Monthly Archives: September 2009

September 30, 2009 · 11:15 am

Feminine Hygiene Chain Letter

diva-cup

I went to two conferences in the past two weeks, and in the process I learned a lot about social marketing.

At the first one, they were using a Mac computer for the presentations, and the first speaker commented about how Mac’s are the best computers and how much they love them. Strangely, every single subsequent speaker, also mentioned their love of Mac products in their talk. At first I thought that they were getting paid for the plug, but then I realized that Mac has developed such consumer loyalty that its clients have become its greatest advertisers – free spokespeople if you will.

The point is that people spread the word about products that they like. Products like ipods or. .. . . divacups. Continue reading →

13 Comments

Filed under consumerism, Hygiene

September 24, 2009 · 11:52 am

Selt Directed Greens vs Uninterested Polluters

I’ve had tons of people come up to me in the past year and tell me about how they only have to take their bin to the curb every few weeks, or how they started composting, or how it drives them crazy when their co-workers don’t recycle. It’s actually fascinating and uplifting all at once.

But I know that for every person like that, there’s another one who drags their overflowing wheelie cart to the curb every single week and that chances are it contains paper, aluminum, glass, and other valuable resources. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under Around the house, recycling

September 16, 2009 · 7:12 am

Waste Watch Wednesday – Bag It

There seems to be a never ending stream of eco-conscious films these days. No Impact Man hits the theatre soon as does The Age of Stupid.

Well, I just heard about another one called Bag It. Beth, from Fake Plastic Fish was interviewed for it. At first I was a bit disappointed by that since we wanted to interview her for our documentary, but really, the more people out there spreading the word about waste reduction (be it through film, blogging, or word of mouth) the better. Anyway, this flick looks pretty good. Hope it comes to a town near you.

Flying Pop

Remember that guest post that Grant’s cousin chronicling his adventure trying to avoid a plastic cup while on an airplane? And then I wrote about Chris Jordan whose art work informed me that 4 million plastic cups are used in the United States airline industry each day?

Well yesterday was the first time I’d been on a plane in a while, and you could definitely say that plastic cups were on my mind.

As we took off, I clutched my reusable mug and prepared to fight for my right to use it. I rehearsed in my mind how I would manoeuvre my way out of a plastic cup: plead, reason, cite the environment, claim the dreaded (but highly effective) “plastic allergy”?

But my fears were unneccessary. I’m happy to report that the good folks at Westjet didn’t bat an eye when I presented my reusable mug. That’s right. I said ‘yes’ to apple juice and flew plastic cup free at the same time!

A small battle, but a perfect example of a choice we can make that could, collectively, have a big impact.

(And before you tell me about how the very act of flying is more detrimental to the environment than a plastic cup, I should probably say that yes, I agree. And I do see the irony.)

3 Comments

Filed under interactions, no waste on the road

September 2, 2009 · 9:00 pm

Babies Equal Garbage?

baby Ok, this is it, I’m a declaring to the world that when I have kids, they will be using cloth diapers the majority of the time. And you can hold me to it.

What else in the western world creates such volumes of consumer level garbage? What else makes your garbage smell that fricking bad? Except disposable diapers.

Not that I haven’t been aware of this for awhile, but last weekend, I had occasion to have a few disposable diapers left in my garbage bin, and let me tell you, if I had a garbage bin that smelled like that during the garbage strike, you betcha that I’d be pretty irate. I’m starting to sympathize with those parents who resorted to dumping their trash in public parks just to get it off their property. . . . Continue reading →

13 Comments

Filed under Around the house