Zero Waste Week Challenge |
|||||
Key Resources |
|
||||
In natural systems there is no such thing as rubbish, no such thing as waste. In reality, there is no such place as ‘away’. So in the light of this we encourage your group, household, community to join together with others and take on a “Zero Waste Week” trial, where together you attempt to reduce our household rubbish for seven days. Could you survive a week without throwing anything away? In 2009 our group took on such a challenge. For some it meant using only things that can be reused, recycled or composed, for others it meant no packaging what-so-ever. Of course what we chuck out relates directly to what we buy. It meant that for that week we were responsible for what we used. We couldn’t pass it on to an anonymous specialists who would magically make it disappear. In the spirit of other trials we’d done, we met to decide on the specifics of our challenge and work together to inventory what we regularly threw away |
|||||
We encourage your group or household to gather with others and take on a Zero Waste week Challenge of your own. It can be a really fun week of engaging with an issue. Our group came out with not only with insights into our waste but a real sense of being on a journey together – we felt like explorers discovering a new world! You’d also be building up the database of resources for reducing waste specific to your area. (Our trial was focussed in suburbs to the west and north of Melbourne due to households involved).There’s many resources about our experiment below. Please be in touch if you’re interested, and pass on your story to us and we’ll post it up.
Our Challenge: 26th July – 1st August, 2009
Who was involved?Households and individuals involved include Nick & Janet’s, Shaun & Neesh’s, Edi & Glenn’s, Cara & Scott’s, Cath & Joel’s, Monica’s, Alicia & Emma’s, and Hugh. Others are of course welcome to join in. A preparation meeting was held on the 14th July where we had a fantastic meal together – Cara’s curry, Neesh’s homegrown green salad, Nick’s homemade baked beans, Janets roast veg and salsa sauce, Cara’s vegan orange cake. We then discussed our household audit findings and the goals we’d like to achieve. Check out the resulting brainstorm on alternatives and resources here. We started the week with a catchup at the Yarraville Farmer’s market on the 25th, and ended the week with a celebratory afternoon tea on Saturday the 1st at Shaun & Neesh’s place in Yarraville.
The ethos Key points from our previous “100 Mile Trial” week also apply here:
The Process This experiment will involve: Use these resources to help you start the process.
Waste – an Artform …also check out these great links worth exploring related to waste: Chris Jordon: Running the Numbers We are not alone! …other waste trials and resources: Julie Grundy in her G Challenge Blog goes no packaging – July 16 2009 |