I recently picked up Vanessa Farquharson’s book, Sleeping Naked is Green, and I’m plowing through it. It recounts here year of doing one green act per day. And it really gets to you! You are continuously questioning yourself.

Am I being green enough? What other choices do I have? Would they have less of an environmental footprint? Do I really need this item anyways?

It’s an unending list of questions that leaves your head spinning in the grocery store. Today I questioned my toilet paper purchase, paper towels (because yes cat feces is too disgusting to pick up with anything that doesn’t just go straight to the compost bin), my vegetables, my milk, my eggs and my coffee (no you cannot buy local coffee here in Ontario but you can definitely pick up fair trade). In the end it makes that trip to the grocery store that much longer, but I did for the most part find local fruits and vegetables, recycled paper towels and toilet paper and fair trade coffee.

Today was a great day, I did feel like I was making a difference. To start the grocery store had tons of options, and even bags that were used for carrying stuff home (I forgot my reusable ones) were good for my home compost bin. And then my ‘big smile’ for the day. My bf had to run in and get cleaning supplies and to my surprise he picked up ‘green’ friendly products.

Sort your garbage. Break out the recycling. Separate the compost. And make sure it is in the right bin at the right time in front of your house.

The problem is that much of the recycling and compost is still ending up in the landfills. The Toronto Star has been reporting on this over the last year and I wrote about what is happening with our compost last week. This article is somewhat of a follow up to my compost article. While riding my bike home last week I got to thinking and wondered…

If garbage diversion is a priority why aren’t the municipalities paying individuals to sort it?

I do think that as residents we should do our part and separate our garbage, but we are all human and make mistakes with what we throw in what bin. But as the Toronto Star has reported, when something ends that isn’t permitted in the compost or recycling bin ends up there than the whole load goes the landfill.

I can see the argument already from the municipalities, ‘How do you expect us to pay for this?’

Is it really an added cost? Sending waste to the landfill is expensive. About.com quoted Michael Shapiro in an article ‘Do the Benefits of Recycling Outweigh the Costs?’ where he states that “A well-run curbside recycling program can cost anywhere from $50 to more than $150 per ton…trash collection and disposal programs, on the other hand, cost anywhere from $70 to more than $200 per ton.” And that doesn’t include the revenue generated from then selling the recycled material.

Instead if the waste is diverted, composted or recycled, than there is a cost savings to the municipality. From a Life Cycle Cost perspective the overall cost for diversion is less than land-filling. Particularly when you look at it from the Triple Bottom Line perspective, the social and environmental costs from land-filling are far more expensive than those of composting or recycling.

In order to move forward and divert more of our garbage the municipalities need to step in and play a larger role. It’s time we start sorting our waste before it ends up in a landfill.

Shouldn’t everyday be Earth day?

It is a day to remind us that we abuse its environment and we should have more respect for it. We’re on a slow learning curve but we’re getting there.

The History of Earth Day

Earth day began in the US in 1970 when Senator Gaylord Nelson became concerned about over-population and exploiting the natural resources the earth had to offer. Earth Day’s original goal – to create a healthy, sustainable environment through environmental citizenship.
Earth day is now a part of 174 countries and 17,000 organizations and the goal is still to promote environmental stewardship.

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

What about now? What should we be doing? Recycling isn’t enough; to recycle requires a lot of energy and effort and leaves a footprint on the environment. It should definitely be part of the strategy but the first two ‘R’s’ should play a stronger role. The future will be about diversion, about creating products that can be composted, creating products in smaller packages. It will be about local farming, local ingredients, walking to the grocery store. It is webinars and meeting with local experts. It will be about multimodal transportation, active transportation, and smaller personal automobiles. The future will be what we make it.

Recently in a Tim Horton’s store I saw quite an ironic sign. Remember that currently the ‘Roll up the Rim to Win’ promotion is still underway, although it is in it’s final weeks. Above the cash register I saw a sign that said something along the lines of “support earth day. Each time you bring in your own mug you save 10cents on your cup of coffee” So what are consumers doing?

Just like years before coffee drinkers have ditched their travel mugs in hope they might win.

I couldn’t really find any statistics on this but if I had to hazard a guess I think recyclable cup use is down and people are opting for the ‘throw away cup’ in hope they might get a coffee, donut, or even a TV!

Personally I do not really like Tim Horton’s coffee but do enjoy a steeped tea every so often. If I don’t make coffee at home then I usually opt for Starbucks.

Starbucks too has launched a campaign in support of earth day encouraging people to use their own mugs. They have always offered a discount to customers who bring in their own mug, now they are being more public about it.

Free Coffee April 22nd

Starbucks is actually offering its customers free coffee on April 22nd if they bring in their own mug. There thought must be that if they can encourage enough people to start bringing their own mugs that perhaps it becomes a habit. They could add to the campaign and sell their branded mugs at a discount that day so that everyone was still walking around with their white mugs with a green logo!

As much as possible I try to bring my own mug where ever I go. My bf and I have a huge stash of them at home so that if we forget one, we have back up. I also try to keep one at my desk that is used on the days when I need more than just my morning wake up ?

Last night I met up with some friends for dinner at a great little restaurant called The Queen Mother Cafe, famous for it’s pan-global cuisine. As I ordered my meal the waitress asked how hungry I was since I had ordered quite a bit of food. I said that in the event I didn’t finish my meal that I was happy to take it home for a snack.

Of course I didn’t finish my meal. The hostess, not our waitress, came over to collect our plates. I had ordered a noodle dish in a curry sauce so it was some what soupy but I still wanted to take it home (left-overs always taste better the next day!). The hostess declared that I could not take home my meal because all they had were ‘environmentally friendly’ containers and that my meal simply would not make it home in the container. I told her that I would take my chances and would like one of these ‘environmentally friendly’ containers.

Take Away Containers can now be made from Sugar Cane

Our waitress came over and apologized for how the hostess had behaved. She then went on to explain that at the restaurant they prefer to use compostable containers. I was quite impressed with their forward thinking and decided to look into it. According to GreenToGoCanada, the packages are made from Sugarcane (Bagasse) Technology. These packages are said to be much better than their paper counterparts because they can biodegrate in as few as 45 days.

I’m hoping that other restaurants pick up on the technology. Bringing your own containers to a restaurant is best practice but not always convenient or feasible. If instead we can offset some of the waste with these types of materials our environment will be the better for it.

I ended up bringing my food home with me and sufice to say my leftovers today were delicous!

It has been a few years since I was at summer camp but the theme of dreaming has never left me. Ted had inspired me to always challenge myself, to see the beauty in everything, and to take minute and just breathe.

The Greener Challenge
Trying to preserve and respect our environment has become a  part of my life. I want to make sure I have places like this, Camp Walden, to visit.

These are some simple things I’m doing for my small part:

What other simple things are you doing to make the world a cleaner place?