Category Archives: video

March 25, 2012 · 8:18 am

It Hasn’t Been That Long

I’m blatantly stealing a post from the lovely and talented Mrs. Green over at My Zero Waste (compliments help when you’re stealing content). I couldn’t help myself; this video was a sweet reminder that in the grand scheme of things, is really hasn’t been that long since we started this whole overpackaged, mass consumer, industrialized food thing. It also makes me want to alternately sow seeds in my garden and run over to my Grandma’s house for a chat.

Whether you’re 20 or 100, I think it’s a good exercise to take five minutes to consider how food has changed in our lifetimes and what we want to be spending our money on. Unlike Mrs. Green, I can’t seem to be tech savvy enough to embed a flash video, so I’m going to have to send you over to the original website: click here to watch 100 Years of Food (it’s just 5 minutes long)

I love how she weasels a kiss out of not one, but two grocery employees (you don’t get away with that kind of request unless you’re over 100).

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February 8, 2011 · 12:58 pm

To Pee or Not To Pee

I have to give full credit for this post to Tom Watson of King County. It’s a hilarious ad for water conservation from a Brazilian Environmental Organization. Their message is pretty simple: pee in the shower to save water. I’ll let you watch it, and then we’ll discuss:

So here’s the deal. Tom says that this kind of campaign wouldn’t work in North America because North Americans do not pee in the shower.

He thinks that most of us would be super grossed out and that 70 percent of us “would give it a thumbs down”. Sadly, I think he might be right. I mean think of that entire Seinfeld episode where George pees in the public shower? (note that, for the record, I see a pretty big difference between a public shower and the privacy of your own home)

This brings up the whole question of what’s green vs. what’s acceptable. The people who first start doing something (using cloth bags, packing zero waste lunches, making their own yogurt) might be considered a little wacky, but over time, these things become the norm.

I’m thinking that the real issue with peeing in the shower is that you don’t do it in public. There is no one looking over your shoulder affirming that you are doing “the right thing”. Peer pressure goes a long way. Maybe if we all had water meters, it would be a different matter.

Well, I’m going to come right out and say it: I have peed in the shower. Not specifically to save water nor on a regular basis (maybe that will change now that I’ve seen this video), but I have done it.

So what do you think? Is it scandalous to pee in the shower? Did I just tell you way too much information? Or do you figure all pipes go to the same place, so what the heck?

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Filed under Around the house, video

November 10, 2010 · 8:37 am

Waste Watch Wednesday: The Majestic Plastic Bag

Ok, we haven’t had a wednesday video here for awhile, but then Grant showed me this stellar film last night, and I just had to share.

It’s a captivating short – perfectly shot and capturing the true story of plastic bags in vivid detail. Plus, it’s narrated by Jeremy Irons for that authentic, British “what I’m saying is fact – you can tell from my accent” appeal. I could just listen to him all day. Long live the mockumentary.

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May 22, 2010 · 10:40 am

The Clean Bin Project: The Film

If you read this blog regularly, you know that Grant and I have been working on a documentary film of our year of trying to live consumer free and zero waste. Guess what?

We’re finally done!!!!

Now for the shameless promotion:

If you live in Vancouver, please come out and see it on the big screen on Sat, May 29th, 2010 at 7pm at Granville 7 Cinemas! Tickets are available through our online box office (there will also be a few at the door).

If you live in the rest of Canada, keep an eye out for us because we’ll be cycling across the country this summer, showing the film along the way. Maybe we’ll be coming to your town? You can watch our progress and see the film schedule at http://www.cleanbinmovie.com/screenings/ (yes, I know it’s not very extensive yet – we’re working on it). Please contact us if your community is on our route and you want to help host a community screening. Looking forward to seeing lots of you this summer!

If you live somewhere else in the world, thanks for reading this far. You’re just going to have to sit tight for a bit – we don’t have DVD’s or t-shirts or anything else for sale. But we definitely have bigger plans, and we’ll let you know if the movie gets into a film festival near you.

Finally, the blog. Like many of you, I really don’t want this blog to become overrun with film news, so we have set up a separate website for the movie (www.cleanbinmovie.com). Here at the Clean Bin Project Blog, I’ll continue to post every week or so about zero waste and DIY and consumer free stuff just like usual. On the film website, we’ll have a news section where we’ll write about the movie and how the screenings are going and post photos from our tour etc. We are going to share the same old twitter account because I just can’t possibly manage two of everything.

Sound good?

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January 29, 2010 · 8:10 am

The Green Police

Ok, so I would advocate avoiding paper napkins, period. But, if you gotta use them, at least take the advice of the Green Police in this hilarious video.

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December 10, 2009 · 12:07 pm

“We are trashing the planet, we are trashing each other, and we’re not even having fun”

So says Annie Leonard. By now I’m sure you have all seen the Story of Stuff. Needless to say, it was one of many great educational resources that we tapped into a couple years ago, and it was one of the motivators for the Clean Bin Project.

Well, if you need any more motivation, I recently came across this film of Annie speaking live at the Bioneers Conference.

She manages to be both critical and positive at the same time, raising serious issues like over-consumption, and drawing laughs when describing how she can’t look at an everyday products without seeing its consumer lifecycle of flash through her mind. Once you start thinking about garbage, it seems that there’s no turning it off. . .