This Is Trash : A Wikipedia of Waste

Please please please, if you’re white, please read this post.

I find that issues around BIPOC’s (black, indigenous, and people of colour) voices really go unnoticed in the zero waste movement. Waste (nuclear, landfill, etc) disproportionately affects these communities. They are more likely to live near landfills or nuclear waste dumping areas. As the article says, 50% of people who live near hazardous waste are people of colour. Daniel Brook (1998) specifically discusses the issue of toxic waste being dumped on native American reserves and environmental genocide. Plus, their communities are often the hardest hit when it comes to the effects of climate change (hello Hurricane Katrina, the article explains more on this). 

I always had this underlying uncomfortable feeling about how focused zero waste was on individual action. I felt like it wasn’t reaching it’s full potential. As a collective, zero wasters could be so much more powerful together. We need to challenge governments and corporations to push towards sustainable practices in a concrete way. Writing letters, organizing protests and boycotts. We cannot just sit around while there are harmful plastics continuing to be produced.

Here’s a great quote from the article that sums up my thoughts:

“While we busy ourselves greening our personal lives, fossil fuel corporations are rendering these efforts irrelevant. The breakdown of carbon emissions since 1988? A hundred companies alone are responsible for an astonishing 71%. You tinker with those pens or that panel; they go on torching the planet.”

So basically, without collective action, we’re homer in this situation... Sleeping snuggly with our mason jars while corporations are allowed to run like wild fire.

So I’m trying to go for a few short posts, then a long post, few short, one long... you get it. 

So it’s technically time for a short post so...

Buy Nothing Day exists! It was started in Canada. The next one is Friday November 23rd 2018 (which also happens to be Black Friday). Some of us can’t afford to miss out on those deals with Christmas coming along and are still feeling pressure to buy things for their family. But if you can afford to not buy at those great sale prices, try participating next time! 

Check out this article for a longer explanation! 

The Aztecs had a zero waste city/society, where Mexico City used to be. When I say zero waste, I mean zero waste. There has been no record of Aztec garbage dumps found.

And it wasn’t a small city either. At the time, in 1519, it had a population of 200,000. It was larger than any current European city, and the most populous city in the Americas. So this was no small feat. They had their trash on lockdown. 

They would recycle everything.

Their food/agriculture waste was used as fertilizer. 

They would burn old, “useless” textiles at night to light the city.

They had pepenilia who went throughout the city looking for recyclable material. (In Mexico there are still people called pepenadores who scavenge for reusable materials)

They would even use their urine and feces. (I did say they recycled everything!) Their poop was used as fertilizer, but also to tan leather. They had a sewer system that collected the poop and it was eventually sold in the city’s markets. The urine was also used to fix fabric dyes, and also “considered a resource.” Almost everyone would put their pee into containers and sell it. (And we just waste it by flushing it down the toilet?) By using it they also prevented it from being released into nature and causing pollution! 

Plus, they had some pretty harsh laws around wastefulness. If someone cut down a live tree without permission, they could be killed. 

And, unlike our current society, the “elite” were subject to harsher punishments if they broke the law. Even the elites’ children could be killed for being wasteful.

Basically (maybe minus the killing) this is pretty ideal. They had a circular system which recycled everything and wasted nothing. What more could you want as a zero waster?

This shows us how much we really have to learn about waste management from indigenous societies, both past and present. And this is only one example! 

Here is a link to an article explaining the “buy today, eat today” motto traditional in Indonesia. Some explain that this helps reduce food waste, as you only buy what you need for the day so everything is used. 

Here is a link to the Indigenous Perspectives Society, who has a zero waste policy in place!

This article (McGregor, D. (2010). The Earth Keepers Solid Waste Management Planning Program: A Collaborative Approach to Utilizing Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge and Western Science in Ontario. International Journal of Canadian Studies, (41), 69–98.) also describes how useful and important traditional indigenous knowledges are important for future sustainability, as indigenous people have lived sustainably for thousands of years.

Often, the zero wasters that I see are white. So please check out this powerful black zero waster!