I recently watched a Canadian film on what else but my favorite topic: garbage.
Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home was made in Toronto in 2007 by Andrew Nisker and documents his best friend’s family as they save their garbage for 3 whole months in their garage. Yup, nothing like a heaping pile of stinking waste to remind you of how much you really do consume.
You gotta give it to the featured family, the McDonalds. They definitely put themselves out to the world, and even partook in filming themselves for the sake of their buddy’s documentary.
This film is not just about personal garbage. Andrew looks at broader impacts, following the garbage truck from Toronto down to the States to a cross-border landfill and interviewing the people who are impacted by the odor and noise of a working landfill.
Of course, once you start talking about environmental impacts, it’s no longer just about waste. Andrew touches on water quality, air quality, energy consumption, and other environmental issues that are impacted by the average family in their day to day lives of living on this planet.
The Revolution of the title is not a specific event, it’s an awareness of what impacts our daily choices have on others and the environment. And it’s like he says: it starts at home.
On a side note, I was pretty impressed to see compost pick up in action Toronto.
The Clean Bin Project Blog 
Metro Vancouver has just finished pilot testing a bunch of different technologies for an organics composting program in this region. I’d expect to see collection of residential kitchen organics at the curbside within a year to 18 months.
Right now, all the municipalities are figuring out how best to do collection, and some of them have some real issues like bears etc. to worry about.
Great film!! Love it!!
I hope it will be released nationwide & internationally & shown everywhere..??!!
Would LOVE to see it!!
& it needs to be put on Oprah & all the important shows, together with your project & everyone else’s!! 🙂