What I’ve learned: Sara

Ultimately, I’ve learned that it is much easier to ask: “Why don’t they simply implement a composting program?” or to say “everyone should compost and recycle,” than it is to actually make it happen. A great idea isn’t a great idea until it is feasible, scalable, and actionable. It requires context, an opportunity, and unfortunately, most importantly, capital. It is hard to get an idea off the ground, and with so many people trying to find solutions to our global social issues, it has become a competitive field. I find this ironic.

I also learnt that support and stakeholder engagement are critical factors in the success of a program or initiative. We assume, as students who are taking a course on social innovation, that everyone will want to be on board for positive change. Unfortuantely, this is not true. MANY MANY people do not understand the issues our world is facing, in my case, particularly, those issues that are environmental. I don’t understand why there is such an information gap, but there is, and it’s large. Support is very hard to achieve, but it’s because people’s values and beliefs are even harder to change. Watching Annie Leonard’s video, “The Story of Stuff,” taught me to look at the supply chain in an entirely different way. I think twice before I buy something, and three times before I throw something away. I am so aware now of the mass consumption in the the world, that I have an acquired a sixth sense. I hope to use my business skills, and my passion for sustainability, to fast forward the adoption of environmental awareness and change.

I have learned that everyone has something valuable to offer. You may think you know something, until you get someone else’s opinion on it. There are often a lot of underlying reasons and factors behind our social issues, and each time I talked to an individual or professional in the field, I gained a new perspective and insight. I appreciate everything I have taken out of this course; if you truly want to learn something, or to make a difference, the world is begging you to do just that.

Out and About

Dropping our composting prototype off to Parminder (owner of Renaissance Coffee)

Trashbusters teaming up with fellow future social innovators: RE-USING old cellphones!

Pilot at Renaissance

Lawrence & Candace – SFU Facilities & Sustainable SFU

Trashbusters had the pleasure of chatting with Lawrence Reason from SFU Facilities and Candace Bonfield, from Sustainable SFU. You may not think that facilities and sustainability have a lot in common, but in fact, these two silos cross more often than not. S

As a team, Sustainable SFU and SFU Facilities have been collaborating to audit the amount of food waste generated at SFU Burnaby. We thought it would be a great opportunity to see how their knowledge and research could help Trashbusters in accelerating the speed and success of our composting and food rescue program. These audits are currently taking place in the Maggie Benson Centre, and the key purpose is to quantify how much organic waste is generated, to fill a compost system, rather than a landfill.

Some key take-aways from our conversation include the following points mentioned by Candace and Lawrence:

Why hasn’t composting worked at SFU Burnaby in the past?

Previously the composting initiatives were student run, and then when the students graduated, or lost interest, or became too busy and so the project eventually lost support.

There has also not been enough organic waste generate by the SFU community to make this initiative financially feasible. One side of this is that vendors have become extremely efficient at managing their waste. The other, less desirable side, is that vendors supply a lot processed and refined foods, ones that, if leftover, cannot be composted. Lawrence noted that it costs roughly $35 000 to install a composting system, but this does not include the variable costs of sorting, collecting, and mixing the waste. This coupled with a lack of financial support for the project (particularly none from the municipality of Burnaby) presents Trashbusters with some large hurdles.

Facilities has considered sending the compostables off campus to another site, but the cost associated with carbon credits and footprint remains high.

 How would a composting system be different this time around?

 The composting project will be staff run and staff supported. According to Candace, “A staff run program is the most effective way to be successful.”

 Feasibility & Logistics:

 Most likely, SFU Burnaby will instate a warm composting system on the hill. Currently there are decisions about whether to have the soil sent down the mountain or used on site. With the proposal, which they plan to have submitted in the 2010, it should provide the SFU staff with the base funding necessary to run to the project.

The composting initiatives will be injected in three phases. The first phase will include the easiest targets – the food vendors on campus. The second phase will include staff and faculty offices. The third phase then will be the hardest targets – members of residence and the general public. It is currently a challenge to even have residence buildings to recycle their bottles and paper, so composting can pose additional challenges for them as well.

 Stay tuned as Trashbusters continues to assess the feasibility and uncovers the best avenues through which to make change.

Trashbusters in Action!

A big thank you to everyone who came to support our event today at Renaissance Coffee on Burnaby Mountain!

We had a great turnout; and hopefully, we had were able to some great minds thinking about the benefits, how-to’s and implementation of composting!

Knowing that Renaissance’s peak hours are from 12-2, we set up our station just as the rush begin: with 4 bins each labelled “Compost it,” “Rescue it,” “Recycle it,” and “Trash it” we began to attract quite a crowd. We began educating and questionning both SFU faculty and students alike about composting, and engaged customers in the process of separating their food and packaging. Not only were they enthused, but they also really appreciated the learning! Even if people were not eating, they came over to see our display and to ask more the “ins and outs” of composting.

We found that many people, while aware of the benefits of composting, do not in fact do it themselves. There seems to be a lack of motivation due to the sheer fact that people “Didn’t know how!” to do it.

Here were some of our key findings:

-35/40 participants agreed that SFU should have their own composting facility. (The remaining 5 argued that contamination would be a problem, or that the startup costs of education and equipment may outweigh the benefits – both very valuable and considerable points for Trashbusters to consider in our feasibility).

-34/40 would be more than willing to support a composting program at SFU (ie. separating their food waste into labeled bins as we had displayed).

-32/40 said that, if it was made easy and economical, they would have their own composting system at home. (8 people mentioned that they lived in a rented condo, and it would be up to their  landlord to make that desicion). (**idea for Trashbusters: small composting sites that tenants can keep inside their apartment or condo)

-We realized the “Rescue it” plan (ie. saving perfectly good cans, boxes and perishables — that would otherwise be tossed in the garbage and headed for our landfills – and redirecting it to hungry people) did not generate enough food to make this program feasible for just the students and faculty to employ at SFU.

-The most commonly composted item was… NAPKINS! Yes, napkins! So many participants were unaware that paper napkins could be composted, that we created quite a stir of conversation around what other kinds of unsuspecting goods could also  be composted! Because we were at a coffee shop, we also collected a lot of teabags.

While Parminder, the coffee shop’s owner, could not be there today, we will be interviewing him later in the week to discuss his opinions and attitudes toward a composting system at Renaissance, and throughout SFU! Stay tuned for pictures, and if you missed out on the festivities today, send us your questions!

The facts behind date labels!

Ever wonder how seriously those date labels should be taken on your food? What do all the different ones really mean anyways?

Find a brief summary below: (Hopefully this will help you to better assess whether or not that loaf of bread really needs to be thrown out!)

Use-by. This is the key date in terms of safety – never eat products after this date and observe storage instructions. Check if the food can be frozen if you need to eat it at a later date. ‘Use by’ dates are usually found on chilled products such as cooked meats, soft cheeses and dairy-based desserts.

 Best before. ‘Best before’ dates are usually on longer shelf life foods such as frozen, tinned or dried goods and refer to quality rather than safety. So, with these things, it’s best to use your judgement. It should be safe to eat food after the ‘best before’ date, but food may no longer be at its best. One exception is eggs – never eat eggs after the ‘best before’ date.

 Display Until \ Sell by. Date marks such as ‘display until’ or ‘sell by’ often appear near or next to the ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date. They are used by some shops to help with stock control and are instructions for shop staff, not shoppers.

For a full explanation, please go to The Food Standards Agency webpages http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/labellingterms/

Love Food Hate Waste

Around a third of all the food we buy ends up being thrown away and most of this could have been eaten – it’s not just peelings, cores and bones.  90% of us just don’t realise how much good food we throw out, yet we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year. It’s not just an issue of good food going to waste, or that this costs us as consumers a significant amount of money, but that there are serious environmental implications. The amount of food we throw away is a major contributor to the production of greenhouse gases. It is also a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.

Cheese is a good example – feeding and milking the cows, cooling and transporting the milk, processing it into cheese, packing it, getting it to the shops, keeping it at the right temperature all the time. If it then gets thrown away it will most likely end up in a landfill site, where, rather than harmlessly decomposing as many people think, it rots and actually releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. If we stopped wasting food which could have been eaten, it would have the same impact on carbon emissions as taking 1 in 5 cars off the roads.

A recently launched campaign in the UK aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce the amount of food that we throw away, and how doing this will benefit us as consumers and the environment. For more information, check out their website: Love Food Hate Waste

Part I: Eating In =Take-IN containers

The topic of waste management is large and complex. In order to keep our solution both manageable and feasible for the city of Vancouver, we have significantly narrowed the scope of our issue. Informing ourselves on issues from energy waste, to water waste, Trashbusters have decided to become experts in the area of packaging and food waste reduction.

 An initial solution focused on a newspaper sharing program for public transportation, but, after much research, we have decided to shift to something more scalable:  a non-disposable dishware program in food courts, and the eventual implementation of a compost and food rescue program. We have divided this solution into two parts, and for the purpose of easy readership, this post will include the details of the first:

 

1. NON-DISPOSABLE DISHWARE PROGRAM:

The Trashbusters have always been bothered to see the amount of unnecessary paper, plastic, and Styrofoam waste that is generated at meal time; “take out” containers are used even when people are not actually leaving the food court to eat. An initiative that removes these containers from the equation can reduce waste by 50%. As such, part one of our solution works as such:

 a) Order your meal at your desired vendor/restaurant.

b) Your meal is then served in a ceramic bowl/plate with non-disposable utensils, marked with the advertising of your desired vendor (this advertising serves both to promote the restaurant, and to inform the food court attendants where it is to be returned).

c) When you are finished eating, a food court attendant will put your used dishes through an eco-friendly dish-washing machine.

d) Should you wish to leave the food court with your leftovers, you may pay an additional fee for take-out containers/utensils.

 Concerns: 

Who is paying the mall workers for their extra duties, in washing and returning plates to the vendors?                               Are the initial start up costs too high for the food vendors? Who foots  the bill?

Ultimately, there must be an agreement between the mall authority and the individual food vendors, who would need to be on board with the waste reduction program. While the initial costs are high, Trashbusters discovered that plastic take out containers and cutlery are “significant expenses” to the food court restaurants; as such, switching to a long-lasting alternative, such as ceramic plates and bowls, could save thousands of dollars in the long run. If it is too costly for malls to support the added fee of food court attendants, Trashbusters feels it is realistic to have volunteers, specifically those passionate about sustainability, operate the washing and return of the dishware.

Trash-talkin’ Take-aways

Are we running out of space? Is this even safe? Where can we put the rising amounts of garbage in the centuries to come? How are we going to change people’s actions, let alone their perceptions?

This kind of thinking has fuelled our interest in the topic of waste management, and has pushed us to learn in ways we would have never imagined. Through interviews, videos, extensive reading and research, we “Trashbusters” have developed a sixth sense – one that spots waste, and sparks solutions (although, not always feasible), everywhere we go.

With a newfound knowledge, from resource extraction, to manufacturing, to the eventual act of packaging (who really needs goods wrapped in plastic, then put in a container, then wrapped in plastic again, and THEN put into a plastic bag?!?!), our guilt for consumption has become unanimous. “Trashbusters” never knew (let alone thought), that a lot of our recycling efforts (literally) go to waste: Tetrapaks are not truly recyclable, computers and e-waste often get shipped to landfills in China, and the recycling process still requires significant amounts of energy and valuable resources to work.

All of these misconceptions have led us to believe that putting our waste to an end means putting  our consumption to an end. Cutting back on waste is not hard, if everyone pools their efforts; so why aren’t we all reducing our waste already?

A solution isn’t the answer until it becomes “more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals” (Phills et Al, 2008). We never knew all the criteria necessary to make it work – opportunity, people, and capital, in the right amount, at the right time. As we’ve spent the past weeks talking to people in the areas of food courts, recycling depots, compost facilities, and innovation councils, “Trashbusters” looks forward to your feedback and support in transforming our concept (see our “Solutions” page), into a successful and sustainable practice!

Urban Binners in Vancouver

Trashbusters took a visit to our local United We Can to check out what goes on at their Recycling Centre. It is open 7 days a week, and accepts roughly 50,000 containers a day.

All in a day’s work:

Here is Kelly as she stands beside just a small portion of the wall taken up by bottles & containers.

It is ironic to think that we are the ones who have created the problems associated with consumption & waste, yet it is the binners who have to clean up after us. People living in the Downtown Eastside are regulating our waste. The whole world could benefit from some tips about frugality and appreciation from them. I mean, how is it possible that in one day, they can collect over 50 000 containers, thrown away by us? Something is clearly wrong with the world today…