The Power of R

It’s that time of year again. It’s time to figure out what to do with the dried out, needles falling off all over the place, crusty pitch ball Christmas Tree in your living room. Well, there are a few places to take your tree to dispose of it properly for a good cause.

The Town of Comox will be chipping on Saturday, January 2nd and Sunday, January 3rd from 10am-4pm. They will pick up your tree for a minimum $5 donation Comox Firehall (250-339-2432) is located on 1870 Noel Avenue in Comox.

The City of Courtenay will be chipping on Saturday, January 2nd and Sunday, January 3rd from 10am-4pm. They will pick up your tree for a minimum $5 donation Courtenay Firehall (250-334-2513) is located on 650 Cumberland Road in Courtenay.

The Village of Cumberland will be chipping on Sunday, January 3rd from 10 a.m to 3:00 p.m at the Cumberland fire department located at 2679 Dunsmuir Road in Cumberland.

Campbell River will be taking trees in two locations on Saturday, January 2nd from 10am-4pm. Drop your tree with a donation for the Campbell River Hospital Foundation at the Sportsplex on 1800 South Alder St. in Campbell River or to the #1 Firehall on 675-13th Avenue in Campbell River.

If you cannot make any of these times or location please feel free to drop your tree, free of charge, to the Comox Valley Waste Management Centre on Pidgeon Lake Road in Cumberland or at the Campbell River Waste Management Centre on 6700 Argonaut Road in Campbell River.

Christmas trees that are cut in 3ft lengths can be picked up on regular yard waste pick up days in Courtenay and Comox starting on January 4th, 2010.

Thanks for making a difference by disposing of your tree properly for a good cause.

It’s the middle of December and I'm infatuated with lettuce. Romain, Green Leaf, Red Leaf, I’ll eat it all.  In fact, I try to eat lettuce on a daily basis because it’s healthy, full of fibre, full of vitamin C, and fun to eat! It’s crunchy and it can hold an infinite number of other vegetables or dressings in salads. I can roll up my lettuce leaves to make quazi taco’s, or put it in a sandwich. There’s no questioning that lettuce is awesome and I am obviously pretty amped (excited) about it,  but lettuce is also on my mind for other reasons lately. I'm rethinking how I go about things. How I waste, what I waste and what I can do to stop wasting natural resources. At lunchtime I thought about how amazing it was to be eating fresh lettuce in December with snow on the ground.  I can't grow lettuce at this time of year and yet, I'm eating it. Then I thought about how insects like to eat lettuce and that my lettuce leaves were flawless. They were actually so perfect that my attentioned then turned to the plastic box my lettuce came in. I knew right then that this would be no ordinary lunch and rethinking a simple head of lettuce was about to get complicated.

Some lettuce comes from the USA, Mexico or other countries warmer than Canada during the autumn, winter and spring months of the year. Amazingly, lettuce can be harvested, refrigerated, shipped thousands of kilometers, and put on the shelf for us to buy in one week or less. It’s incredible really and it’s all because of oil. Burning oil is the reason we can eat lettuce all year round. Big ships can carry tons of lettuce quickly. If we tried to ship lettuce from Mexico without burning oil or gas, it would be rotten before it left the country. Even if we could ship it by bicycle, we would only be able to carry a few heads at a time. That means that burning oil is essential to my consumption of lettuce over 250 days each year. Crazy. That equates to over one hundred thousand kilometers of gas burning transportation and tons of global warming gasses in the atmosphere just because I eat lettuce almost every day.

All around the world lettuce is difficult to grow because critters, insects, slugs and molds love to eat it too. That means farmers are forced to use poisons and pesticides to keep it looking perfect so we’ll buy it in grocery stores. Anyone who’s grown lettuce in their own garden knows that it can become a leafy hotel for earwigs, spiders and all sorts of whacky bugs. Most of these bugs don’t eat the lettuce but they do enjoy living on, in or around it. Bugs are natural though. It seems really strange to put poison on our food to get rid of those bugs, doesn’t it? Sure a few bugs might be creepy at first or holes in the lettuce might seem imperfect but really, poison, is that the only solution?

Recently I’ve been purchasing organic lettuce. It’s more expensive than regular lettuce but I trust that there’s no poison on it.  When I was making a salad the other day, I noticed that my head of lettuce had six dried up, crusty, dead lady bugs in it. At first I was taken aback, but then I thought it was pretty cool. Lady bugs are predatory. They eat other bugs – especially aphids. That means that the organic farmer who grew that lettuce was using insects instead of pesticides to keep the lettuce protected from other insects. Wow! Lady bugs are cool. I still wash my lettuce well before eating it but I feel good knowing that lady bugs are in my lettuce instead of disease causing pesticides.

Organic lettuce is now being packaged in fancy plastic containers or bags. Plastic is made from oil. I’m happy to see that the plastic boxes that lettuce comes in is recycled but something still seems weird about taking an organic product and wrapping it in oil based packaging. Doesn’t it? Sure the package keeps my food clean, the label looks really fancy and the lettuce comes out of the box all fluffy and delicious but ethically, I still feel like I’m hurting the earth when I eat it. The box goes into my blue box recycling bin; I eat the glorious lettuce, and then I feel bad for eating it. Why does lettuce have to be so complicated?

When I go to the grocery store I am still mystified that the grocery store looks almost exactly the same in December as it did in the July. The fruits and vegetables that I love are all there. Rethinking how I shop has become an interesting project. I want to reduce my eco-footprint every day so now I rethink the things I buy. I am rethinking food that’s wrapped in plastic or wrapped in non-recyclable packages. I am starting to use reusable containers for store bought bulk items. I am purchasing more locally grown produce and meat because it’s not packaged in plastic and it isn't shipped great distances before I eat it; that alone saves the atmosphere from tons of greenhouse gas. Naturally, I walk or ride a bike to the store to buy food whenever I can to reduce waste, energy use and keep my car off of the busy roads. I am looking for lightweight biodegradable bags made from organic materials to put my vegetables in - do you know where I can get some?  I'm doing what I can to lower my eco-footprint but even lettuce has become intertwined with my demanding "want it now - get it now"  lifestyle. I’m used to eating it all year round because it’s available all year round. Something doesn't seem right about that.

Lettuce isn't really that complicated but our lifestyles certainly have changed how we grow, transport, package and purchase foods like  lettuce.  What do you think? How are you rethinking actions in your life to reduce your ecological footprint? Send me your stories, suggestions and ideas about local solutions to global problems. Email powerofr@gmail.com and put “RETHINK - Beyond The Blue Box” in the subject line.

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

When I was growing up my family and I got our fresh water from a well. We lived on a rural property (outside of city limits) so that meant we needed to conserve our water and not waste any of it. We didn’t have access to city water. The well was only sixteen feet deep so that meant it was full in the winter but often ran dry in the summer. We needed to be really careful about how much water we used for almost nine months of the year. Our daily showers had to be efficient, we never let the tap run, and watering the plants needed to be as direct as possible. There was no room for slip and slides or massive water fights.

When you live on a limited water supply it's always a priority to make sure there is enough water for your whole family to drink. In addition to that you need water to flush your toilet. Finally, you need some water to water your garden and plants with. If you run out of water in the summer, like we often did, the plants suffer the most. We would have enough for drinking but not enough to water a large garden. My dad dug a second well that we used just for garden water. That was helpful but expensive and not everyone on my street could afford to do that.

So here are a couple of great tips for saving grey water. This is water that you can use on garden plants all year round. The first and most effective thing you can do is use a rain collecting barrel on your house. This barrel connects to your gutters. When it rains all of the water flows into your gutters and then into your barrel. You shouldn’t drink this water but the plants sure can. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can collect 100 Liters of water. The second tip is one of my favorites and I’ve mentioned it before in a past blog. When you take a shower bring an old ice cream bucket with you. During the shower the bucket will fill up with all the residual water that misses or bounces off of your body. That’s cool. You can collect 4 Liters of water with no effort. Use it on your plants outside. “Thanks for the drink, dude,” they’ll say.

These tips don’t take much effort and they conserve a tremendous amount of water. They will ensure that our city services, aquifers and water tables are always full of good drinking water. Fresh clean water for drinking is so precious. Plenty of rain water falls from the sky in the winter but most of it never gets into the ground. It runs into the ocean, evaporates or gets used by the forest plants before it can be collected for us to drink. Canada has most of the world’s fresh water but every day we have less because of pesticide use and pollution, urbanization and industry, and waste. The world is looking at us for leadership in water conservation because as the planet gets warmer, there is less clean fresh water for drinking.

Rethink how you use your water and do a Water Audit in your household (an inspection of how you use your water). This will help you figure out new ways to conserve water and protect it. For more information on Water Wise gardening click here.

My first hour long presentation of the season was at Mark R. Isfeld today. Lee McGeorge invited me to introduce the concept of Globalism to her Social Studies 11 class. It's a difficult topic to narrow down but in the end it's about our interconnectedness with everything on the planet. The presentation focused on the global issue of dealing with our solid waste locally and as a planet. We discussed landfills, global warming and case studies of solid waste issues around the world. The Power of R was in full effect when explaining simple methods to reduce, reuse and recycle our waste.

This class is submitting their Top 5 Steps to lowering their ecological footprints to powerofr@gmail.com. You can too! Just submit a photo of yourself, your age, school and of course, your Top 5. If you are a teacher in the Comox-Strathcona area you can book custom presentations now by emailing me.

"Zac Whyte used great graphics, interaction and movie clips to create a memorable and inspiring presentation on globalization for my class.  He discussed various environmental problems associated with our “throw away” society and challenged the students to make a difference.  His enthusiasm and animation really made the topic accessible and engaging for the students.  One student said, “He was entertaining and didn’t just tell us boring facts.”

Lee McGeorge - Mark R. Isfeld Social Studies 11 Teacher

The Comox Strathcona Waste Management service (CSWM) would like to acknowledge the success of last weekend’s Thrifty Foods Pumpkin Smash in the Comox Valley and Campbell River.   

In the one day event, just over 3650 kg (four tons) of pumpkins were smashed in the goal of diverting this organic waste from the landfill. The Pumpkin Smash is an opportunity to promote composting as a means of waste reduction, to educate people about how to compost and to work with like-minded partners such as Thrifty Foods.  The dismantled jack-o-lanterns were transported to the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) compost facility where the organic matter will be used in the production of SkyRocket, a nutrient-rich soil amendment for lawns and gardens.

Timed to coincide with a festive time of year, the Thrifty Foods Pumpkin Smash attracts a larger crowd each time it is held.  One of the attractions is that it is a free event where children and their families can participate in pumpkin smashing games. The children love being given permission to smash their jack-o-lanterns! 

The Pumpkin Smash represents the last event of the season for the compost education centres. The centres are now closed and will reopen to the public for regularly scheduled hours in April 2010. 

The Comox Strathcona Waste Management (CSWM) service is a function of the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) and is responsible for two regional waste management centres that serve the Comox Valley and Campbell River, as well as a range of transfer stations and smaller waste-handling and recycling facilities for the electoral areas of the CVRD and the Strathcona Regional District. The CSWM service manages over 100,000 tonnes of waste and recycled material and oversees a number of diversion and education programs.

Blog Submission by:        
Koreen Gurak
Manager of communications
Comox Valley Regional District
Tel: 250-334-6066