my ever-reducing wasteline

i think i have actually managed to achieve about as close to being 'zero waste' as it is possible to get while still living and consuming in a city...

i have a suite of mechanisms for achieving this and wanted to share these with you all. it takes a bit of commitment, but once in the habit it's a breeze!

of course as we all know, the first step is to minimise/ reduce/ avoid. this is best achieved by asking oneself - "do i really need this?" when shopping... "can i get it in bulk or in a reuseable/ recyclable container?" is a good next step.

once in my possession, the easily recyclable materials are cleaned and put in the recycling bin - step two complete. any organic residues (food scraps, newspaper etc.) head straight for the worm farm and/ or bokashi bucket (www.bokashi.co.nz) - step three.

the next step is the key - up 'til now i have avoided putting anything in the wheelie bin (invercargill city council provide a big wheelie bin weekly for rubbish - free (from rates) - so very little incentive to reduce!!)... all that is left is plastics - numbers 3 and up which can't be easily recycled, packaging films, bottle caps etc... so what do i do with this crap?

the answer is that i collect my empty milk tetrapak cartons (used to be imported soymilk, but found a better option - nz-produced organic cow's milk) and compress all my plastic 'waste' into them. pack them full and tape them shut. i now have a 'brick' made of non-degradable plastic! i have collected all my 'rubbish' like this for the last two and a half years and only have 100 of them... my next step is to make some sculptures with them (first up will be a comfy chair upon which one can contemplate one's waste 'ass-print' - this will use all 100 bricks).

in this manner i have turned a 'waste' product into a resource (as Bill Mollison said - "it's not that you have too many slugs, it's just that you don't have enough ducks", or in our case, "it's not that we have too much waste, it's just that we don't have enough rubbish bricks"!) (don't think i'm advocating making more rubbish though!).

some of my pet peeves... plastic bags for fruit and veges in the supermarket (take some paper bags in your reuseable shopping bag!); buying beer? visit the local micro-brewery and get a refill (it's cheaper and the beer is much better than the mass-produced variety); polystyrene meat trays - i don't eat meat so haven't come up with an alternative - suggestions please (this is what my flatmates fill the bin with)!

this is what i mean by "bionic= creativity, community, sustainability": a creative approach to what we perceive as a "problem" often shows us that it is actually an un-potentiated resource, as long as we can be creative with it... if we work together as a community we build strength and support networks and can deal with larger quantities of "waste"... this is how we will attain sustainability, if we actually can.

in the two and a half years i've lived in invercargill i have thrown out maybe one large wheelie bin of waste... my neighbours put out one each week! i am unfortunately not in a position yet to be able to keep my shit out of the toilet, but i'll get there yet...

bionic= creativity, community, sustainability... join me!

intellectual ecosystems and emotional composting

i was just thinking that when a bunch of people look at a scene, we all perceive slightly or radically different things... for example, looking at a river, some may see fishing potential, some may see swimming potential, some may see nature's intrinsic value and others may see potential energy production...

this diversity of perceptions is not unlike the ecosystem itself, and therefore when assessing 'value' in anything we must ensure that a healthy intellectual ecosystem is in place - that is, the components of the ecosystem must interact in a functional manner, in which they are all supported by and in turn support each other. this means us!

emotional composting is the term i have given to my method of being positive and happy most of the time...

all good gardeners know that gardening is actually not dissimilar to alchemy, in that one takes often unwanted, so-called 'waste' materials and through interaction with natural biological processes, creates something productive and beautiful.

when i feel sad or annoyed about something, i try and harvest the negative feelings and through interaction with natural biochemical processes in my brain, convert them into beautiful, productive thoughts - this emotional compost is rich and friable, and grows only the best.

it is essential to understand that in order to continuously produce such high-quality material, there needs to be a consistent input of so-called 'negative' emotions. through embracing this process, it becomes clear that the sad mad and just downright bad feelings have their place in a sustainable emotional management regime, and are really just good feelings in another form.

anyone fancy a hug?

local or organic?

i don't know about you, but sometimes i find myself spending inordinately long periods of time standing in the supermarket trying to compare one product with another...

specifically, i pick up the product, check the ingredients, see where it's made, see if it is organic... what do i know about the company that produces it - multinational/ local? good/ bad environmental record? good/ bad social record?

this can of course become rather time consuming, and so i pretty much find something i know and trust and stick with that every time i shop (i shop at four shops per week - an organic shop and three supermarkets!).

however, i still wonder to myself - should i buy the local non-organic product or the imported organic product...?!

the answer i think lies in a multi-faceted approach to ascertaining a product/ company's credentials. if we are concerned about carbon emissions due to 'food miles' then it would seem obvious to choose local, however farming practices may be better in it's country of origin than here, so in fact there may be fewer emissions than if it were local (this is the argument used to reassure european consumers about consuming nz products).

sometimes purchasing an imported 'organic' product might be a case of "same shit, different country" as organic standards are known to vary significantly in their strictness - the USDA even tried to include use of battery farming, sewage sludge and genetic engineering in it's organic standard!

ultimately, i think it is more important to support local food producers, even if they aren't organic. i come to this conclusion because if we don't support the locals but choose imported products (even if we perceive them to be 'better' for our health or the health of the environment) we risk undermining the locals and putting them out of business, thus making us even more reliant on imports.

if we choose local products, we are able to show the food producers that we support them. once they have sufficient reliable support from consumers they will be more willing to consider the switch to organics - especially if we, their supporters, insist upon it.

my method has thus become:
1) do i need this product? is it something i could grow/ produce myself?
2) who is trying to get me to buy it - what is their track record? does a better company produce the same product?
3) is it local/ nz made? if not, how far does it travel to get here?
4) is it organic?
5) can i afford it?!
6) what is the packaging like? recyclable/ reuseable? landfill-bound? can i get it in bulk?

generally speaking, the further away a product comes from, the more effort i'll make to find an organic and/ or fair trade alternative. new zealand's environmental and worker protection rules, while not ultra-flash, are at least better than many other countries and we are more able to change nz practices than those of other countries...

it sounds like a lot of work, but hey, it's time we shrugged off the yoke of ignorant consumerism and started taking some responsibility for our lifestyles - toughen up!

educate yourself - it'll make you a better person, and also it's trendy now.