Copenhagen becomes Hopenhagen

Is there still hope for a positive outcome in Copenhagen in December? Stephen Harper has steadily eroded the possibility that Canada will be a leader in the race to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. With the blessings of this same Stephen Harber, big oil companies continue to devastate the land, water and air for thousands of miles around the tar sands. Many of my acquaintances still believe they have a God-given right to buy as much stuff and use as much energy as their bank accounts and credit cards allow. These are all very depressing facts.

But there is hope. Small groups are meeting in coffee shops, libraries, living rooms, and city parks to discuss climate change and to design meaningful long lasting actions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in their own lives while inspiring others to do the same. As an example, citizens in St. Thomas, Ontario are holding an event at City Hall at 12 noon on the 12th day of the 12th month to raise awareness about climate change and to offer hope. This event is part of a worldwide action to come together as a Time to Sign - the most important signing event for the future of the world.

Feed the Land - Starve the Landfill

This Thanksgiving weekend when you gather with family and friends it is important to remember the harvest and where it comes from. If everyone composted their food scraps, refused to use one-time-use disposables, and recycled to the maximum they would truly be feeding the land and not the landfill.

I first came across this slogan as part of the Ottawa Green Bin program and have adopted it as my own for the benefit of the earth. (Is this copyright infringement - or is it part of the Commons to be used by anyone? I guess we'll find out.)

With our Tofurkey and sweet acorn squash ready for cooking, the leaves falling in a blaze of colours, and the pumpkin pie about to be assembled, we truly feel blessed and give Thanks for family and friends and such a bountiful and safe country to live in. Now that Barack Obama has received the Noble Peace Prize perhaps others will experience the peace and prosperity that we so often take for granted.

Happy Thanksgiving

International Plastic Bag Free Day - September 12, 2009

Waste Free World supports International Plastic Bag Free Day on September 12, 2009.

All individuals are asked to go plastic bag free a day to raise awareness about the problems created by using plastic bags.

Marine life, birds and wildlife are all affected by plastic bags.

London, ON citizens and officials have been supportive of eliminating plastic bags since 2007 and much progress has been made. By joining a worldwide day of action you will be making this a truly international campaign and acknowledging that this problem needs all of us to be part of the solution. Take a reusable bay yourself and then tell others about the day of action and ask them to do the same.

Contact your local officials to let them know you support a plastic bag free municipality.

For more information on the day see the following:
www.banchoryagainstplastic.wordpress.com

Half Way through a Waste Free Year - Our birthday gift to Canada

In my first post I stated we were taking on the challenge of living a waste free life. So how have we done so far.

Here it is 6 months in and we have yet to put out a bag of garbage that would go to landfill. This has been achieved by changing our purchasing habits. By eliminating non-recyclable packaging we have eliminated most of our waste. This has meant that we do without certain products such as potato chips, certain types of chocolate bars, and baked goods that may be covered with thin film plastic wrap (I must admit these are all my weaknesses)

We purchased two rainbarrels and all of our laundry and garden watering now uses rainwater. I have even begun to use it for washing my hair - better than any conditioner. Another purchase was an outdoor clothesline and this has eliminated the use of our electric dryer for the past two months. Instead of using an electric lawn mower my husband now cuts the lawn with a manual pushmower. Each step on its own doesn't make a tremendous difference but add them all together and the changes become significant.

I have continued to collect Corelle chip resistant coffee mugs from thrift stores in order to have them available for any gathering that will be serving hot or cold drinks. This eliminates all of the disposable beverage containers that end up in the garbage. A local public school requested to borrow these cups for their multicultural community dinner. It is gratifying to know that others are taking up the challenge of holding waste free events.

Canada is a beautiful vast country and we take for granted that we have lots of space to place our waste. Just because we have the space does not make it the right thing to do. To keep this the best country in the world in which to live and raise a family we need to ensure we don't turn it into a wasteland. I promise to do my part - will you?

Happy Birthday Canada!!

Fake Plastic Fish - the New Reality

Listening to my favourite radio station - the CBC - I heard the story of three young surfers who left Vancouver to embark on their dream journey around the world. What they found was plastic migration knows no boundaries. Plastic is choking the planet.


Read their story at http://www.oceangybe.com/ make the pledge to give up your plastic purchases with the ultimate purpose to wean yourself and your family off of plastic forever. Start with never using a disposable plastic bag. It is anything but disposable. The survival of the oceans depends on our choices.


Plastic as it breaks down becomes smaller pieces of plastic, eventually being consumed by marine life and ending up in the food chain. Those fake plastic fish may be real plastic fish in the near future.

Yesterday was World Oceans Day. Awareness will bring about change so we suggest you educate yourself about the oceans and why they need your help. You will find many interesting and informative topics at this website http://www.theoceanproject.org/

Disposable Medical Supplies - What a Waste

Today I had the good fortune to speak with medical students about the Greening of Health Care. They are inspired to learn more about environmental health by a wonderful activist Dr. John Howard. Dr. Howard is the Chair of C.A.P.E - Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. He was instrumental in getting a Pesticide ban in London and then in Ontario. C.A.P.E is now pursuing a ban throughout Canada.

The enthusiastic medical students understand that there will be a lot of work to do if they are to change a system that currently relies so heavily on disposables. They also know that as doctors they are to "do no harm" and that includes doing no harm to the environment that sustains us. It provides hope to a troubled world to know that these young professionals are willing to dedicate time to a subject that has been neglected by the health care industry for so long.

According to the students Canadian hospitals consume 2.5x more energy than European hospitals. It is time to rethink the health care system and morph it into a disease prevention system. If 10% of the 1.9 million health care employees in Canada or 190,000 people were to take up the challenge, waste and toxics would be drastically reduced in very short order. This will be good for the people and good for the planet. These students aren't waiting until they graduate they are taking action now.

One simple thing you can do to show your support for their actions and the health of the planet, is to buy local, organic, seasonal product free from packaging thereby eliminating emissions and pesticides while supporting the local economy. And don't forget to serve it on reusable dishes.

As Canadians we are the WaterKeepers

WaterKeepers is a monicker I heard recently when I attended a lecture by CBC Quirks and Quarks host Bob McDonald. He spoke about our "Goldilocks Planet" meaning of course that it is just right for human survival - at least it has been until now and will be again if we stop the destruction created by us humans.

As Bob says, the earth has been referred to as The Blue Planet ever since the famous NASA photo taken from space was released to the public. It is covered in 80% water but 90% of that water is salty and not available for humans. Of the 10% remaining 90% is trapped in the ice caps. This leaves precious little fresh water available to a rapidly expanding, thirsty population. And 1/4 of the available fresh water in the world is in Canada. Hence we are naturally the WaterKeepers. Other nations will eventually create a rush on this Blue Gold and many believe wars will be fought over rights to fresh water just as wars have been fought over oil.

As a nation of peacekeepers this will be a traumatic and difficult time for Canadians. Will you fight for water to be a basic human right? Will you fight against those who pollute this precious resource? Will you fight to conserve water in your home, your community, your country? These questions are not about the future these questions are for the here and now. We need to do these things to ensure that future generations have clean, safe, drinking water. As WaterKeepers we can all help to ensure that that will be possible.

What is sprouting from the Seeds of Change?

On March 28, 2009 I attended the Climate Change Innovation Symposium at the beautiful Aeolian Hall, London Ontario. All attendees were treated to an array of wonderful speakers in the morning, including Dr. Gordon McBean, Noble Prize recipient as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. What we heard from many of the presenters was there is still time to turn this crisis around. There is HOPE. The use of technology to connect through Skype to Montreal and Peter Brown, author of Right Relationship, Building a Whole Earth Economy, provided an added dimension to the symposium - although at times it was a challenge to stay connected.

Several of the workshops in the afternoon were presented by local organizations working in various disciplines towards a better world. These included Community Gardens, the Food Co-op, the Electric Vehicle, the Council of Canadians, Water Protection Committee, and many others.

Waste Free World provided a workshop on "Eliminating Waste: Are there sustainable solutions?" The response was that indeed there are and it mostly comes down to individual choices on purchasing practices and group/company choices on the types of products they make and sell. If we don't eliminate waste - the earth will require life support.

The response to this symposium was very positive and generated a great deal of discussion that will spill out into the community in unknown ways. Attendees were served a vegetarian meal on reusable dishes making this a Waste Free Event. More and more we are seeing the impact our small organization is having on the behaviours of individuals and groups when it comes to looking at ways they can reduce their wasteline.

This was a family event with activities for the children including building a birdhouse and a solar oven. Many seeds of change were planted at this event and as we move into the month of April and Earth Week it is most likely there will be many actions sprouting up around the city as testimony to the positive outcomes of the symposium.

The only regrettable note was that not one member of the media choose to attend this highly energized, educational session on the most crucial issue of this decade.

Meeting true Waste Busters - Advancing their Message

It's been three weeks since my last post. I assure you they were productively spent on various waste free activities. A few of those activities brought me in contact with some very inspiring women. First, I met Adria Vasil, author of Ecoholic, the Canadian book that inspired me to immerse myself in becoming a vegetarian nearly two years ago. This one simple act, Vasil wrote, is the greatest impact an individual can have on global warming. In addition to that piece of advice Adria's book has many other useful practical ideas on being green. It is also filled with information on how you can protect not only the health of the planet but also the health of yourself and your family. Her newest book is being prepared for release in September 2009. I can hardly wait to see what new innovative, impactful, green choices she will suggest for us as individuals.

The second person I met this past month is Dr. Laila Ishkandar, from Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Ishkandar has successfully assisted ten's of thousands of people in their quest to make a living. She teaches them how to capture the waste that others toss away and use that same waste as a raw material for another product to then sell to make a living. Western society says Dr. Ishkandar makes a business of garbage to landfill with no respect for the environment, tossing useful materials away with no concept of their value in terms of wasted resources and energy. They need to view that same garbage as a useful resource to be used as raw material for another product. In her words, those who respect the materials save the environment. Her business model of salvaging materials to be used again has brought hope and life skills to the downtrodden in her city.

The time has come for each of us to rethink what we purchase and casually throw away. Resources, both physical and human went into the production and distribution of whatever product and packaging we purchase. We paid for them just to toss them away. You might ask, "What person in their right mind pays for something just to toss it away?" Well, we all do it everyday, if we haven't yet changed our habits. We do it when we use a disposable coffee cup, a one time use plastic bag, a single use plastic water bottle. The container is being paid for only to be tossed the minute it is empty. This is what producers have convinced us to expect from the products we purchase....convenience and throw away. In addition, other products are made to go obsolete – your car, your shoes, your cell phone, your computer, the colour of your clothes and linens. That's how the economic system continues to survive ....you continue to buy.....shop, shop, shop and discard yesterdays model. But this is how the economic system also fails.....you decide to stop updating what you already own....you decide to reuse or repurpose an item...you decide not to waste.....and the house of cards comes tumbling down. But the earth needs you to do exactly that - to stop - to rethink your throw away practices - otherwise you, along with the rest of the world will end up killing the golden goose (our planet) that provides us with fresh air, fresh water and clean soil for our survival. And it provides all of this for FREE if the cycle is not interrupted. In light of this, one can only ask, which is worse a failed economic system or an unlivable planet?

'We will roll back the spectre of a warming planet" - Barack Obama

The orator has spoken and it is clear Barack Obama wishes to protect and heal the environment. He understands that deliberate actions are required to not only stop but more importantly to roll back the warming of our home, Planet Earth.

How different to the stand taken by the previous regime that believed continued and unlimited growth and development, and wasteful energy consumption was to be encouraged regardless of how much it poisoned the air, water and soil of this earth. This is the same air, water and soil that sustains all life.

Today, we continue our waste free living journey and commit to strengthening our personal and collective resolve to build a world where one day everyone will see waste as unnecessary and indeed harmful to a sustainable future.

For now that American leadership is willing to seek solutions to envrionmental problems, there is hope of turning down the heat and eliminating toxins from the world.

Thank-you Barack.

First Day of our Future Unfolds

Today is not about waste. Quite the opposite. It is about: Hopes. Dreams. A future filled with possibilities. So much rests on this young man. So many expect him to save America and the world. The sun is brilliantly shining and the air refreshingly crisp at -4C. A day of history like no other we have seen. Leadership naturally rising to the surface during troubled times.

According to some researchers, yesterday, January 19th, was declared the most depressing day of this year. If that is the case then today surely will be declared the most hopeful and happy day of this year.

Barack Obama has given overtures of environmental stewardship. Will the inaugural speech provide the spark to turn all of America into one giant environmental movement? We are hopefull as we watch the future unfold.

May it all begin with a new era of Peace. For it is Peace that will bring solutions to our environmental problems.

Drinking in the "Unbottle It" tour

The "Unbottle It" tour, affectionately known as "Here Comes Maude" was welcomed in London on January 13th by a crowd stuffed into Aeolian Hall. Don't take this the wrong way the Aeolian is big and beautiful, it's just that the crowd was also big and beautiful. And they got what they came for....inspiration from a passionate water warrior. Maude Barlow, President of Council of Canadians and recently appointed to the UN as Senior Advisor on Water spoke to the packed house consisting of high school students to retirees.

Two issues were dealt with: water and plastic. Water needs to be protected and made a basic human right and not sold to the highest bidder. Without water nothing survives. Plastic needs to be discontinued since nothing can use it as a source of food and it stays in our environment forever contributing to the destruction of a healthy planet.

So what does this have to do with our journey to being waste free in 2009? Everything. Every journey one embarks on requires inspiration to keep going. That is what Maude provided, the inspiration to keep going. In addition, there was inspiration from the management and staff at the Aeolian. This was a waste free event. Hot drinks and condiments were fair trade and were served in reusable mugs. Clark Bryan, the owner, also announced to the audience that even though it meant a reduction in revenue that they had made a conscious decision to not sell bottled water. Thank you Clark and staff.

We do see a small wave of change occurring throughout our city and with each step we can actually see a healthier more vibrant city beginning to emerge. Taking bold steps is never easy but doing nothing is not an option.

Slashing the Plastic Trash

Following up on my previous post, it is gratifying to see that Loblaws in Canada has just announced their intent to charge 5c for each plastic bag. This practice will begin on April 22 - Earth Day. Certainly, this is a step in the right direction to slash the plastic trash. This was the first item of waste we chose to tackle in our own lives and after many months of deliberately trying, I think we have finally won the battle of eliminating them from our home. More on the scourge of plastic bags can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/battleofthebag/

Once you view this documentary you will voluntarily want to give up your consumption of plastic bags.

Other plastic offenders are even more disturbing than the ubiquitous bag and that is plastic water bottles. Why on earth do we need to carry a bottle of water with us everywhere? What in the advertising world convinced us that we had to have access to this pacifier every waking hour?

Whereas plastic bags are just used to transport your food and beverages for short trips from the store to your home, plastic bottles of water sit on shelves for days, weeks, even months containing precious water that is essential for all life. The potential for leachates from from the plastic migrating into the water and then into your body is greater than one might originally consider.

Just imagine, not long ago, bottles with Bisphenol A were used routinely by literally everyone who carried their own refillable bottle. And now low and behold these bottles are considered toxic. Companies have pulled them from the store shelves. This just demonstates that we do not know enough about what plastic does to life to trust that there will be no effect on our children, on ourselves, on other species or on the environment in general.

There is a perfectly healthy and safe alternative to prepackaged water in plastic bottles and that is water from your tap. The tap provides a safe, clean, healthy and cheap source of drinking water. It leaves no waste to be recycled or litter to be picked up. It will eliminate the oil used to manufacture, fill and distribute bottled water.

Your use of bottled water contributes to climate change in the unnecessary burning of fossil fuels. Your use of bottled water contributes to the inequality of the rich and poor by allowing big business to have control of the water in many countries, making it difficult for those in poverty to obtain good, clean, safe, drinking water.
Your use of bottled water contributes to the cost of waste management in our various municipalities which in turn increases your taxes to support that infrastructure.

It always amazes me that we will believe producers who spend millions of dollars on glitzy ads to get us to buy such things as bottled water but we ignore the more than 200 respected scientists worldwide who contributed to the International Panel on Climate Change study. They are telling us that climate change is greatly impacted by human activity especially the burning of fossil fuels. They are telling us we are running out of time. They are asking us to take immediate action to turn the heat of the planet down. Is anyone listening?

Slashing the plastic trash is not as easy as it seems but eliminating plastic bags and plastic water bottles goes a long way to changing habits.

A Sea of Waste

The Economist has just published a special report on the sea which can be read on their site at www.economist.com. The site also contains a special interview with the reporter who created the story. It's worth a listen.

To see another film about the effects of humans on the sea check out www.messageinthewaves.com. This is the film that inspired me to start my own waste free journey.

Out in the middle of the Pacific is a great mass of waste, mostly plastic, that has been collecting for 20 years or so. It is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It was discovered by Captain Charles Moore.

This waste washes into the sea from the land or is dumped from cargo and cruise ships. It is the debris of civilization that blocks the sunlight from the oceans, looks like food to some marine animals and forms a floating raft to carry lifeforms from one area to another on the currents. Often with devasting results.

This waste through the action of the oceanic waves ends up on the shores of once pristine beaches of the archipelago of Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific.

The film spurred us to action. One of our primary challenges is to attempt to eliminate plastic in all of its forms. It is not a product of nature. It is not a source of food for any creature. Other than as a product of convenience for humans it has no value. When recycled, no matter how many times, it will eventually end up in landfills. If and when it breaks down it will still be small particles of toxic plastic dust.

In our daily lives we are surrounded by plastic. We have managed so far to eliminate plastic bags, plastic water bottles, and for the most part plastic wrapped foods - this later can be a challenge if you shop at the grocery store rather than the local farmer's market. Once we began to look for plastic in our lives we saw it everywhere. For instance, it exists as the packaging for most items in our bathroom such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste. This will be a greater challenge than ridding our lives of wasteful plastic bags.

But we must try. Doing nothing is not an option.

Books - Keep or Give Away?

Wednesday I was thrilled to be able to give over 100 used books to a charity book sale. These weren't all my books. About 75 of them were left over from our Christmas bazaar and I was storing them in our garage. Then I read a letter in the paper asking for books for a book sale to support a choir. That did it. I knew I could get rid of a lot of clutter in my garage and help someone else at the same time. Keeps them out of the recycling bin and the waste bin for several more years.

I am an avid reader and have purchased many books in the past, which I sadly admit still sit, like many loyal soldiers, on book shelves in various rooms. In light of going waste free, several questions about this practice need to be addressed. Should I be giving those books away? Martialling them out the door to a new adventure. Should I stop buying them in the first place? Putting starving authors out of work. Should I wait until the book is at the library? And then get on a waiting list behind 100 other avid readers. The ideal might be to purchase them online, download them on my computer and read them waste free. Can't wait for that day to come.

In the meantime, there is the question about recycling the existing books that may be damaged. They are not always easy to recycle. When I was a kid we used to burn any damaged books in the kitchen cookstove - once they had served the purpose of being fuel for the mind they were then used as fuel to heat the home. This only occurred if they had been badly water or kid damaged. Some of those books from my childhood survived kids and water and are still on my bookshelf. They won't be recycled for many more years.

The simple act of giving the bags of books away to the choir booksale has given me the stimulus reguired to ruthlessly sort through another bookshelf. More great stories will be boxed up and sent on their way to another appreciative reading enthusiast. Can't begin to live waste free without eliminating the waste that already exists - this may be more difficult than eliminating wasteful purchases.

Is Chocolate a Waste?

Today is only the second time inside a non-grocery store in 2009. Wow! They had all of the Christmas chocolate on sale. I crave chocolate. My motto has always been "chocolate is good for you, it is one of the food groups". How could chocolate ever be a waste? Well it isn't about the chocolate it is about the packaging. I checked everything out and the best I could find was a small snowman wrapped in recyclable foil. So that is what I purchased. I had to leave the 75 % off Truffles double wrapped in cello and cardboard and then wrapped again inside the box, in foil. I had to leave the 50% off 5 lb box of Assorted Chocolates that I would have enjoyed sharing with everyone at the next meeting. I was almost tempted to resort to the 1 Kilogram container of Jelly Beans at 75% off - I might have even shared those too. They were in a large, decorative, reusable, plastic container. Several good reasons to resist that one. For starters, it wasn't chocolate, I don't need any more containers and the container was plastic! I had no idea I could be this resistant to sweets particularly chocolate at such a good price.....

Choices aren't just about me, they have to be about the future of the environment. Just because I want something and I can afford it, doesn't mean that purchasing it is the right thing to do.

The day isn't over but I think it has been close to a perfect 7 for being waste free.

Pondering Waste while Sipping Organic Tea

Last evening we saw the film FLOW - For Love of Water. This is a very descriptive documentary about the harm being done to entire villages and ecosystems because of the thirst big business has for control of water in order to satisfy shareholder need for profits. Water is a basic human right and therefore not a commondity to be owned by big business. Not one living thing can survive without water. It has become the new oil and some have labelled it Blue Gold because they now see the mega profits that are being made from exploiting this natural resource. If the film comes to a theatre near you it is worth the effort to go see it.

I was doing well with being waste free all day until I got to that movie theatre. I had taken my reusable travel mug, it was a cold night, and I ordered an organic tea. It wasn't until I had ripped open the outer wrap from the tea bag that I realized it was neither compostable nor recylable packaging. At first I thought "oh well what can I do, this is the way tea is sold at the theatre." But that simple act of carrying on with that cup of tea bothered me all evening. I know I will be more diligent next time and not forget to ask about all aspects of the product I am about to purchase before I order and open it. As the customer, it is up to me to say NO to anything that will end up in the waste bin. This was just a small item in the big scheme of things, but it is a small item multiplied by millions of tea drinkers all over the country every day and that adds up eventually to tons of waste. Putting thought into the importance of one small tea bag wrapper can lead to potentially significant learnings and a huge environmental impact overall. I wonder if they composted the spent tea bag. If not then that too was part of the waste on day five.

New Year's Resolve

2009 has begun with a resolve to live waste free. After announcing this to the world I now need to make it happen. Here we are at day 5 and the meaning of that resolution is hitting me with full force. The first five days have been relatively successful with only the purchase of food and a 3 kilometre car trip thus far. But as I look at my calendar for the remainder of the week my resolve seems about to hit some significant challenges. There are meetings to attend, birthdays to acknowledge, and lunch to have with friends. Could this mean I am already beginning to falter? No. It just means I have to look for ways to take in everything and at the same time do it in a waste free manner. Living waste free will happen one day at a time and when one day I falter then tomorrow the process will begin over again. No matter what happens I am determined that in 2009 there will be significantly less waste generated by my activities here on earth than were generated in the same 365 days of 2008.

Why waste free living? Isn't it quite obvious? The compulsive, consumptive society we have become is no longer sustainable if our children and grandchildren are to have any chance at living with clean water, clean air and clean soil. We cannot wait for governments to take action to protect the environment. We as individuals are responsible for the creation of our surroundings and must take ownership of our lifestyle and pollution causing activities. Won't you join me on this quest? If you decide to please let me know what actions you are taking to live lightly on the planet in 2009.