It is easiest to make lunch with a sandwhich and some pre packaged snacks. The reality is that those pre packaged snacks are mostly packaging that is waste and not recyclable. The crinkly plastic wrap is not recyclable and the foil wrap around granola or othe fruit bars is also not recyclable, they are 100% garbage. Although they don’t weigh a lot … they are wasteful in my view and I am going to try and avoid them.

Here are some of the rules that I try and stick to when making lunches:

1. I do not use saran wrap or aluminum foil or plastic bags when packing lunches and plastic bags. I use plastic reusable containers only. The one downs side to using plastic containers (Ziploc or other) is that they do take up more room in the lunch bag or knap sack.   I have quite trying to cram it into the lunch bag or box and leave some items in the re usable container just in the knap sack.

• FACT: Plastic not only adds to landfill space and takes forever to decompose. Used plastic dumped into the sea kills and destroys sea life at an estimated 1,000,000 sea creatures per year!
• FACT: Recycling rates for plastic bags are extremely low. Only 1 to 3% of plastic bags end up getting recycled

2. I only pack a re usable thermos or drink container for the kids.   To keep it interesting for the kids I try and mix up the drinks provided day over day.  I rotate between plain water, peppermint tea (they like it), lemonade and other watered down juices. 

You can get ones to easily clip on to their back pack so they will remember to bring them home at the end of the day.

-      Whatever recyclable containers you do chose to use, make sure you educate your kids so that they know to place them in the recycling box when they are done.

• FACT: The average time taken by plastic bottles to decompose in a landfill is close to 700 years.
• FACT: Almost every hour, nearly 250,000 plastic bottles are dumped in landfills. It is not surprising that plastic bottles constitute close to 50% of recyclable waste in the dumps.

3. Avoid individually packaged lunch treats (as mentioned above) and purchase a thermos or container for both hot and cold lunch treats.  Instead of packing yoghurt in the individual one serving size containers, I buy my yoghurt in a larger or bulk container and put the yoghurt directly into the cold thermos.  Often to spice it up, I put some apple sauce or even a chocolate something in the middle to create more interest in the “healthy” waste free lunch.

• FACT: About one-third of an average dump is made up of packaging material!
• FACT: Out of every $10 spent buying items, $1 (10%) goes for packaging that is thrown away. Packaging represents about 65% of household trash.

Waste free lunches are definately a bit more work, there is no doubt about it.  I am trying to be very committed about this … and the result is hopefully less waste at our schools and in my house and also that my kids will be eating more whole and less processed foods.  I see it as a win win on both fronts.

The last big win for me is that a waste free lunch will result in less waste at the schools, which will ultimately mean reduced costs for the school boards and more money to enduate our children.

1.  Make sure the container you use is big enough, because if it is not … guess what they use the same old plastic ones for any overflow!  And your mission of zero waste has not been achieved.

2.  Remember to ask for “no napkins, chopsticks, soya sauce” or other stuff that might come with your take out order.  Even if you have used a refillable container the amount of waste the other extra things generate is silly! 

3.  Make sure to tell the restaurant that you are coming with your refillable container, otherwise they will put it in the styrofoam or plastic and then transfer it to your refillable container (and what good is that!!).    Note to self, many restaurants won’t start making your order till the refillable container gets there, so they can put your order directly into it.

I went to our local sushi restaurant recently and the server said to me (as I was handing over my refillable container), “don’t use this the sushi will look much nicer in one of our take out trays”.  WHAT – are you kidding me, I made all this effort to arrive and not create waste, and now your sales pitch to me is:  its going to look nicer in one of our trays!  I don’t think so!  I am a committed individual who will not let the art of the sushi display deter me from my plight of no waste!

Many people are debating the proposed changes in the plan.  The most glaring change in the plan (this time over the last plan) is the comprehensive integration of the Recovery of energy.  Translation, burning garbage and turning into energy that will heat local communities or businesses. 

Our region is creating 3.4 milion tonnes of garbage each year, this is staggering.  Of this amount we manage to divert 1.9 million tonnes to recycling facilities, or 55% diversion.  This is not bad, but we have a ways to go!

Metro Vancouver today needs to manage (that means dispose) 1.5 million tonnes of waste each year.  Hopefully over the next 5 years we will all see the light and become even better recyclers or perhaps more importantly buy less and consume less resources and divert 2.7 million tonnes of waste which would equal 70% diversion.  Is this too ambitious?  I don’t think so, I actually believe it is very achievable but it is going to require a concerted effort and quite frankly complacency about the garbage we create as a household, business or person has to stop.  We actually have to start caring about what we buy and what we throughout.

The current hierarchy (or priority) for waste management plans is Reduce, Resuse, Recycle and Residual (throw away what is left).  The change is quite simple, add in Recover after Recycle, and this quite simply means incinerate or burn the garbage that remains.   Personallly I belive that the science is good (or at least it sounds good, b/c I am not a qualified scientist) and that incinerating makes sense.  I wish we had no waste so there would be no reason to have to incinerate (Recover) but that is not our realty in the Lower Mainland and we should learn how to deal with the waste in our own backyard.  We might take it more seriously if we do!

So my question is: Does charging for each bag reduce consumption?

Humans have a funny nature of thinking twice when there is a price attached. Whether 5 cents or $20, people tend to think more when they are being charged. I think charging for bags can help reduce consumption in 2 ways. 1. People want to spend less and therefore use less bags 2. Retailers aren’t just assuming that you NEED a bag, and asking which makes the consumer think “do I really need a bag?” . With any hope, consumers will give their head a shake and realize it’s not that hard to bring a reuseable bag and with any luck cut back the drastic over consumption of plastic bags. My hopes is to eliminate the use of plastic shopping bags all together!

Here are some shocking facts on Plastic bags: http://www.greenerfootprints.com/plasticbagfacts/

Back to the number – 500 bags per year, staggering.  I recently went to premier (in Vancouver) for The Clean Bin Project (cleanbinmovie.com) and met a women who made a dress out of 500 shopping bags.  I can tell you it was a lot of bags and she made quite the rustle when she walked around.  The visual of 500 bags is actually quite sobering and a wake up call for me.

The poll question for the month of July will be:  Do you remember your reusable shopping bags?

My answer is “most of the time”.

Dress made of 500 shopping bags! Wow.

It starts with the disposable coffee cup or drink container you buy.  When you think about it, you are buying a product that will be used and consumed in less than 15 minutes (on average) and then thrown out.   A product that has use for only 15 minutes and then done – crazy.  As a consumer we need to make a serious commitment to not purchasing products that have virtually no life span.  We need to purchase products that can be used and re used and reused for a lifetime.  A refillable coffee container or a refillable water thermos are a great start and they need to be part of your zero waste kit or bag that you take with you everywhere you go.

Kids certainly pose a great challenge to any family wanting to get serious about their watse.   My kids want to buy stuffies or plastic toys that I know will be disposed of in no time at all.  It is so frustrating but no amounts of explaining have managed to make much of an impact on my 8 and 6 year old.  Their vision of what is necessary and what is wasteful is not very clear yet – and unfortunately their sense of reason has not kicked in.   I am look ing forward to the day, where they might see the merits of reducing their consumption and not just fulfilling their retail therapy urges!

We need to get serious about it now.  Boy is it hard making some see the merits of the changes!

Grant and Jen who are in the documentary (Grant is the producer) bring a wonderful amount of energy and enthusiasm to their commitment to zero waste for one year.    The project set out on a very simple quest:  1.  to produce no (or virtually) no garbage for one year and 2.  other then food, buy nothing for one year and 3 (more importantly) Grant and Jen were competing with each other to see who could create the least amount of waste.   I won’t give it away who won, but I can tell you it is amazing and admirable how little garbage they created or needed to create when they put their minds to it.

It certainly would take a considerable effort to get my family to no waste.  With four kids under 8, the consumption habits are prohibitive and to reason with a child that no new toys should be acquired would be tough, for sure.   My 8 year old was asked what she thought about the movie?  Her response was very sweet and painfully honest “I enjoyed it a lot, but thankfully mummy is not making us live zero waste!”  She got it, zero waste means no stuff, for her.

One of the painfully realistic things about zero waste, you do have to consume less in order to try and achieve “it”.   A tough change for our society.   One that I am trying to make. 

I am not sure if I can achieve zero waste right now, but I am going to try and get it to 90% at home and at work.  Stand by for results!

In any event, the most postive experience yet (other then Urban Impact winning the Private Sector award – yeah!) was meeting Grant Baldwin and Jenny Rustemeyer a couple who lived waste free for 1 year.  Can you believe it?  Amazing and inspirational.  The premier of the film is tomorrow at the RCBC Conference and the Vancouver Premier is on Saturday May 29 @ Granville 7 Cinema.

The movie trailer:  http://www.vimeo.com/3301133

Their website: http://cleanbinproject.com/

I admire and applaud what they have done!

I have bribed my children to accept cash for donations as birthday gifts.  Although it is terribly hard for them to get their minds around not receiving the wrapped gift from their friends, they seem to accept it (as long as I promise them a birthday gift of significance) and like the attention they get when other adults applaud their generosity.

Try it, you will like it, and so will your charity of choice.

Buying them is certainly easy enough and relatively inexpensive.  I recently purchased two sets of take out containers, my strategy is that I would likely forget the first set at work or in the car (or somewhere else) so the second set would save my bacon so to speak. 

So far the restaurants I have gone to have been happy to fill the container.  I have heard from some collegues that some restaurants don’t want you to bring your own container because they feel that they will be held responsible if you get food poisening, when in fact it might be the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of the container that is responsible.    So far I can happily report no food poisening experienced here.

I think the refillable containers is much like the cloth or reusable bags we bring to grocery stores, they slow down the process for the check out person.  I have noticed it myself loading a plastic bag is much faster then dealing with the variety of refillable bags that appear at the check out.  Well the take out container is no different, I am positive it is easier for the cashier at your local restaurant to fill up that sytrofoam container. 

I am hopeful that the refillable container become more accepted and becomes a norm soon.  It needs to! Packaging is such a huge source of waste going to landfill.  To me it is a simply solution.  Yes we need to be disciplined about it, but we can all learn and adapt and remember!