Four Steps to Less Wasteful Communities

by Fran Korten

The individual actions we take to reduce waste are important. But to stem the avalanche of stuff, we also need system-wide solutions.

Seattle is one of a growing number of cities with a long-term goal of zero waste. Over the last decade, the city has cut the material it sends to the landfill by 34 percent, even though the population has grown. Richard cited four important solutions Seattle is using:

• Product bans and fees. Plastic bags used at checkout counters and Styrofoam food containers are two items that Seattle and other cities have banned. When Ireland put a hefty fee on plastic bags, their use went down by 94 percent.

• Takeback programs. Also known as “extended producer responsibility,” these programs require companies to take responsibility for worn-out products. That gives product designers incentive to make it easier to reclaim components. The European Union mandates producer responsibility for cars. In the United States, Seattle and other cities, along with some states, are demanding producer responsibility for a growing list of products, including electronics, paint, batteries, carpets, and fluorescent lights.

• Promoting composting. Seattle and other cities now require that to-go food containers be compostable. Some, including Seattle, make composting food and yard waste easy by providing curbside pickup.
• Demolition permits. Many cities encourage contractors to recycle demolition waste. But contractors often resist, partly because once they get their permit to build, their line of credit kicks in and they are under tremendous financial pressure to build quickly. Recycling slows them down. So Seattle gives the demolition permit well before the construction permit. The percentage of the city’s demolition waste that is recycled has risen to 66 percent.

The individual actions we take to reduce waste are important. But to stem the avalanche of stuff that invades our lives and destroys our Earth, we also need system-wide solutions. Fortunately there are lots of them and many can be enacted in our own towns and cities. This holiday season, when stuff is on our minds, is a great time to make a New Year’s resolution to help our communities get on the road to zero waste.

 

 

10 Tips for a Zero-Waste Household

by Bea Johnson

A few years ago, my husband and I decided that we wanted a better world for our two boys, now 10 and 11 years old. We embarked on a journey to do our part for the environment: My husband quit his job to join a sustainability start-up; I tackled the home.

I started by adopting reusable water bottles and shopping totes, but slowly took it further by replacing disposables with reusables (toilet paper excluded), shopping in bulk with cloth bags, bringing glass containers to the store for wet items (meat, deli, fish, cheese, oil...), and even testing more extreme ideas, like shampooing with baking soda and vinegar for 6 months. A year's worth of our household solid waste now fits in a quart size jar.

What we discovered along the way is that the benefits of the zero-waste lifestyle go well beyond the obvious environmental impact. It has not only made us healthier (since the healthiest foods do not come packaged), but it has also saved us a great deal of money. Most importantly, we now have more time to do the things that matter most to us, like spending it with our kids.

We find that we have become a closer and happier family in the process. We have found balance without compromising our goals, aesthetics, or sanity. Zero-waste living is on auto-pilot.

The zero in "zero waste" makes it sound scary and hard to achieve. It is actually not as as hard as it seems, and it is as simple as following these five R's, in order:

• Refuse what you do not need.
• Reduce what you do need.
• Reuse by using reusables.
• Recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce, or reuse.
• Rot (compost) the rest.

Refuse
1. Fight junk mail. It's not just a waste of resources, but also of time. Register to receive less at dmachoice.org, optoutprescreen.org and catalogchoice.org.

2. Turn down freebies from conferences, fairs, and parties. Every time you take one, you create a demand to make more. Do you really need another "free" pen?

Reduce
3. Declutter your home, and donate to your local thrift shop. You'll lighten your load and make precious resources available to those looking to buy secondhand.

4. Reduce your shopping trips and keep a shopping list. The less you bring home, the less waste you'll have to deal with.

Reuse
5. Swap disposables for reusables (start using handkerchiefs, refillable bottles, shopping totes, cloth napkins, rags, etc.). You might find that you don't miss your paper towels, but rather enjoy the savings.

7 Ways to Cook Up
a Sustainable Diet
No Impact Week: Helpful tips
for planet-friendly eating.

6. Avoid grocery shopping waste: Bring reusable totes, cloth bags (for bulk aisles), and jars (for wet items like cheese and deli foods) to the store and farmers market.

Recycle
7. Know your city's recycling policies and locations—but think of recycling as a last resort. Have you refused, reduced, or reused first? Question the need and life-cycle of your purchases. Shopping is voting.

8. Buy primarily in bulk or secondhand, but if you must buy new, choose glass, metal, or cardboard. Avoid plastic: Much of it gets shipped across the world for recycling and often ends up in the landfill (or worse yet, the ocean).

Rot
9. Find a compost system that works for your home and get to know what it will digest (dryer lint, hair, and nails are all compostable).

10. Turn your home kitchen trash can into one large compost receptacle. The bigger the compost receptacle, the more likely you'll be to use it freely.

An attempt at going zero waste starts with small changes. It's within anyone's reach, and change starts at home. As you embark on No Impact Week, remember—you're not alone in the challenge.

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Bea Johnson wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions for a just and sustainable world. Bea blogs at The Zero Waste Home, where she shares personal stories and waste-reducing tips with a growing community of people are taking a stance on needless waste.

Interested?

• Register for No Impact Week.
  End the summer right! Join YES! for a one-week carbon cleanse that could change your life, your community, and even the planet.
• Jump In Together: An Invitation to No Impact Week
  Sometimes the hardest part of changing our lives and world is believing that it’s possible. Colin Beavan on finding a place to start.
• Small Steps for Growing a No Impact Family
  Since trying the No Impact Week experiment, our family has learned to be mindful of our habits, and live with more joy.

Source: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/10-tips-for-a-zero-waste-household

Zero Waste World

 

WHAT IS ZERO WASTE?

Zero waste means setting a new goal for how we live in the world – one that aims to reduce what we trash in landfills and incinerators to zero – and to rebuild our local economies in support of community health, sustainability, and justice.

Adopting a zero waste approach to resource management is critical to the future of our planet and its peoples.

Today’s throw-away societies create and dispose of vast quantities of waste every day.  But not all are equally responsible for this problem. Those who already have more, waste more — and this pollution is too often dumped on communities that are treated as “disposable.”

As pollution overwhelms many of our cities and natural resources become scarce, people around the world are increasingly realizing that this pattern must change. We cannot continue to throw “away.”  Simply put, “away” does not exist. When we bury our waste, the landfills that we create hurt communities; they generate toxic leachates and emit methane gas which contributes to climate change.  Burning garbage (otherwise known as “incineration”) is an equally primitive scheme that also destroys resources and is even more costly and polluting.

There is a much better approach.  For generations now, workers and communities have conserved materials and created value through composting, recycling, and reuse.  They have innovated solutions and demonstrated how to create locally resilient economies through strategies that generate livelihoods, rebuild the soil, protect public health, and recover materials for manufacturing.  And today they are coming together with forward-thinking local governments to put forth a new vision of how we can live better in this world.

What are some of the elements of zero waste solutions?

At its most basic, zero waste is about significantly reducing, and eventually completely eliminating, the amount of stuff that we send to disposal. Most of what we now waste can be safely and economically recycled, reused, composted, or turned into biogas. We also need to simply use less disposable stuff and redesign our products so that they are toxic-free and built to last.

Wastepickers from Parisar Vikas compost waste in a housing colony in Mumbai, India.(Photo by Gigie Cruz)

But zero waste is also much more. It is about environmental justice, so that pollution and waste treatment facilities are not concentrated in poor and disenfranchised communities. It is about inclusion, so that the millions of people worldwide who make a living by collecting and selling discarded materials (aka waste pickers, catadores, grassroots recyclers) are able to live with dignity. It’s about putting money into real solutions, and combatting corruption. It’s about community organizing, education, and democracy, so that all citizens can participate in local resource management plans, funding is fairly distributed, and so that all businesses and manufacturers understand and fulfill their roles in minimizing waste and designing products for the future.

Zero waste programs include all of the following strategies:

• Reducing consumption
• Reusing discards
• Extended producer responsibility, especially for the most toxic products
• Comprehensive recycling
• Comprehensive composting or bio-digestion of organic materials
• Citizen and worker participation
• A ban on waste incineration
• Policies, regulations, incentives, and financing structures to support these systems

Effective zero waste programs also include many different kinds of people.  From waste worker cooperatives to local neighborhood groups to universities and governments, people around the world are working together to develop zero waste programs, adopt resolutions, and create innovative plans to reduce their waste disposal levels to zero.  These leaders are modeling efficiency and sustainability by creating well-paying jobs and livelihoods in the reuse and recycling industries, reducing consumption, and requiring that products be made in ways that are safe for people and the planet.  They are proving that our air, soil, and water do not have to be polluted, and that our natural resources don’t have to be trashed.

Zero waste can combat climate change

Preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting programs – that is, aiming for zero waste – is one of the fastest, cheapest, and most effective strategies available for combatting climate change. GAIA’s international network is organizing to support community-based movements for environmental justice, zero waste, and real climate solutions.

We believe that a zero waste approach to managing our resources addresses root causes of global warming while safeguarding human health and dramatically reducing our demand on natural resources. As waste companies and other climate cons try to sell their incinerators and landfills as “renewable energy facilities” to governments worldwide, GAIA is working to expose these polluters’ false claims and highlight the real climate solutions provided by a zero waste approach. These are goals whose time has come, and these are the issues and stories that Zero Waste World will be sharing with you.

Source: http://zerowasteworld.org/zero-waste-faq/

Reframing Sustainable Development: A Critical Analysis, April 2013

• http://www.ciwem.org/policy-and-international/current-topics/sustainable-development.aspx

'Reframing Sustainably Development' proposes a new sustainability paradigm in order to avert environmental and subsequent social and economic collapse.

CIWEM considers that the current emphasis on an integrated consideration of environmental, social and economic components of sustainability is undermined by poor decision making, weak governance and institutional frameworks which, ultimately, allow too great an emphasis on economic growth to the detriment of environmental and resource conservation.  Furthermore, there remains confusion with currently accepted definitions of sustainable development concerning the precise meaning of terms including 'development' and 'future'.  Thus, as a global community we are a long way from any kind of sustainable development.

In order to rectify this failure, CIWEM considers that sustainable development must be re-framed to focus more explicitly on the fundamental environmental dimension within culturally sympathetic contexts.  The single limiting factor of a so-called sustainable human race is the management and rate of exploitation of a finite planet - its resources and natural environment - of which humankind is a part. If these resources can be managed and conserved appropriately then pressures on people and the environment will be lessened and social and economic benefit will ultimately follow.

This report is endorsed by the Society for the Environment.

Mainstreaming Sustainability - A CIWEM Review of the UK Government's progress, January 2012

Since the election of the Coalition Government in May 2010 there has been a significant shift in the sustainability agenda.  The current Government position on sustainability is that it should not be driven from a non-departmental, independent body but mainstreamed throughout government utilising the same frameworks as for other agendas.

Mainstreaming Sustainability critically examines this new approach to sustainable development and sets out CIWEM's position on whether we consider it to be an appropriate model.  This work takes into account recent commentary by the Sustainable Development Commission (closed down in April 2011), the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee and others including CIWEM's own experts. CIWEM has also analysed the actions taken on planning and zero-carbon homes from the DCLG, low carbon and green economy policies from the DECC and action on the natural environment from Defra. The Government's own performance across its estate in terms of carbon cutting and procurement is also assessed. CIWEM has judged each area against the principles of SD in Securing the Future.

CIWEM's related activities

The policy team will be developing a new SD workstream in summer 2012 looking into defining SD post Rio+20.

CIWEM has been particularly vocal on the issue of sustainable development within the government's reforms to the planning system and the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework. We were on the front page of the Telegraph following our press release: "A builders' charter". We considered the initial draft of the framework to be completely deficient and have been pleased to see a marked improvement in the definitions of SD in the final draft. Our responses to the Department of Communities and Local Government and the Communities and Local Government Committee can be found in the side tab.

Nick Reeves gave oral evidence to the Communities and Local Government Committee on our concerns over an economic bias to sustainability in the NPPF. The Committee's final report agreed with many of our recommendations.

In Summer 2011 Alastair, Laura and Jo from the policy team met with Jonathon Porritt to discuss the current structures in place for SD and where/how best to influence the government.

Following the publication of 'Mainstreaming Sustainability' in Jan 2012, the policy team met Defra's head of transparency and stakeholder engagement in the Sustainable Development Unit to discuss how they may better encourage and implement SD into policy across government in early May.

Our Sustainability panel have been working on a signposting tool Signposts to Sustainability to help those in the industry put in place the most appropriate measures to increase sustainability at the various stages across the life of a project.

Policy Position Statements

• Population and Consumption
• Aviation
• Delivering Sustainable Development
• Sustainable Communities
• Stakeholder Engagement

Download Food for Thought and Action: A Food Sovereignty Curriculum

Our global food system is terribly broken. Together, we can fix it!

Food for Thought and Action: a food sovereignty curriculum is an educational tool realized by Grassroots International and the National Family Farm Coalition offering a practical way to strengthen a growing food sovereignty movement including consumers, farmers, environmentalists and communities.

The curriculum is a collection of exercises and activities grouped into four modules: one each for consumers, faith and anti-hunger groups, environmentalists and farmers. Depending on the audience, trainers and educators will be able to choose exercises from different modules in order to suit the needs of the target group. The curriculum emphasizes informed activism, aiming at building the food sovereignty movement especially in United States.

http://www.gaiauniversity.org/gu_blog/post/food-thought-and-action-food-sovereignty-curriculum

For dowloading the full document please visit Grassroots International website.

*****

Thank you for your interest in Food for Thought and Action: A Food Sovereignty Curriculum! Below you will find the modules, factsheets, and other materials that make up the curriculum. You can also download a flyer announcing the launch of our the curriculum which you can send to your friends.

Of course we encourage you to read the curriculum in its entirety, but if pressed for time and you would rather go directly to the most relevant modules, we do highly recommend that you download and read the Overview section, which includes tips about how best to use the curriculum.

Food for Thought and Action: All modules and factsheets (ZIP)
3.3 MB

Overview: How to Use Curriculum and Introductory Exercises
972.98 KB

Factsheet: Food Sovereignty is Local Control!
97.71 KB

Module 1: Consumers
710.29 KB

Factsheet 1: Why Should Consumers Care About Agriculture and Trade Policy?
77.43 KB

Module 2: Faith and Anti-Hunger Groups
512.35 KB

Factsheet 2: What Can Faith-based and Anti-hunger Activists Do to Sustainably Feed the World?
83.49 KB

Module 3: Environmentalists
642.77 KB

Factsheet 3: Why Is a New Agricultural Policy Relevant to Environmentalists?
81.44 KB

Module 4: Small Farmers and Farmworkers
422.52 KB

Factsheet 4: Farming and Trade Policy – What Is the Impact on Family Farmers?
76.85 KB

Next Steps: What I / We Can Do to Help Build the Food Sovereignty Movement
115.51 KB

The 6 Food Sovereignty Principles
44.21 KB

Free Online Permaculture Design Course

Hello friends,

This morning we are thrilled to make an absolutely groundbreaking announcement.  You can now study permaculture online completely FREE with world-class instructors including Larry Korn through our new Online Permaculture Design Course. 

You can immediately begin viewing the complete 72+hour course lectures free at http://www.permaculturedesigntraining.com. There is no catch -- permaculture is rapidly changing the world, and we're doing our part to dramatically accelerate that change by
making this incredible wisdom available completely free. 

Over the upcoming months, we're going to be rolling out many new features (and cleaning up quite a few bugs that remain) but you can begin watching the course in the meantime.

So don't waste time - browse over to http://www.permaculturedesigntraining.com and begin watching the course today!  Be sure to forward this e-mail to your friends and if you have a website, please do link to the online course! 

Join us and let's change the world!
--
Regenerative Leadership Institute | 800-376-3775 | regenerative.com
The Nation's Sustainable Living School - BBB A+ Rated
14525 SW Millikan Way, Suite 17760, Beaverton, OR 97005

The Habitable Planet - A Systems Approach to Environmental Science

Course Overview

The Habitable Planet is a multimedia course for high school teachers and adult learners interested in studying environmental science. The Web site provides access to course content and activities developed by leading scientists and researchers in the field.
About this course // Using this site

Content By Type

• Online Textbook
• Video
• Interactive Labs
• Visuals
• Scientists
• Professional Development Guide
• Glossary

Content By Unit

1. Many Planets, One Earth 2. Atmosphere 3. Oceans 4. Ecosystems 5. Human Population Dynamics 6. Risk, Exposure, and Health 7. Agriculture

8. Water Resources 9. Biodiversity Decline 10. Energy Challenges 11. Atmospheric Pollution 12. Earth's Changing Climate 13. Looking Forward: Our Global Experiment

• http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/index.html

Sustainability Video Lecture Series

In Fall 2012, Communications grad student Xiaoyu "Sherry" Dong began videotaping a series of mini-lectures on various sustainability-related topics by campus experts which can be used to enhance courses if/when the expert is not available in person. These mini-lectures are available on YouTube - click on the name of the lecture to be connected to the YouTube file. These same lectures are also available on the Sustainability at Ithaca College ITunes U site.

"An Overview of Sustainability" (1:24 minutes)
various contributors

"What is Sustainability?" (20:04 minutes)
Marian Brown, Special Assistance for Campus and Community Sustainability

"What is Education for Sustainability?" (51:41 minutes)
Jason Hamilton, associate professor, Environmental Studies and Sciences
"Ithaca College's Sustainability Commitments"  (40:09 minutes)
Marian Brown, Special Assistance for Campus and Community Sustainability

Ithaca College's Climate Action Plan (33:08 minutes)
Marian Brown, Special Assistance for Campus and Community Sustainability

"Business and Environmental Issues"  (51:44 minutes)
Marlene Barken, associate professor, Legal Studies and students in her Fall 2012 Marketplace Regulation and Consumer Protection (LGST 32000) class

"How an Organization Can be Sustainable to Employees"  (26:44 minutes)
Cory Young, associate professor, Strategic Communication
Interviewer: Xiaoyu "Sherry" Dong

"Climate Science: What Do We Know and Why Does it Matter?"  (38:41 minutes)
Susan Allen-Gil, professor, Environmental Studies and Sciences

"Trash Talk" (15:11 minutes)
Mark Darling, sustainability programs coordinator, Facilities

"The Big Talk"  Sustainability Panel Discussion (December 2012)  (1:47:19 minutes)
Moderator: Mark Darling, sustainability programs coordinator, Facilities
Panelists:   Jason Hamilton, associate professor, Environmental Studies and Sciences
                 Tom Pfaff, associate professor, mathematics
                 Cory Young, associate professor, Strategic Communication

• http://www.ithaca.edu/sustainability/curriculumresearch/resourceslinks/sxvideolectures/

Why smart growth?

Smart Growth Principles

Mix Land Uses
Take Advantage of Compact Building Design
Create a Range of Housing Opportunities and Choices
Create Walkable Neighborhoods
Foster Distinctive, Attractive Communities with a Strong Sense of Place
Preserve Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty and Critical Environmental Areas
Strengthen and Direct Development Towards Existing Communities
Provide a Variety of Transportation Choices
Make Development Decisions Predictable, Fair and Cost Effective
Encourage Community and Stakeholder Collaboration in Development Decisions

Health, schools, taxes, traffic, the environment, economic growth, fairness, opportunity—many of the things we care about—are all affected by development decisions. From the length of our daily commute to the price of a new home to the safety of our neighborhoods-what, where, and how we build have major impacts on our personal lives, our com munities, and our nation.

Growth presents a tremendous opportunity for progress. Communities around the country are looking for ways to get the most out of new development and to maximize their investments. Frustrated by development that requires residents to drive long distances between jobs and homes, many communities are challenging rules that make it impossible to put workplaces, homes, and services closer together. Many communities are questioning the fiscal wisdom of neglecting existing infrastructure while expanding new sewers, roads, and services into the fringe. And in many communities where development has improved daily life, the economy, and the environment, smart growth principles have been key to that success.

Growth is "smart" when it gives us great communities, with more choices and personal freedom, good return on public investment, greater opportunity across the community, a thriving natural environment, and a legacy we can be proud to leave our children and grandchildren.

When communities choose smart growth strategies, they can create new neighborhoods and maintain existing ones that are attractive, convenient, safe, and healthy. They can foster design that encourages social, civic, and physical activity. They can protect the environment while stimulating economic growth. Most of all, we can create more choices for residents, workers, visitors, children, families, single people, and older adults-choices in where to live, how to get around, and how to interact with the people around them. When communities do this kind of planning, they preserve the best of their past while creating a bright future for generations to come.

Adapted from the PDF "This is Smart Growth," published by ICMA and EPA in 2006.

Designing For Generosity

"A gift culture is marked by 4 key shifts:
- from Consumption to Contribution (appreciate what you received and pay it forward)
- from Transaction to Trust (rely on our interconnectedness)
- from Isolation to Community (cultivate networks of gift ties)
- from Scarcity to Abundance (experience generative power of gratitude)
When small acts of giftivism get connected, it rekindles a gift economy." 

What would the world look like if we designed for generosity? Instead of assuming that people want to simply maximize self-interest, what if our institutions and organizations catered to our deeper motivations? This compelling TEDx talk explores this question and introduces the concept of Giftivism: the practice of radically generous acts that change the world. The video is charged with stories of such acts, ranging from: the largest peaceful transfer of land in human history, to a pay-it-forward restaurant, to a 10-year-old's unconventional birthday celebration, and the stunning interaction between a victim and his teenage mugger. With clarity and insight, it details the common threads that run through all these gift manifestations, and invites us to participate through everyday acts of kindness -- in an uplifting global movement.

• http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=3048