Trash Talk

The following is the article I wrote for our June co-op newsletter:

"You don't filter smokestacks or water. Instead, you put the filter in your head and design the problem out of existence." William McDonough

Over the course of the past 10 years or so I’ve had a big thorn in my side – garbage. Dealing with the garbage of neighbours and litter of strangers, has made consumerisms leftovers a pretty big focus in my life. I won’t dwell on the ugly details (like hair, spit and debris hanging out a bathroom window – gross!!) but suffice it to say that garbage has primarily been a frustration for me...and living at the end of our co-op overlooking our collective garbage has just been the icing on the waste cake side of my life.

But, I don’t do negativity very well. At some point I need to do something about things that are problematic to my mental wellbeing. So I’m happy to say I have found a proactive role at work and home to provide positive balance to this increasing anger with others and their waste. Also to calm the nagging guilt I perpetually feel knowing there is always something more I could do. Turning all my negative energy to a positive use...making my world a little greener. :)

Elsewhere in this newsletter you will see mention of the new Green Team for our co-op home. Sarah and I, and a few other keeners, are out to inform and inspire you, our fellow members...to make a difference and reduce the eco-footprint of our collective home. Lots of fun stuff to come to help our individual eco evolutions as well as what we can all do together to bring this whole place into the green revolution.

That’s what I’m trying to do at home. At work I’ve shared a new green vision at Britannia: to achieve a Zero Waste footprint for our community complex by 2015! If ever there was a community, and a worksite, up for such a challenge it is Britannia. I believe it will be made even easier given that we live in a municipality that aims to be the Greenest City in the world by 2020. And our city is a part of a whole region, now known as Metro Vancouver, which is supporting a Zero Waste Challenge for all communities. In our quest for a holistic recycling/waste plan for the complex, our next step is to host a walk around, potluck lunch and discussion (with a member from Vancouver’s Greenest City action team, as well as an advisor from the waste assessment branch of the region) on what we are currently doing with recycling and what we could be doing better.

Other members of the Brit green team live in housing co-ops too, so we will take opportunities to ask questions about potential involvement in our home communities as well. Thus a ripple effect with a zero waste focus is spreading and people feel excited to be a part of it. Certainly nicer to focus on positive actions towards what can be, instead of all that frustration with what others are doing wrong...

It seems odd how much energy we actually have to put into teaching and learning about reducing and recycling. My generation was the first to be taught our modern day recycling in schools, which then became a way of life in most places in Canada. Our society keeps trying to improve these means of waste reduction, while never really grasping that perhaps there just might be something wrong with the whole system that creates the waste to begin with.

When exactly did the frugal wisdom of our elders (“waste not, want not”) become so blasé that it too became just a wasted commodity? Truth is, that wisdom of simplicity never really went away. It fizzled out to the fringe of our collective conscious, in some areas was labelled a ‘dirty hippy’ way of life and for a generation or so the dollar trumped reason and wastefulness was chic. Not so much anymore. Though we still face an upward slope of difficulty on creating a truly sustainable global society, I believe that humans know what to do and are already doing amazing things at the grassroots level in communities around the globe. Including here in Vancouver!

I recently received another dose of inspiration and affirmation in my belief that we humans are not merely a plague to our Mama Earth. I participated in an event called “The Great Turning: An Unconference to Be the Change” which had a few hundred positive change agents from around our city and beyond in a room, using circle talks to share wisdom and learn from each other. There was one circle talk I was actually trying to avoid called “Garbage: Our Gateway to Action” as I wanted a break from all the trash talk in my life on green teams at work and home...but it seems I truly can’t get away from garbage...by the organic nature of the event I ended up at that circle anyway! In this circle we met a few great people from our neighbourhood, learned about a few new resources to explore, brainstormed some great local actions and I inadvertently agreed to host another circle talk to maintain momentum with the folks we met that day. I guess garbage really is my gateway to action these days. So, what’s yours? ;)

It feels obvious that the world is changing dramatically and at an ever faster pace, but we still have choices to make on whether we want it to change for better or for worse. This is what ‘the Great Turning’ was all about – we can be the change and help the world move towards something better. It is our joy and our opportunity. My generation, raised to be savvy consumers, are using some of those powers to force businesses to change or beg for bailouts. And most importantly, schools are still teaching kids about green stuff, and not just the 3 R’s of reduce, reuse and recycle that began my green thinking as a child. Students today, especially in our district which has a new sustainable schools vision, will learn more about biomimicry, green chemistry, sustainable building, community economic development, participatory democracy over their lifetime and they have a global awareness unlike any generation before them...so there is still plenty of hope for a bright green future after all. Especially if we all lend a hand to the process!

"We can no longer have everything we want,
but we can be more than we imagined."
Howard Jerome

Some Links to Explore:

www.vancouver.ca/greenestcity – Vancouver has a new action team with a focus on making ours the Greenest City in the world by 2020!

www.metrovancouver.org – check out the Zero Waste Challenge for the entire region to take part in.

www.chfcanada.coop/eng/toolkit/tk-page01.html - "Sustainability at Home: A Toolkit for Your Co-op." This is a great resource from the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada.

www.bethechangeearthalliance.org – Be the Change Earth Alliance was the organization which hosted The Great Turning event. Their site has info and resources for hosting your own circle talks and more.

globalonenessproject.org - Another Great Turning event host, the Global Oneness Project asks "What if the world embodied our highest potential? What would that look like?" Great video content and other resources to help you reflect on these questions.

www.blessedunrest.com/video.html - a video clip of "Blessed Unrest - How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being...and Why No One Saw it Coming" or even better read the book by Paul Hawken. Either will provide a great dose of hope.

teamgreenbrit.blogpsot.com – a blog created for the Britannia green team and the community that embraces us :)