Et Cetera
Ways to reduce garbage during the garbage strike

by
Craig Takeuchi
on
July 23, 2007
at
1:11 AM

+4 comments

My grandmother on my mother's side grew up during the Depression and also lived in the internment camps here in B.C. She grew up lacking any sense of possessing material items because she had experienced how easily they could be taken away from her. Like other people who lived through difficult times such as the Depression or wars, she learnt to save and reuse things as much as possible.

She was a pack rat. Nothing would be thrown out. She'd always find a second life for things, long before the advent of Second Life. She saved containers, styrofoam trays (that meat from the butcher came on), boxes, bags, and papers, wrapping paper, and always had rubber bands and safety pins in her pocket or on her sleeve. Her basement was filled with newspapers that went back decades (it was an informal archives in there), not to mention an assortment of furniture and bits 'n' bobs that she picked up along the way.

Well, she was a little extreme.

Yet many stories I've heard from fellow Japanese Canadian friends say their grandmothers were the same.

Nonetheless, they saved money and saved the environment.

With the garbage strike on, Vancouverites will have to face the garbage that they constantly create day after day. It's so easy not to think about it because it gets taken away by the trucks, out of sight and out of mind. It's a problem in our modern world that we are often disconnected from the effects of our actions.

However, by reducing the amount of garbage you create, there are a number of other spin-off benefits that go hand-in-hand with such efforts including saving money, becoming more healthy, and saving the environment.

One of the biggest challenges most people face is giving up conveniences. Convenient things may make our lives easier in some ways, but they also create more trash, sometimes aren't as healthy, and often cost more.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Cook fresh food, rather than packaged food. Not only is it cheaper, but it's healthier as you can control what ingredients you put in it. Canned and packaged foods often have a lot of preservatives and chemicals in them that you may not be aware of. If time is at a premium, there's always the tried-and-trued way of cooking a large amount and freezing it, or cooking something large (such as a chicken) and using in several different meals throughout the week.

2. Snacks often have a lot of packaging. Next time you open a snack, see how many layers of packaging it has. If you have the munchies, try forcing yourself to snack on an apple or a carrot. See how it goes. A lot of snacking is based on nervous energy, boredom, or emotional needs. Why not channel that energy into eating something healthier, cheaper, and less wasteful (or something you can compost)?

3. Take a reusable mug or bag when purchasing drinks or groceries.

4. Think about things before you toss them into the garbage. Is it really worth throwing away? Can it be used by someone else? Can it be used for something else? Can it be recycled?

5. Buy from bulk bins, or bulk quantities in larger containers rather than multiple smaller ones. Or buy a large container and fill smaller reusable plastic containers for things like juice instead of buying those little lunch-sized tetrapaks. You'll save money too.

Have some suggestions to add? Send them in!

On July 23, 2007, Jon Cranny made the following comment:

1. Starting a compost which you can do in your apartment as well as outside. http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html

2.If you are going to eat packaged food anyways, rinse out the used container thoroughly and double bag your garbage. This will allow you to keep it indoors for a little bit longer to keep the dumpsters a little less full and smelly.

On July 23, 2007, Angela Murrills made the following comment:

1) Take a carry bag everywhere and refuse plastic bags.

2) Compost vegetable trimmings if you can.

3) Hold off buying big electronics etc which come with waaaay too much packaging.

4) Don't use plastic wrap to cover leftovers. Use lidded containers or upend a bowl over a plate.

5) Recycle every bottle and container that you can back to the store.

On July 23, 2007, Judith Lane made the following comment:

Kids locked out of community centre programs? Get 'em on garbage patrol. Parents can pay the kids what ever the program fees were. I'm sure businesses with private dumpster would cheerfully accept the kids' gleanings.

Shop like the Germans...leave all over-packaging--styrofoam, wrappings, etc. at the store. Their supermarkets are geared to accept this. I generally do it with all my shopping including clothing stores...who needs all those fancy carry bags and plastic bags? They don't mind because some easily cost a dollar or two to produce. If more people did it, packaging might change. All stores should charge for bags, not just grocery and produce stores.

Starbucks and probably others charge you less for using your own cup. I'd like a discount for black coffee or tea too.

Reuse those plastic produce bags for your subsequent purchases at the produce store or don't use them at all.

Use tap-water filled aluminum bottles instead of plastic water bottles.

Lee Valley sells attractive lidded stainless steel buckets—pretty enough to leave on the counter for recycling organic waste (vegetable, fruit, coffee grounds, eggshells, etc.). They also double as a wine chiller or ice bucket.

Stop using dryer sheets and 'Swiffer' cleaning stuff. Youre coating your environment and clothes with layers of chemical residue. mmmm...so nice to have next to your skin.

Reuse birthday/Christmas cards. It's fun and funny when you send them back to the same person or on to someone else. I have one card that's back to me after 'visiting' seven others.

Regift. Carefully.

On July 24, 2007, Matt Burrows made the following comment:

Germans have a good word for it: "Pfand" (Deposit)

And please note it's not just a deposit in the North American sense of money for end-of-life pop cans. Pfand gets Germans to bring back glass mineral water and pop bottles again and again and again, where they are reused and reintroduced into the production process. Plastic is not the done thing in the drinks realm in Germany. Or at least that's what was happening in the '90s, when I worked at Adelholzener water factory in the Bavarian Alps as a line "Flascheninspektor" (bottle inspector) in 91, 92 and 94, to pay for my university degree. http://www.adelholzener.de/fileadmin/frames/index.html That was basic recycling 101, and I got to hear about it as I hailed from England, one of the worst countries in this regard. I fear the Germans have moved Pfand to encompass all kinds of reusable products with no industrial lobbyists telling the government to fear crippled bottom lines as a result of these measures...

The message: Pfand macht sparsam! (Deposit makes you frugal!)

  Comment  

Most Popular