recyclable? What do you know about Recycling programs in your area?

There are a lot of ways we can Reduce the garbage that goes to the landfill or other places we don't want to think about, but the primary one is to Reduce our consumption in the first place. It's also good to figure out ways we can Reuse things in our own lives. A friend of mine talks about how her mother never threw away a plastic bag in her life without Reusing it at least once. There's a lot of wisdom there. Composting is another method that returns a lot of good plant nutrients to a form that our gardens and flower beds can Reuse. Grasscycling (leaving grass clippings on the lawn instead of bagging them) gives our lawns extra nutrients and helps them Retain moisture, and saves our garbage trucks a lot of gas! Bottle depots and other Recycling facilities actually pay for the return of Recyclable items, and the list goes on...

Here in Edmonton, we have world-class Recycling facilities, built because our city realized twenty years ago that we were running out of landfill space. The Waste Management Centre is an amazing place, with lots of different building to handle different kinds of waste. My favourite is the MRF, or Materials Recycling Facility, where conveyor belts move items from our blue bag program past workers who sort them for sale to markets that need different kinds of plastic, box board, paper, etc. Edmonton has gained a reputation as a world leader in Recycling expertise, so dealing with waste is easier here than in most places.

I often wonder what I would be doing with some of the things I put in my blue bag if we had no blue bag program, and end up thinking about Mary Lou. She's a wonderful woman who taught my girls in playschool, and she was the Queen of Recycling crafts. She was always collecting all sorts of items that most people would think of as trash to make useful Christmas, Mother's and Father's day gifts. We still use the soap bottle napkin holder Christina proudly brought home when she was five.

Even if you don't have a Mary Lou or a blue bag program where you are, there are always places that need some of the things we tend to toss out. Charities like SSVP will take furniture and housewares. Sometimes it's just a matter of asking around about who needs those plastic yogurt containers or bags. Other creative answers might just be staring us in the face. One's thing's sure -- every item we manage to Recycle and Reuse is one less thing on the top of the junk heap.

Here's a fun tour of Edmonton's Waste Management Programs with Rick Mercer, a Canadian TV show host who makes us laugh. He's the slowest MRF worker I've seen yet.

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