Yukon Chatter Bug

I recently came across a fellow blogger’s photograph of some of the garbage blown around near the Dawson City dump. This reminded me of articles I recently read in the Globe and Mail about a couple trying to go a month without producing any household trash; I was inspired. Of course I can’t claim to have come anywhere close to them, but their campaign made me more aware of just how much garbage we produce. Looking in my own trashcan, I realized that the largest portion of garbage turns out to be plastic: plastic wrap, plastic food containers/wrap (i.e. pasta), and the worst culprit, plastic shopping bags. Though I tried to re-use plastic shopping bags, they eventually tear and end up in the garbage. So I decided to buy canvas tote bags, as mentioned in a previous post.

These thoughts prompted a couple of questions:

• Why is it that grocery stores aren’t getting on board with this? Any kind of reusable tote bags are so expensive in grocery stores, that who would want to buy them? If they can charge for plastic grocery bags at no profit to themselves, they should be able to do the same with canvas tote bags. Make it easier for consumers to go green, not harder! (The same applies to all retail stores.)

• Everyone in Whitehorse knows, including store owners, that the city offers compost pick-up every two weeks. Why is it so difficult to find bio-degradable bags in local stores? I can see this being a problem in spring, when everybody’s cleaning their yards, but year-round? What local stores offer is inconsistent. And why on earth would I want to buy huge plastic orange and clear bags to pick up leaves and cuttings that are going to the compost? We need more bio-degradable bags!

Last night, I had the privilege of witnessing a friend of mine getting her head shaved to raise funds for someone who recently underwent cancer treatment. I’ve heard of people doing this, but have never seen it done.

While watching, I was thinking to myself what courage she has to part with her hair. I mean, it’s easy enough for men to go around with a bald head, or at least it’s more socially acceptable for men to be bald. For women, though, it’s another story. Not only is it less socially acceptable, but for those who have longer hair, it takes a long time to grow it back. (That’s why I think we should donate double the amount for women who do this.)

Okay, I know I’m starting to sound gender biased here: men have short hair, women have long hair, yadda yadda yadda. But if you look at it from the “socially acceptable” perspective, you might agree (or maybe not). Plus, women with super-short hair are often accused of being gay, or butch, or whatever term people like to use.

Regardless of all this, I realized that though it took courage for my friend to go bald, it took even more courage and strength for the cancer survivor to undergo her treatment and to keep fighting. I met her for the first time last night, and what a woman! She is beautiful inside and out, and had a smile on her face the whole time.

When I heard on the radio this morning about a local store owner willing to “rent” the video An Inconvenient Truth free of charge to his customers, I was impressed. Apparently, the owner of FasGas in Whitehorse was so blown away after seeing the video about climate change that not only did he decide to “lend” the video instead of renting it, but he’s looking into bringing in biodiesel at his gas bar. I don’t know that the use of biodiesel will be effective in the north’s cold, but this guy’s sudden passion for environmental issues which has prompted him to action is laudable. If you haven’t seen this video yet, get to it! You won’t regret it.
A bonus feature of the video is Al Gore’s top-notch use of a Power Point type of software for his presentation. I always cringe when I see lights go out and the good old PowerPoint come on (or the overhead) because 9 times out of 10, people DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE THEM EFFECTIVELY! The slides become a crutch, rather than adding to the content.

Getting back to the environment, when I visited my future mum-in-law over the holidays, I was a little surprised by the extent to which she re-uses everything: foil paper, coffee filters, saran wrap, bags; in short, anything you can possibly imagine gets washed, wiped, and put away. I don’t think my mother-in-law re-uses things for the specific purpose of “saving the environment.” From what I can tell, she has always done it. She’s from a generation where you simply don’t throw things out if there’s any possibility of life left in them. It was the waste not want not generation. My generation, on the other hand, grew up in the disposable era: diapers, water bottles, individually-wrapped everything and anything. Everything has to look perfect, new, and unused. We definitely need to change our way of thinking if we’re to save this planet.

So instead of rambling on, here’s my list of small ideas/suggestions to start with:

• How about gas bar owners or car manufacturers provide some kind of a discount for hybrid and Smart car owners when filling up with gas, say, for a specified time after purchase, such as one year? What about free parking for these vehicles? There aren’t enough of these on the roads yet for businesses/municipalities to worry about losing money.

• College/university instructors could allow students to re-use paper when handing in reports, papers, and other assignments – that is, using paper that already has something printed on the reverse.

• Why not use this “recycled” paper (printed on the reverse) in some of the printers at the college and at home? I’ve been doing this for two years now and rarely have paper jams. I keep a pile of “good” paper nearby, but my recycled paper is my default paper (always in the printer).

• Buy (or make) re-usable bags for grocery shopping. In Whitehorse, Riverside Grocery currently has nice big green cloth bags with handles for $1 each; I recently bought 15 to keep in my vehicle for my shopping. (Ask for them; they’re behind the counter.)

• Turn down the thermostat at night, when at work, and when on vacation.

• More information about what you can do
  • at home
  • at work
  • and more

Feel free to post a comment to add to this list.

May the earth be with you