Week 1 - (almost) waste-free

Me, Trevor and week one waste!

We celebrated our first week by tallying up our waste.  Blaine from inKamloops.ca Magazine sent me an email asking if we had managed to go waste-free.  Well, not quite but pretty close, here is a breakdown of our first week's waste stream:

Week-1 garbage (8 oz):

• dental floss
• blister packs from medications
• an empty pen
• plastic seal from wine bottle
• mesh bag from 3-pack of garlic
• plastic packaging from spaghetti 
• used band-aide
• plastic film from the window of a spaghetti box
• plastic film from ground veggie meat
• tape from a parcel that was delivered (the box was recycled)
• small pieces of scrap nylon fabric that I used to make bulk bags

Week-1 diversion:

• 3 totes of recyclable material (newspaper, flyers, plastic containers, cans)
• 3 ice cream pails of compost

The perfect waste-free pet

Elianna has lots of love for Friday.

Friday is our cat and he is a natural when it comes to waste-free living.  He was Elianna's first birthday present, a gift that will last maybe not our lifetime, but a long time, and the best cat a young, waste-free family could hope for.

Eli loves Friday, and he must love her too, because he puts up with all the "love" she gives him. Her love comes in the form of hugs and tail tugs.   But Friday is a good cat and just takes all the love (sometimes I can even hear him purr).

Anyways, I digress (yet again) from the point of this story. Friday is a waste-free pet. Cats are known to be quite finicky, especially when it comes to their diet.  The vet told me that when I change cat foods brands, I should slowly introduce the new brand my mixing a little of it each feeding.  Sorry Friday, we waited too long.

I spent a good part of the day searching for cat food.  No Name brand was the only brand I could find.  It came in a boxboard box with no plastic coating or seal.
I don't have anything against buying No Name brand, my pantry is quite yellow in fact.  But cat food? I am not informed enough to say for sure that it isn't a good choice, but he is part of our family and I want to make sure he gets a healthy diet as well.  I bought the No Name brand anyways and some fancy canned food (which we never buy) to mix with it. Friday must be an anomaly, he ate the food without a fuss.

He is the perfect waste-free cat, not only does he put up with whatever food brand of cat food I feed him, he doesn't even use the litter box. He is an outside cat and does what I am sure most outdoor cats do, finds a nice garden bed to do his business. 

It was obvious that he would not be a 'safe' indoor cat the day I brought him home. He meowed incessantly at the window, as if to tell me, "Please, don't listen to what they told you at the SPCA, just let me go outside. I need to be outside. I won't let you sleep until you let me GO OUTSIDE!"

I can appreciate that people love their cats and want them to be safe.  But cats are meant to be outside.  It is in their nature.  Yes, I have lost two other cats to forces of nature (a street dog in Thailand, and the other I'm not sure but I suspect maybe a coyote), but if you want to cut one more chore out of your busy life, then think about it. Outdoor cats are happy cats.

Milk Cartons Are Recyclable

Milk Container Recycling Program

This will be a short blog.  I wasn't surprised to see that only 68% of people who voted on my poll thought that milk cartons were recyclable.  Not exactly a reliable statistic because only 16 people voted, but it goes to show that there is a need for some awareness about the fact that milk cartons are recyclable. In fact, all containers used to hold milk or milk substitute beverages are recyclable.


In Kamloops, milk containers can be recycled at the following bottle depots (which by the way have amazing customer service as well):

• General Grants North Shore Bottle Depot*, 611 Fortune Drive
• Full Refund Bottle Depot, #115-805 Notre Dame Drive
• Lorne Street Bottle Depot*, 270 Halston Avenue

Click here to find locations outside Kamloops to recycle your dairy containers.

*These locations also recycle electronic waste.

If it's Broke - Fix It

As I sat fixing my brother and sister-in-law's bike trailer on Sunday afternoon, I said to Trevor, "I'm going to blog about this."

"What does this have to do with waste reduction?"

Since Trevor started his new job we have been searching for a daycare (thank goodness for grandparents).  We finally found two different daycares downtown, Mondays and Tuesdays with Janet and Fridays at St. Paul. One small problem, Trevor needs the car for work at 7:30 am and Eli doesn't start until 8 am.

I decided to ask Kim and Colin if I could borrow their bike trailer. I could use the exercise and I'm sure Eli wouldn't mind the change of scenery.

Sunday morning we visited Kim, Colin and Spencer for breakfast.

"Sure you can borrow the trailer, but the straps are broken.  They broke the day we bought it off kijiji which is why we have never used it." Looking at the trailer I saw that the straps holding the seat of the trailer had been completely ripped. Being the daughter of a sewing teacher I was up for the challenge.  I could always pull the "Mom..."

"It has everything to do with our project" I responded eagerly.  The trailer had already sat unused in a garage for a year.  If it wasn't fixed, where do you think it would end up? Plus, by fixing this trailer, we are avoiding buying a new one - the second R of waste reduction - Reuse (or borrow as the case may be).

The project took longer than I expected because I replaced the straps rather than just sewing them back together.  I felt better knowing that children riding in the trailer would be a lot safer. I probably saved  time in the long run anyways.

Our society is so consumer  driven.  Why bother fixing something? Save time, save money, save effort (I was a marketing student, I know the mantra) - buy it new.

We put such high value on our time, and now that we import everything from China where the value of average Chinese person's time is a fraction of  our own, it is so easy to justify throwing away something that could be fixed given a little time, effort, and some creative thinking. 

It is so rewarding to make/ fix something. It may not look as good as a new product, but for me, the uneven stitching lines and bright green thread (its what I had) that replaced the  perfectly straight, hidden matching stitches are just as good, if not better. I feel proud towing that trailer knowing that it was my efforts that made it all possible.

Big thanks Kim and Colin for making this story possible and for the exercise and fresh air and all the other benefits that will come of this.  You can have your trailer back anytime (once Trevor finishes this job, please).

Me and Eli going for a test ride. Note the homemade flag made from old undies and bamboo stick.

 

"Recyclable" is a relative term

I have done some research to determine what exactly is recyclable in our area (Kamloops).  The goal of this project is not to produce any landfill waste, so if we put something into our recycle bin that isn't actually going to be recycled, then that we don't really achieve our goal.

Worse yet, by putting non-recyclable materials into the recycle bin, we are in effect shipping our garbage further away, increasing carbon emissions, and making our garbage some other jurisdiction's problem, one which may not have the landfill capacity that we have in Kamloops.

So what is recyclable in Kamloops?

I called the local material recovery facility (MRF), Emterra  (formerly International Papers Industries) to find out because they handle all the curbside recycling from City of Kamloops.

When I asked the receptionist what materials are recyclable (I was really interested in plastics in particular), she told me that paper, glass, metal, and plastics 1, 2, 4 and 5. Hmm, interesting, the City of Kamloops website says plastics 1-7 but no styrofoam (#6) and no durable plastics (like toys, CDs, lawn chairs, or other material goods).

I was curious, "what happens to plastics 3, 6, and 7 that end up in at Emterra? Are they separated out before they are shipped to Vancouver?" I asked the receptionist. She put me on hold so that she could ask the manager.

"No, we don't sort here, they would be shipped away."

Hmm, even more curious I decided to make another call to Emterra in Surrey to try and find out what happens to plastics 3, 6 and 7. It was like asking a question to a politician, very hard to get a straight answer. I will share with you the best answer I got, which was from their marketing department.

It all depends on what the customer wants.  If a customer requests all plastics, then all plastics (I assume) will be recycled in some way.  But if the customer requests only plastics 1 and 2, then the order is filled and shipped away.

"What happens to the materials that aren't sold?" I asked, even more curious to find out exactly how serious the problem is (the problem being the fact that people in Kamloops and the TNRD are told to recycle all plastics when they aren't actually being recycled). The woman in the marketing department referred me to the operations manager.

The operations manager told me that not much manual sorting takes place at their plant. But technically, what isn't sold is landfilled (or so I think that is what he said in a round-about/ indirect way).


In case you are not familiar, Vancouver sends about one third of their waste to the Cache Creek landfill. Which could potentially (and I have not verified where Surrey waste goes) mean that a lot of "recyclable" material in Kamloops takes a trip to Vancouver, gets processed in some way, and then takes the trip back to the Cache Creek landfill, about 45 minutes drive West of Kamloops.

The worst case scenario is that the "recyclables" get baled and shipped to Eastern markets, only to be landfilled there.

Question: What is recyclable (in curbside bins) in Kamloops?
Answer: Paper. Metal packaging. Glass packaging. Plastic 1, 2, 4 and 5 packaging

Garbage Inventory

I suppose this question will come up in the next few weeks: How much garbage do you produce? When I say garbage I mean waste that is sent to the landfill, not compost or recyclable waste.

Daily garbage inventory (before the challenge):

• 1 or 2 diapers per day (depending on if Eli poos after we change her before bedtime or if we get lazy on washing diapers, or more when traveling);
• Meat/ seafood packaging (styrofoam tray and cling wrap or soft plastic shrink-wrap;
• At least one plastic bag/ soft plastic liner from chips, crackers, cheese, pasta, cereal, etc.;
• 12 inches of dental floss;
• Table scraps from uneaten food;
• Meat bones/ fish bones/ prawn shells;
• Sink gunk;
• Residual / non-recyclable paper from cans (when Trevor is cooking, I try to take them off before I wash them out);
• Gum / candy wrappers (every now and again I make impulse purchases in the grocery store line);
• Kleenex when Eli has a cold;
• 14 stickers.

Throughout the past year:

• Paint rollers and trays from painting the bathroom and Eli's room;
• Window washing waste (twice a year): wad of paper towels or newspapers about the size of a basketball;
• Renovation waste: this year we ripped up our bathroom floor and replaced the sink and cupboards;
• 30 empty plastic bags of manure/ compost/ peat/ other soil amendments (major landscaping job as we bought a new home that had never been landscaped, and I love to grow my own veggies;
• A few broken toys;
• Rotten non-compostable food waste from cleaning out the fridge, approximately one shopping bag full in the past year;
• 2 vacuum bags;
• 3-4 broken glasses / light bulbs / plates;
• 3 empty pens;
• 4 shirts beyond repair;
• 3 pairs of socks

I am sure there are other items I am missing but I put in a full day and am quite tired.  Thanks for all the comments

How much waste does the average Kamloopian Produce?

I put a poll on my blog asking "How much waste does the average Kamloopian Produce?" In case you are not familiar with BC or Canada (I notice that there are lots of people from New Zealand visiting my blog), Kamloops is my home town, thus the term Kamloopian.

Okay... so the answer to my poll question is this: the average Kamloopian produces 1.2 tonnes of waste per year. Wow, thats a lot of garbage! And I can assure you that this information is pretty accurate as I calculated it myself. Well, not really, the City of Kamloops keeps pretty good records of what goes into the Mission Flats landfill and I did a little math (total waste/ total population = per capita waste generation).

Compare that to the waste generation rate in the State of California, 400 kg/capita, and it doesn't look very good.

Which leads to my next question, why do we (in Kamloops) produce so much more garbage than the people in California? Do they have better recycling? Are they poorer so they buy less stuff? Or are we just a bit more wasteful than our friends in the South?

If there is anyone out there from California, please enlighten us.  I welcome any comment on this subject so please feel free... I am all ears.