Here’s a Mason jar to hold your garbage for the week
Environmental group issues zero-waste challenge
KITCHENER — The waste bins have disappeared from Nikki Bishop’s house, replaced by a single one-litre Mason jar for each person.
Bishop and her family — husband, four kids, two cats, one dog and a parrot — are taking part in an extraordinary challenge for each family member to produce no more garbage over a five-day period than can be crammed into the Mason jar.
REEP Green Solutions launched the challenge, a first for Waterloo Region, as a way to get people thinking more about how much they throw out, and what they could do to make sure less of it ends up in the landfill.
The challenge runs from Oct. 24 to 28. Participants are encouraged to sign up, and can get tips and suggestions for how to cut out garbage on REEP’s website at reepgreen.ca/zerowaste101.
The challenge was immediately appealing, Bishop said. Her family is aware of environmental issues, but she thought this was a very concrete way to get her kids to think about doing things differently.
“They talk about the environment and agree with our ideas, but it’s the actual doing it. It’s easy for them to throw things out,” Bishop said.
There was the usual eye-rolling about another of “Mom’s crazy schemes,” she said, but everyone’s fallen in line.
She isn’t sure if they’ll meet the target of just a Mason jar apiece, but she thinks reaching it will actually require a fairly minor change in behaviour. Even including
the family’s many pets hasn’t been difficult: the bird’s cage is lined with newspaper, and she uses flushable cat litter and compostable dog-poop bags.
“It’s just readjusting your way of thinking,” Bishop said. “It’s very possible. It’s just change, and people are resistant to change.”
“I think it’s tapped into something with people,” said Mary Jane Patterson, REEP’s executive director. “A challenge like this is a fun way to dive into the area of waste management,” she said. “It’s very visual. I’ve got my Mason jars lined up at home.”
The challenge was partly spurred by news that Waterloo Region’s targets for green bin use are falling far short. The region collects about 9,000 tonnes in green bins every year, despite aiming to collect 20,000 tonnes a year. It was also inspired by the many stories on the web of people who have successfully reduced their trash to almost nothing.
“We live in a society that generates a lot of waste and we seldom think twice about it. When we do think about it, we often feel helpless to make a difference,” said Patterson. About 65 people have signed up for the challenge so far.
Bishop says she’d love to see more people — and businesses — take up the challenge.
“Everybody needs to think about this,” she said. “There’s too much stuff that goes to the landfill. It’s more about thoughtfulness of our environment and what we’re passing on to our kids. We can’t keep going on the way we are.”