Andrea's Everything Eco Exploration

Like caterpillars on the underside of leaves,  left to our own devices we devour more than what we need   I am a self professed environmentalist.  I pledge allegiance to the Earth. But I find our side is losing a long drawn war. A slow slip into defeat. We are simply outnumbered. We're encumbered by the hands clasping at our heels,  Like mud weighing down our slowing step. Soon we might stop, and watch the rush of corporate fuel ignite. With each tree we uproot we create more kindling More tinder in a dry drought desert. Why can't we be bothered To make a simple  switch Use a hand dryer instead of paper towels For example. I feel alone in my effort The behaviour has set like dye I gravitate towards the hand dryer every time Because I see no point in consuming a resource in less than 30 seconds Placing it in a trash bin and condemning it to a lifetime buried in a wasted grave Preserved in  airless inertia. And I can't say w...

We've created a backwards loopholed logic that frames our every day.  We've gotten lost in the word play and persuasion.     Our purses burst & beg impulse purchases.   Does it please us sufficiently?

I can talk about large lofty ideals, an upheaval of the current unsustainable systems. But this massive change cannot happen independantly. It needs to be made up of the efforts of dedicated individuals who take matters into their own hands. The consumer has more sway than most believe. If we are prepared, proactive and consciencious of our impacts, we can make the right decisions to start removing single use waste from our lives. Some steps are easier than others, and the best ones to start with include bringing reusable items with you to eliminate the need for disposable single use objects of convenience. If you bring a mug with you everywhere you'll never need to buy coffee in a cup. Sames goes for plastic bags, reusable utensils, water bottle. I even bring a reusable tupperware so I don't need to ask for a to-go container (which are sadly most often still styrofoam!) Living in a consumerist society it is difficult to escape the entrapments of convenience. Nearly everyth...

With my life I want to take a specific journey. I want to work towards a world where we are conscientious of where we stand, understanding our impacts and repercussions to our creations. Though I am still fresh in the journey of my mind, I believe I have enough heart to persist through time. I have the foresight to see far into the future I am working towards. I’ve been observing possibilities, analytically attempting to prove my hypothesis. I have ideas. I see the true natural world around me and the way in which it works together. To gather up the fallen leaves, to turn that into the nutrients you need, that is invaluable. An infallible system is one that has a use for its outputs. Saying goodbye to our by-products shouldn’t be to simply bury or burn them. We must turn them back to the beginning, thinning the stream of waste, of worst-case-scenario. In Ontario, they’re trying for Extended Producer Responsibility. Because their familiarity with the waste should increase their a...

The face of Calgary's Sheppard Landfill Waste is fresh on my mind. I find it quite upsetting when I’m fretting over whether to reuse or recycle my yogurt container, while corporations are throwing away truckloads of cardboard because they can justify the cost. The urgency is lost on them, deep in the depths of the corporate beast, under accounting, budgets, absolved costs and so on. I am a bipolar disposer. Filled with a call of action to improve the system some days, other times I find I am helpless, dragged in the undertow of an un-improving system. Calgary has highest per capita disposal rates in North America. Our streets may be clean but our landfills are swollen, growing fat in the abundance of space we’ve been graced with. Prairies create a disparity, downplaying the necessity of reduction because of an amplitude of open spaces to burry our waste. We are rich, and our wealth is wasted as we replace our resources on the daily, throwing away lightly used goods, becaus...

Is Coconut milk really better when you look at the triple bottom line? I never go to Starbucks, but the article still raises valid concerns about our ever growing appetite and the extent to which corporations go to make profits under the guise of 'healthy options' or 'vegan friendly'. Often times the results of globalism are neither healthy, friendly or profitable to the locals in the exploited exporter countries such as Indonesia in this case. Unnatural mono-cultures are grown in climates incompatible, so more fertilizers and pesticides need to be used, contaminating the natural surroundings and the native peoples. And don't even get me started on the amount of disposable products that leave their stores every hour, recyclable plastic and paper that just ends up in the landfill to be preserved for centuries... We really need to look at the big picture, and see how these large corporations are slowly destroying the planet. Once you realize, you can act a...

I attend events for a living. I talk to people, and try to educate them. I tell them about recycling, and what our containers turn into when they're recycled. It's a laid back and fun job, but often it is disheartening. Most people aren't interested in learning, only lured in by our giveaways. It's so hard to truly get through to them, to change their behavior. Recycling is at the forefront of our awareness these days. It is the most famous R; reduce and reuse haven't quite caught on. To me recycling should be the last resort when dealing with our waste. But as we live in a world diminated by convenience and single use products, reducing and reusing aren't really options. Recycling is the easiest and most widely applicable, and that is why it is gaining the most popularity. Almost every municipality has its own recycling facility, and they can vary substancially.  In Edmonton for example they have an Integrated Processing and Transfer facility that receives the...