I used to think I was pretty environmen-tally conscious. We teach our kids not to litter, we car pool whenever possible, recycle our paper, plastic and bottles, turn off lights when we leave a room, and try to do a variety of things to reduce our environmental footprint.
So, yeah, of course I feel smug and self-righteous… I’m from B.C., man. We’re, like, totally one with nature. Except, of course, when we aren’t.
A few weeks ago, I was at the Squamish Farmers’ Market speaking with Squamish Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) environmental coordinator Meredith Gee. She was at the market soliciting feedback on the SLRD’s new solid waste and resources management plan, and finding out what residents thought of the new curbside organics totes.
During our chat, she told me that roughly 40 per cent of the stuff that gets piled into our landfill comes from organics. That means almost half of what we throw away is food, food wastes and other organic material that could be used for composting instead of filling a hole in the ground along with all the other consumer crap we throw away weekly. Almost half!
Ye gods, I thought, who are these slovenly, wasteful Neanderthals who are messing up what the rest of us thoughtful folks have been trying to do? The sheer unadulterated nerve… I mean, really.
Gee told me that in an effort to take some pressure off the landfill and get people to address their organics, many households in Squamish had already received organic bins to use on recycling day, and smaller ones for the kitchen. I live in a townhome, so I was only getting one in the second rollout a week or so later.
Well, I got my organic tote, and after the first week of using it, you know what? I’m a slovenly, wasteful Neanderthal – and I didn’t even know it. I was flabbergasted by the amount of food my family threw away weekly… embarrassed is actually a better word. Mortified. I tend to cook like an Italian or Jewish mother, so there are always plenty of leftovers, which, of course, we never really finish.
But, now that we are aware of how much we have been wasting, it has literally changed the way we cook and how we run our little family kitchen. By week three, that organics tote wasn’t quite so full… and we’re getting better. Soon, I can be smug and self-righteous again, man.
