Think Globally Act Locally | The Power Of R

There's no question that Highland's Eco-Team has made massive progress this year in their school and around the community. They have mobilized and organized to effectively implement school-wide composting, recycling, battery collection, broom pulling (invasive foreign plant species destruction), fund-raising, and awareness campaigns. The Eco-Team has even created their own website to organize their efforts further and help new recruits become educated faster. The Eco-Team even has a delegation that sits in on Comox Town Council meetings to offer youth perspectives on environmental and development initiatives.  It has been a year of steady building and hard work but what they have achieved in such a short amount of time is remarkable. Well done team! Thank you for being community leaders who make a positive difference.

Highland's Eco-Team has become a family for me this year. Although I was unable to attend all of the meetings, after school, and weekend gatherings, the team was extremely motivated to push through some really tough challenges on their own steam. Initiating a compost program in a school is tricky because it requires students to pick up the compost buckets from classrooms each day and hand wash them each week. This year members of the Eco-Team rose to the challenge every single day to make that happen. The effort has paid off. Thousands of pounds of solid waste has been diverted from the landfill. In September there will be tons of fresh, homemade, nutrient rich dirt to play with. Everyday is Earth Day at Highland Secondary.

To send your best to Highland please leave a comment on this blog and then visit the team's website http://highlandecoteam.com where you can order a Highland Eco-Team shirt to show your support. Have a happy Earth Day today.

“Zac has been an inspiration to Highland's Eco Team. His support and ability to network with other organizations has been instrumental in our success as a group of individuals seeking action and systemic change. It is because of Zac we have a professional looking website, and it is because of Zac our fall school wide assembly was deeper in scope and more informative than it would have been without him.
Zac has been a coach, an advisor, our own special guru and a role model. We consider him an integral part of our Eco Team and are grateful he is such an active member of our community. It is the bringing together of such individuals that will catalyze the change needed to improve our world.”

It’s amazing how many batteries we actually use. It seems like everything these days is powered by a battery of some kind. Laptops, ipods, cameras, toys, flashlights, and watches are used in many households. The scary thing is that these amazing technologies, that fuel our appetite for batteries, are filling our landfills with poisons.  I’m not saying stop using electronics but I am saying let’s make sure that the dead batteries that run our gadgets stay far away from the landfill.

I found a few old batteries in my garage. You’ve likely seen old batteries before but it only adds to my point of being diligent with your disposal practices. Batteries contain different chemicals that can cause explosions and even burn holes in your skin. That’s not pretty. The batteries here in the picture are the most common sizes. Billions of them enter landfills each year around the world. I don’t know about you but that freaks me right out.

When a battery goes in the landfill it doesn’t take long before its metal casing gets crushed by heavy objects, it rusts in the rain, and then corrodes enough to release the toxic paste inside. The toxic paste dissolves into rain and ground water. Once the poison is in the water, animals and humans might drink it and contract cancer or sickness from the dissolved poison crystals.  

Collect your old batteries in a cardboard box and make sure that they don’t get thrown into the landfill. If you go to a school that has a battery collection program make sure you support it. Tell your friends and family about the dangers of batteries in the landfill. Once your battery box is full or every six months, take the dead batteries to your local Waste Management Centre recycling area. You don’t want to have batteries like the ones in the picture above lying around your home.

I’m really proud of all the schools that are participating in this program. Keep up the great work!

Southgate Middle School has been a real focus for me this year. So far I have presented to over 10 different classes there on various topics and given multiple leadership workshops.  Southgate has been battling a tough mentality around the school that produces more than desirable amounts of litter in the schoolyard. Building a greater sense pride in ownership of the school is important to all of us. We don’t like spending our day surrounded in garbage. It was high time to get serious and rethink the solid waste that is literally making mountains around us at the school yard and in our community.

Good inroads are being made around the school and kids are feeling more empowered to engage the problem of litter head on, in and out of the school. When our consumption habits are compounded by irresponsible waste management, scary things happen around the world.  There is currently a giant island of plastic that is twice the size of Texas spinning around in the Pacific Ocean. This is affecting sea life and our life by getting into the food chain and poisoning the environment. The amount of garbage that makes its way to the ocean is staggering. Over 2 million water bottles are being consumed and tossed every 5 minutes in the United States, and over 4 million coffee cups are being thrown away each day in Canada. Although most of these items sadly end up in our landfills, a percentage of them also make their way to the ocean after being carried by rainwater. Even a small percentage is a huge amount when you’re dealing with numbers like that. That’s why litter is such concern. It’s time to fall in love with tap water and travel mugs permanently. The students at Southgate are now making the move to clean up “the swamp.” Go Gators Go!

“You totally had kid’s attention the entire time – and that says something for Middle School kids. Your knowledge and passion were passed along effectively. The kids really remembered what you said and took to heart your thoughts and ideas.”  - Marjorie George – Teacher

Litter is also a concern for Highland Secondary’s Eco-Team. Highland has been working hard to manage garbage awareness along Guthrie in Comox. Irresponsible customers and the introduction of new fast-food chains on Guthrie have amplified the amount of litter alongside of the road.  Plastic cups and plastic wrappers are making their way into the dairy farm field that spans the stretch between Anderton and Pritchard. It may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but it is… it’s a very big deal. Each year the farmer cuts his field for silage (a fermented grass that is used to feed cows) and sometimes plastic based litter hides in the grass when it’s cut. This plastic gets chopped up and eventually is eaten by dairy cows on the farm. Cows are a ruminant animal, which means that they have multiple stomachs. Any plastic in their food can actually kill them because it lodges between their stomachs and plugs their digestive system. Dairy cows, or any cow for that matter, can get sick and die because people are littering. It’s a major problem that can be easily solved with common sense and diligence. Hold your friends accountable the next time they litter anywhere. You are the solution that the world is waiting for.

On a warmer than usual Valentine’s Day I joined the Highland Eco-Team for brunch with longtime community activist and two-time Citizen of the Year Ruth Masters. We all sat together and listened to the inspiring stories that have helped shape the Comox Valley in so many ways.

Ruth spoke to the importance of protecting the environment and engaging the community at a political level. She told stories of ascending Comox Glacier in 1938, protecting woodland areas from the logging industry, naming 50 lakes after fallen WWII soldiers from Vancouver Island, the importance of honouring the past by directing the future, and being an active citizen on a daily basis.

Ruth has been a longtime hero of mine and I always revel in her energy and spite. At 89 years of age her fire is still burning with a passion that can move mountains. It was a real treat to hear her speak to the Eco-Team too. She has a sense of humour about things that only comes with decades of experience battling the exploitive fringe of social governance.

At the end of our meeting Ruth was given an honorary membership to the Highland Eco-Team. She is still active in issues around the Comox Valley but her response was clear. She implored the students of the Eco-Team to take the torch of leadership and keep it burning. I have no doubt that they will. Thank you for a memorable and inspiring day Ruth.

When I returned home from Cairo last year I began to see my world differently.  After witnessing the diligent activity of thousands of people harvesting, sorting and recycling garbage in Mokattam Village, or “Garbage City” as it is known around the world, it was hard not to be inspired every time I looked at a recycling box. Cairo is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with an estimated 15 to 20 million people. It produces a significant amount of waste that is collected each day by residents of Garbage City in donkey carts and run down trucks. The people of Mokattam have been doing this line of work for over 100 years. They recycle 80% of the waste stream by sorting the garbage into compost, saleable plastics, metals and fiber products like paper and wood. This incredible operation doesn’t cost Cairo a single cent and it’s arguably the most successful recycling program in the world. Now it’s all about to end because Cairo wants to be seen as a modern city.

Cairo is buying contracts with multinational companies to dispose of the waste in trucks that forces the master recyclers of Mokattam to find a new line of work. This backward story follows three boys through a complex, disheartening, and inspiring documentary of hope for the world’s future. It leaves you facing tough questions like: why would any city want to pay for garbage trucks when it has an entire suburb economy living on what Mokattam calls “a precious resource” and “a way of life?” There is a lesson in this documentary that the world needs to see to believe and there are messages we all need to enact before collectively burying our future with our waste.

Thanks to the initiative of World Community Development Education Society, the BC Council for International Cooperation, and The Power Of R, we were able to present an exclusive screening of Garbage Dreams to hundreds of Comox Valley students at Sid Williams Theatre in February 2010. I had the honour of speaking at the event, introducing the film and leading a Q&A discussion after the screening.

Garbage Dreams is a remarkable film that captures the essence of life in Mokattam Village and dives headlong into the politics of solid waste in Cairo and Europe. This special screening, that opened the annual World Community Film Festival, was an eye opening success. It sparked conversations for weeks after the event in schools and it gave every attending student a new appreciation for the value of what we throw away on a daily basis. Garbage is not garbage at all; it’s a renewable resource that is incredibly lucrative if it is handled properly.

Garbage Dreams continues to win dozens of independent film awards and it can be seen on PBS April 27th or by purchasing a membership to the extensive World Community Video Library at the Freakin Coffee Shop in TinTown.  To find out more about the film visit http://www.garbagedreams.com/

Carihi High in Campbell River is setting goals of zero-waste in 2010 and taking action to make it happen. Today I visited several classrooms to deliver one hour presentations about the globalization of garbage and local solutions to rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle our way to a cleaner planet. It was an inspiring day today because so many positive initiatives happened in such a short amount of time.

After each presentation students had questions but more importantly they were taking action to implement a full blown composting program at the school before the end of the day. To help things along I brought along some equipment to make it happen. The Power Of R and Comox Strathcona Waste Management donated two Earth Machine composters, two battery collection bins and twenty classroom compost buckets to the school.  By the end of lunch hour the composters were installed, the buckets were distributed and the principal’s door was being knocked on by students to report what they were up to. I didn’t even know it was happening, it just did.

I spoke The Green Team Environment Club over lunch hour about actions of other schools on Vancouver Island and ways to connect with those schools to strengthen their own programs. The club remarkably tripled its membership today and hopefully that enthusiasm will continue to bring Carihi High closer to its goals. The school is setting a good example for other schools, businesses, and households in Campbell River. I’ve seen this positive momentum build before in past projects and I can guarantee that Carihi High will change the environmental legacy of Campbell River in 2010.

Before the Christmas break at their annual Turkey Dinner Night the Green Team will announce its initiative to the rest of the school. Over one hundred students are already moving the project forward for school wide recycling, composting and battery collection. The Green Team will also meet with Highland Secondary’s Eco Team in 2010 to collaborate their efforts and share strategies. I’ll work with these clubs to help prepare them for presenting to other secondary, middle and elementary schools in SD71 and SD72. By the end of the New Year hopefully every school will be involved in this incredible Power Of R movement.

Here is what the Green Team teacher sponsor Wayne Demerse had to say about the day:

Get your school involved in The Power Of R movement by booking a presentation or workshop by emailing me at powerofr@gmail.com today.

Highland’s Eco Team has accomplished another major environmental move in Comox. The team has been busy working with Comox Town Council to green light a blue box program at Highland. Their enthusiasm was shared by the council who decided to implement blue box recycling pick up at every school in the coming year.  Thousands of pounds of non-recycled waste have been traveling to the landfill each week from Comox schools. Now that waste stream will be severely depleted thanks in part to Highland Eco Team’s political action.  Courtenay City Council is now looking at a budget for a similar move in Courtenay schools. It’s likely this will happen but your support is always helpful. The kids can’t run this town by themselves.

Carihi High in SD72 is making plans to put pressure on Campbell River’s council to expand the initiative to district schools. I’m really happy to see all of the spin off happening in both districts for obvious reasons but I’m even more ecstatic to see youth unlocking and engaging their community on a political level. They can’t vote but they can change the world. Congratulations Highland Eco Team.

This week I visited Highland Secondary Social Studies 11 classes to speak about the globalization of garbage. It was particularly exciting because Highland has been implementing school wide programs for recycling cardboard, collecting old batteries, and composting. The classes were diverse and interesting. Making the connection to local solutions for global problems is what this presentation is all about. This is what the teacher had to say about the day:

"My grade 11 classes had an extremely positive experience learning more about our relationship with 'stuff'. Zac Whyte presented the information in a professional way, with particular attention to the level of concentration and understanding of his audience. The visual aids really added to the presentation, and the local content increased the engagement of the students."

  – Danika Village SS11 Highland Secondary School

There’s really no other way to describe it. Highland Secondary’s Eco Team is on FIRE! Coached by master teacher Jill Peacock and myself with The Power Of R, Highland Eco-Team is setting new standards for rethinking, reducing, reusing and recycling in schools on Central Vancouver Island.

Every Monday at lunch hour a group of 12 students meet to plan their next project. Naturally, big projects require several after school meetings also. These dedicated young men and women are so hardcore that they only eat vegetarian pizza, recycle everything, and shut off all of the lights except one reading light for meetings, “just to save a bit of power.” Why not?

There are over 1000 people at Highland Secondary. Over the past two years Highland’s Eco-Team has hosted two major Earth Day Celebrations and started to extract invasive plant species around the school. They have planted native plant species and brought awareness of environmental issues to the school and community. That’s impressive but since September 2009 they‘ve really started to heat up.

Pizza boxes have been a big problem at Highland along with food packages and paper bags. Paper products alone were filling multiple dumpsters a week. The Eco Team decided to start a recycling program for paper products and cardboard at the school. Inevitably everyone has adopted the idea. Several dumpsters a week are being diverted from the landfill due to these efforts. Students and Eco Team members handle the emptying of cardboard bins each lunch hour to make the program work.

Composting was the next item on the agenda. There are over 200lbs of compost per day that are sent to the landfill from Highland. Old apples, fruit peels, and carrot sticks get tossed into the garbage to live out their eternity compressed in an airtight sludge. The Eco Team decided to change all of that by adding compost buckets to classrooms around the school. Power Of R and Comox Strathcona Waste Management then donated some composters and some composting education to the Eco Team.

So then the hard part began. The Eco Team deliberated on how to launch this new concept to the school. “How do we go about it? What approach will work best? Will people even do this?” There were many questions but after several after school meetings and lunch hours and pizzas and discussions, an assembly at the school was called. I was honored to be the guest speaker for the event. I talked about the longevity of trash in the landfill. Taking simple steps to sort our rubbish is the difference that the world needs because almost everything can be reused or recycled. The presentations throughout the assembly were great. Dramatic poems, effective addresses, passionate solutions introduced a new way of life for Highland that would only be new for one day.

Today Highland’s Eco-Team is expanding its membership. Composting is a hit. A battery collection bin has been placed at the front entry way for household batteries. Highland’s Eco Team has been attending Comox Town Council meetings to make Comox carbon neutral by 2012. To compliment their effort, Comox has just announced a Blue Box recycling program and pick-up for every school in Comox. Not only is this is a major accomplishment, it is precedent setting for a school in the Comox Valley. The Eco Team is now recycling ink cartridges in the office, computer labs and library to reduce plastic trash. Vending machine products are soon going to be under threat for their packaging material choices. Energy use in the school is also going to be addressed in a serious and now creditable manner. Highland’s youth are taking control of their planet. Their school is simply part of it. I’m proud to be involved in such an incredible group of youth in this time of history. On top of all that, other schools are taking notice. Carihi High will soon be launching an extensive compost program of their own. They’ll also be collecting batteries and recycling their trash. Politics… are just around the corner.

For more information and to include your school in the next evolution of environmental action contact me at powerofr@gmail.com

It’s always a great pleasure to meet like minded people who are passionate about what they do. Great things come from these types of people and there is one of them in each of us waiting to get out and play. These last couple of weeks I have had the great pleasure of accompanying Keith and Renee representing Free The Children from MeToWe to participate in a series of performances and leadership workshops in schools around Central Vancouver Island. The experience united like minded youth around the pressing issues of our world. Some of those issues, like the environment, obviously played a major role in our discussions so I gladly joined in.

The environment is connected to every global issue: poverty, violence, economy, human rights, animal rights and disease to name a few. These connections were brought to light by the students themselves in each school workshop. By the end of each day, groups of active students were beginning to understand deeper, act more decisively, and speak with more passion. The real power of understanding and education is in the decision to act effectively. The students who attended the MeToWe camps with The Power Of R made decisions that day to change their environment, starting with their schools, their communities and ultimately their planet.

I joined the tour with Keith and Renee to visit Highland Secondary, Southgate, and Mark R. Isfeld. In every school there were different outcomes but I watched several kids find their voice for the first time. A grade 8 girl spoke out about the environment, then animal rights and then homelessness and then found out there were others like her in the room. I spoke with her after the session and she had been recruited to the Interact club by some grade 12s and the Eco-Team by some grade 11’s. Sweet Tofurky, that’s awesome! There were several similar stories like that.  A grade 11 youth from Germany on exchange exclaimed how appalled he was when he arrived in Canada to see people watering their lawns. “You would be called an eco-terrorist crazy person if you did that in Germany,” he said.  “People have gardens but they certainly don’t water their grass. That’s just a waste of water.” I couldn’t help but pump my fist and bight my bottom lip with in a silent over exuberance.

Since these workshops took place environment clubs have been popping up at each of the schools we visited. I received a great email from Carihi High, an additional school that Keith and Renee visited. The email stated that they wanted to start a more extensive composting program at their school because Highland had one. “Perfect, let’s start a battery collection, recycling and education series for the school while we’re at it.” This is how action happens and the only words I can think of are “this is juicy!” Needless to say the ball is rolling fast thanks to these workshops.

Keith and Renee flew back to their home town of Winnipeg for a short break in their 80 school MeToWe Tour. They will continue to play guitar around the world and use music to create dynamic connections with their audience. They’re funny and talented. It’s cool to see people doing what they love to do because after talking to them it is hard to imagine them doing anything else. There is a lesson in that for all of us. Saving the planet sounds cliché but it’s what I love to do. The planet needs saving so let’s work together, PowerOfR, MeToWe, you, me, and one little planet. For more information in getting your school involved with The Power Of R email powerofr@gmail.com