Waste harvest

I just watched a documentary from CBClearning called Harvesting the city. It's set in Toronto and portrays several companies that collect waste and sell it or use it as raw material for their products. Unsurprisingly, there were all these companies dealing with recycling: paper, cardboard, glass & metals, even contaminated water. It was not said what exactly happens to plastics from the recycling bins. One company collected food leftovers from Toronto's restaurants and distributed them to pig farmers. As well they were looking into extending to cattle farmers but cattle is a bit more fussy and the company does not know in advance what kind of scraps they'll receive.Another company collected scrap fabric and turned it into small clothing items such as hats. The most interesting company was the recycler of disposable diapers. In an "intensive process" the "materials" (the owner of the company does not like the word garbage because a lot of it is material that can be turned into something new) get cleaned and separated. The result is fibrous wood pulp whose quality is better than from trees and sells at higher prices. The shredded plastic is very absorbent and for example soaks up oil from water which makes it suitable for cleaning up oil spills. This diaper recycling company is the first of its kind and processes 40 tons of diapers each year. The question that did not get answered unfortunately was what "intensive process" means - according to the footage I would assume water & energy.  Maybe even chemicals?

The documentary did not really show what happens with thrown-out materials that do not go into the recycling process. Recycling is surely better than no recycling but it's still not an invitation to throw things out thinking that somebody down the road will hopefully deal with it. And if it has to be disposable diapers then why not use biodegradable ones and compost them.             

persistence or perseverance ...

I don't know the difference but it pays out. I have tried to get a BecoPotty for Ruby for 3 months or so. It's a UK manufacturer, http://www.becothings.com/, but they changed their Canadian distributor recently and this one seems somewhat incompetent. They finally promised me my local baby store, http://www.birthsource.ca, will have them by the beginning of next week. PLEASE! BecoPotties are made of waste plant material and will biodegrade once you dig a hole for them in your garden. Great!  That's the only damn potty I want for my baby. This Birth Source store also has now disposable diapers in stock that will decompose. Since a box of 28 in Ruby's size costs $23 I opted for a Bummi diaper cover for $15 instead. The issue is that in the snuggly (carrier) Ruby's current diaper covers leak, Bummi does not, at least not today. If Bummi keeps it up I will not need any disposable diapers any more. Hurray! The diaper boxes are really sturdy though and come in handy now that we need to hide more and more things from Ruby. Oh well, I'll find some alternative that's not plastic or course. 
       I have recently also reused Ruby's bath water. She's got a little bath tub and in winter we bath her once a week or so. She does not really get dirty. Her bottom and face get washed several times a day, that's most important. So the bath water comes in handy too. I soak my jacket or one of her sleeping bags in it over night, with a little Borax added, scrub if in the morning and voila it's done. The other day I then used the water to wash the floor in the hallway. Perfect. 


   
                     

sustainable or not sustainable

Vanessa Farquharson went to an Anti-Styrofoam party Toronto. The goal of the supporters is to get rid of polystyrene and replace it with something biodegradable like NaturoPack. It’s made out of corn, sugar cane and potatoes. That’s a little controversial to me because we have seen the consequences from ethanol where farmers suddenly produce more corn for fuel than for human consumption and market prizes go through the roof so that people who depend on that food can’t actually afford it any more. This can’t be it.  

Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, writes instead in his blog “To hell with sustainability”. He then makes the point that we can not actually sustain our current life style without destroying our planet and we therefore have to seek a life style that is better for us and the environment. This change includes that we shouldn’t try to make the packaging for junk food, or any take away as for that, more sustainable as in bio-degradable. The goal should be to make our kids, and ourselves I would say, eat food that is biodegradable to start with such as an apple. Since that is very idealistic and against the odds I suggest we should consider a bring-your-own-container-policy for take-away restaurants. At least for the transition period to healthier eating habits for everyone.