Waste Free ablutions - part three

It's a part of every woman's life, but not something that we talk about very much, other than with close friends.  When I first discovered the Diva Cup I was so excited - I had no idea that there was such thing as a reusable menstrual cup.  Not only does it reduce waste, but it works way better than any product I have used and translates to huge cost savings!

The cup functions much better than any product on the market.   I have had my cup for about three years and the only time it has ever leaked was when I first bought it and put it in wrong.  It holds much more than any tampon or pad so it only needs to be changed about once a day (although every woman is different). The cup is deceivingly comfortable - like a tampon, you don't even feel it once it is in.  

The cup is easy to use, once you read the instructions.  I found this video on youtube that demonstrates how to use a menstrual cup, and it also offers some tips on changing a cup in a public restroom (which until now I have managed to avoid doing).

I recently convinced my sister to buy one and now she is a Diva Cup advocate.  At first she was a bit concerned with the logistics of finding a private bathroom to change the cup when it filled, but after only 2 months of using it, she sees that there is really no challenge at all.   

I bought two Diva Cups as prize give-aways for my staff (little incentives to make sorting garbage a little more exciting - five of the six staff are female so I thought it would be appropriate).  My sister is one of the staff and every time someone would win a prize she would say "pick the cup - it's the best value".  The girls that took the cups were a bit shy at first, but are now telling me how glad they are that they chose the cups and telling me that they really work well.

The Diva Cup is a worth-while investment.  According to the Diva Cup website, the average woman spends about $150 per year on menstrual products.  The Diva Cup costs about $50 so it pays itself off in less than half a year.  If you are from the Kamloops area, the Diva Cup is sold at Nature's Fare or London Drugs. 

Reading this blog post you may think I am a Diva Cup spokesperson or a marketing agent for the company.  I wish, the truth is I am just a very satisfied consumer.   And if I can convince just one person to go out and buy a Diva Cup, then I have come one step closer to my vision of the future - where landfills are naught but composting facilities.

Disposal Choices

When I think about all the processes involved in making a new product, all the energy and resources needed to get a product from a raw material into the hands of a consumer, I am baffled to think that anyone could just throw away a perfectly good product.

As a marketing major at university, I learned about the product life cycle and the disposal choices once a product no longer provides satisfaction to a consumer.  It's what marketers refer to as end-of-life.  What does a consumer do with a product once it has reached the end of it's useful life (from the original consumer's perspective)?

A consumer has several choices (and please feel free to comment on any that I have missed) after they have bought a product. For example, a t-shirt I bought 10 years ago has seen better days and I am contemplating what I should do with it.  I could:

1. Keep it.  The t-shirt is comfortable and still fits and I still wear it.
1. Store it.  The t-shirt is seasonal and I still wear it. 
2. Re-purpose. The t-shirt could be used as a smock for Eli's when she paints, it could be cut up and used for rags, I could make it into a tank top or purse.
2. Give it away. 
1. Give to a friend or family.  The t-shirt is too small/ too big but still looks good so I could give it to my sister/ niece/ friend.
2. Donate (charity, for-profit, school) it. The shirt is still good but I'd rather get rid of it.  I'm sure someone would like it but I don't have any friends or family that would wear it.
3. Sell it.  The t-shirt is trendy and I bet someone would buy it for $5.
1. Online.  Post it on kijiji/ craigslist/ facebook/ tnrdreuses
2. On consignment.  Shabby Shack/ Mint Condition Boutique
3. Classified Ads.  I could post a classified ad in the local paper or the regional Buy and Sell
4. At a garage sale. We have lots of stuff we don't use anymore.  I think we could make a few hundred dollars by having a garage sale, I could try to sell it then.
4. Dispose of it. 
1. Recycle it. Okay, there aren't too many options to recycle textiles in BC (that I am aware of anyways).  But if you donate your old clothing to the Salvation Army Thrift Store, then chances are if the clothing is not in good enough condition to sell, it will find it's way to a textiles recycler.
2. Landfill it.  The t-shirt is not suitable to be worn anymore - there are holes everywhere and it's made of synthetic fibres that aren't suitable for rags. Sadly it is time to put the shirt in it's final resting place at Mission Flats landfill.

I have used a t-shirt as an example here but the choices apply to any product.  With so many choices available to a consumer, I wonder why so much stuff that is in good condition still finds its way to the landfill?  Are people just not aware of the choices?  Is throwing stuff in the garbage the easiest choice? Do people think that if they don't want the product that nobody else would either? 

I understand that many of the disposal choices require some effort on the part of the consumer and that when there is effort involved, people choose the path of least resistance (the garbage can). So here is my advise to everyone:

Put a basket somewhere in the house labeled "Thrift Store".  Anytime you are ready to get rid of a product in your home that is still in working condition, put it in the basket.  When the basket is full you can either call a thrift store to come and pick it up, or you can put it in the car and drop it off on your way to work/ to the gym/ to the doctor/ etc.  There are lots of thrift stores in town and I have never been turned away when trying to donate used items. Many second hand stores like Big Brother and Sisters and Penny Pinchers offer a pick-up service.

Festival waste

Eli and me are frogs in a play at Solstice

I have been going to this summer solstice festival hosted in the Shuswap area for the past three years - a four-day long event in celebration of the first day of summer.  It has been a tradition in the area for quite some time - my guess would be thirty some-odd years.

It is an amazingly orchestrated self-managed event, led by a few, but supported by many.  I was amazed the first year by how much was going on - mask making (for the candle light procession), talent show (my first year in attendance Earthbound played), cross-dress soccer game, masked candle light procession, story telling, yoga, pot-luck feast with a spit-roast lamb, treasure hunt, 30 foot long banana split, spaghetti / chili dinner, Mambo Coffee (Cafe- quality coffee shop - just have to bring a cup), Booney hotdog (if you get lucky ladies, Matt will serve you wearing nothing but an apron), and a drumming circle that subsides sometime on Sunday night.

Each person brings something to the festival and there is no money exchanged except the $20 gate fee, which is donated to helping give sight to Nepalese people.  There is so much food and drink being shared that one could show up empty handed and be fed and drunk the entire weekend (although it would be frowned upon).  My contribution to the festival for the past two years has been waste management.

Because most people that attend the event are pretty earth-friendly, one would think that it would be easy to implement a recycling program - provide recycling bins with signage and empty the bins when they become full.  I was shocked to see that the recycling program at solstice in the past was limited to cans, bottles, and a little compost.

After a so-so attempt to recycle at last year's festival, I came a little more prepared and ready to tackle the task of waste management for Solstice 2011.  Recycling in the area is easy - paper, plastic, glass and metals can all be recycled together.   Bottles and cans were already successfully being recycled at the festival, and most people were comfortable enough with the compost buckets scattered around the kitchen / dinning area.

My goal coming into the festival was to be as close to zero-waste as possible.  Knowing that people aren't as diligent about packaging waste as our family is, some garbage was going to be inevitable.

As I have been spending the last few weeks up to my elbows in garbage, I was not afraid to put on some gloves and dig into the garbage cans and pick out anything that was recyclable or compostable.  Most people were very good at reading the signs and separating recyclables and compost.  But whether it was a lack of understanding as to what could be recycled or composted, or just plain laziness (especially the recyclables that needed to be washed), I would inevitably remove a considerable amount of material from the garbage upon each inspection.

At the end of the festival Eli and I walked around the campsites with a bag and bucket to collect recyclables and compost.  I felt a bit intrusive going through people's garbage right in front of them, especially when they would tell me that they didn't have any recyclables or compost.  But each bag I sifted through would have something that could be diverted from the garbage, like tissue paper or dirty cardboard, that I could add to my compost bucket.

At the end of the four-day long festival attended by about 100 people there was 2 bags of garbage, 4 bags of recyclable material, 15 buckets of compost, and about 20 bags of bottles and cans.  Not quite zero waste but for the most part I was happy with the results.