Hey everyone, and welcome back to practically zero waste a podcast for making zero waste living as practical as possible. Thanks to everyone who's been following this podcast along from the beginning. If you have a chance to tell me what you think by leaving a rating and review on Apple podcasts, that would be so great. As I've said plenty of times before leaving those reviews really help spread the word about this podcast and more importantly these practical tips for living zero-waste. Also, go ahead and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to get episodes right away when they come out every Sunday this week's cover. Ation is all about waste reduction Week Canada a national week dedicated to building awareness and challenging habits when it comes to single use everything. I chat with Dominique Marie a co-chair for a working group in Peterborough researching ways to reduce single-use products from homes to businesses to large corporations and offer practical and clever Alternatives. Let's go. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? And what were you doing before starting or joining this working group? Yeah. I originally studied. Need environmental science at McGill learnt a lot specifically had more of a biodiversity background there and then fast forward finished University and I ended up working as an environmental remediation environmental scientists and a remediation company to even mean so so is that an engineering company? So they had a lot of different pillars and different things that they worked on but one of that was environment and so I worked with environmental engineers and scientists and geologists. And we worked on remediation projects for oil and gas companies and utilities companies that was in New York and New York City and around New York City and in New Jersey, I worked for companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil all of those companies. What is remediation? Really? What we're doing is cleaning up their mess. So remediation involved groundwater testing and soil sampling around their facilities and just seeing what was there and what needed to be cleaned up and they would pass to do that. So yeah based on, you know, governmental regulations and that kind of thing. I'm so they were mandated to clean up these rights to take locations. And so we were kind of monitoring we did are sampling as well and that kind of Stuff, so just monitoring all of these sites to make sure that they were compliant. That's great. Because if you don't have that information measured then you can't do anything about it. So yeah here with the people measuring at all. Exactly. Yep going into the dirty ground and he wants their really interesting a lot of knowledge gained there but a little depressing as well. Yeah kind of seeing all of the mass and waste those creative like working in a landfill. Yeah. Disappointed in the end exactly. Yeah, especially when you studied something as rosy as conservation and biodiversity. Yeah, obviously getting you know into an oil and gas site gas stations. I was at multiple gas stations around Queens in New York and Brooklyn and and then in New Jersey seeing all the sights there as well. It was definitely a lot to take on and a lot of them to just see and realize what's going on. On my husband and I were just looking for a change of scene. Obviously New York is a big bustling place. And while we enjoyed it for a while. We're looking for a little bit of a change nice. So finally coming back home. Then we kind of Switched both of our careers entirely. Wow, and came to work for my family business. What is the working group called? Yeah. So it's the single-use Plastics working group. Okay. Oh, yeah. What is that? And how did it come about? Sure, so it's really great group that was just recently formulated. As you know, it's pretty recent. We've only had I think we just had our third meeting. So awesome. Yeah still in the preliminary stages of kind of what we're doing and what our Focus will be but obviously focus on single-use Plastics. It was formulated to provide feedback to City staff so that they can put forward solutions to counsel and the form of a report that is that in response to is um, well actually gents or no. It was actually started by councillor Gary Baldwin. So this is kind of his brainchild. So he actually when he was running for city council. This was one of the Five Pillars he campaigned on and he as he was going to different constituents in his area was just Ashburn. Mmm. He realized that you know, a lot of people were behind this kind of idea of reducing single-use. It's reducing waste and so he realized you know, it was kind of a big issue and obviously it's gaining a lot of momentum not just in our local area. But globally so he definitely caught on to that and you know, he has six grandchildren. So that's a big motivator for him, you know to just leave this world a little better for them. So this was kind of his his idea to promote together, you know something for city council to really move on in terms of reducing single-use Plastics cool. So what does that look like and what did the goals of this working group? So as I mentioned, you know, we're kind of working on getting some ideas to provide feedback to city council and what we could do, especially just with some simple strategies to get not just consumers or you know the public in Peterborough, but also businesses involved. Industry so we're really hitting on you know, a lot of different areas and Peterborough and the big thing too is kind of who is comprised of this working group. So the group is comprised of eight different people as well as our chair or co-chair Gary Baldwin, so co-chairing with him as myself as well as Kate forest, and then there's seven more people on the The committee working group with me and they represent community members involved Citizens Business Leaders. So a variety of people from you know, Elementary education to post-secondary to business to high school students. So a lot of different people kind of working together to kind of pull our ideas on what we can do in Peterborough to help locally reduce single-use Plastics. That's a big one. Taking what's the timeline for this? Yeah. So the idea is to put together this report and present it to city council. So the reports our last meeting is going to be in December and so for the New Year, we're putting together this report so that we can put it forward to city council and then they can approve it and then we will can you know, we can continue to move on this and actually implement it and see it come to action. Okay. So what? It's going to be the outline of your report. Basically that we're still kind of working on what just exactly what those action items are going to be or those strategies but kind of right now is a phase where we're digging deeper and just looking at what we have locally what's working. Well, what we actually do have in the community that we can build on and then you know where we can maybe Source things locally provide Alternatives with I think the greater idea and it keeps kind of coming out again and again throughout our meetings is to find something that's going to be easy for people to use and Implement easy because otherwise people won't do it exactly I mean, yeah, it's just like if you've read statistics on active transportation and like the Netherlands or Copenhagen, you know, they're huge what we consider kind of like on the environmental Vanguard. Of active Transportation, but really they're not doing it for the environment they're doing it because it's the easiest option what is active Transportation just as a tangent. Yes any transportation that doesn't involve the use of vehicles. So I was with bikes going by King. Yeah. Okay solar blading. Yes all the options. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So the I'm looking for the most direct route and the easiest route for people to adopt I guess exactly. And finding, you know, locally made solutions. So things that are going to be easy to implement on the local level. Obviously, you know working with city council and the mayor and and you know that group were focusing definitely on the local obviously, there's lots of things we could do globally we could do. Oh, yeah and a double wide, but we're starting kind of seeing what we can do here exactly. That's part because I think the saying goes like think globally but Locally because locally is where action is going to be able to happen. You can't exactly okay world's. Let's all ban single-use, please. Yes, exactly. And you know, it provides a great opportunity for us to be a stewardship or an example or you know do pilot projects that then can grow and you can see the ripple effect surgeon. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So yeah. So what is a single use plastic item in Pedro? Like what is under that category is adjust for Is it just bottles or bags? It's a lot of different things. Yeah, and it's not a defined category necessarily not yet. Obviously when we think about it, it's usually going to be your plastic bags. We're also looking at other items that aren't even plastic aren't even recyclable. But like, you know polystyrene styrofoam that kind of stuff. So we're even looking at those as well because we know those are issues for sure in this. The single-use realm? Yeah, well, they're not Plastics specifically but you know straws the bin and now there's millions of reusable straws. You can look into sold in plastic packaging. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, which is another thing we're looking at with our working group is trying to find you know solutions that aren't green wash that aren't yes, you know trying to prevent themselves as a good alternative, but when you actually look into it, it's not Such a great alternative. That's great. Yeah, because the whole purpose of this group is so that you guys can do research to present it to council so that they don't have to just like do a quick Google search and be like, how do I get rid of like this? Oh, I'll bring in this company a total green washing or something. Sure. Yeah, dive deep enough to get past that is so important exactly and like for the businesses to write who might be participating in some of our initiatives, you know, they're busy they're doing lots of stuff. I know myself, you know as a business manager and partner. Um, you know owner with my parents and stuff, you know, it's hard. You're busy, you know, you've got costs you want to do everything but you can't no yes. So again, just trying to make it easy for people to make the right choice. What amount of control will the municipality the city of Peterborough and area have over what businesses can offer their customers? So if we put a ban on Single use plastic forks or something like that or plastic bags. Would that only apply to local businesses or would something like Tim Hortons or Sobeys big grocery stores also have to comply and how does that work? Just within a single jurisdiction and stuff, right? Yeah. Okay today it is. It's definitely complicated. Especially, you know, it depends on the store and the structure of the business. - and all that stuff. I'm part of a franchise. So right it's locally owner operated people who are maybe franchise out. Maybe they're a little more of a local business, right? Even though they might have like a corporate background or that kind of stuff. So definitely options there to work with business owners. That's good. Yeah, that's true of bigger chains are stuff that are franchised out or that kind of thing, but definitely local businesses small businesses, of course, but also trying to do what we can for for the larger. businesses and in our community as well in terms of band locally different cities have done that and it has worked to some degree sometimes depending, you know, what alternatives are available and and just the awareness of Alternatives because one is maybe not better than the other we can get rid of, you know, single use plastic bags, but are the reusable bags they're using and giving away, you know creating more waste so they are so great. Exactly. So yeah have to watch out kind of what we're telling people to do and banning something but then you know, he offers no alternative. Yeah, so we're really trying to come up with good solution that will work and and not be, you know, just greenwashing or be actually worse for the environment. So impossible to uphold exactly. Yeah because people are busy and you know, I forget their bag and they you know, yeah, and then they're standing there with Like their kids crying in the cart and they have no reasonable bags and they don't want to buy more reusable bags because that's the only option like for sure. So we want to meet people where they are. This sounds a lot harder than it. I thought it was going to be very right. This is our meanings every every time we meet we get to kind of discuss this and go through and ask questions and try to dig deeper and try to see what other cities are doing what other options are out there. Are there any cities that you're taking is kind of a case study has anybody really done this yet? Not specifically we haven't looked kind of dug deeper into some of the other cities and what they're doing. Definitely there has been a big push within, you know, different cities in Canada Toronto Vancouver Montreal and you know, all the big cities are definitely trying to get behind some sort of waste reduction strategy in general and also definitely tackling the issue of single-use plastics. Yeah. It's Going along and you know, they're working on getting their strategies all together. That's so definitely lots of things we can look for and what they're doing and canada-wide as well as looking at the reduction Plastics and it's so hard like we've just said to reduce things without an alternative because there isn't really like for in Peterborough. For example, I say this almost every episode we don't have Municipal composting. Right yet and therefore things that are biodegradable or compostable are useless. They're just garbage right not going to biodegrade any faster in a landfill then something else would because yeah, you don't have the right right? You can't to Backyard compost this, you know, the exactly the one Plastics and that because corn needs sunlight to break down and he and it's not going to get that. Yeah, Alan so while it can and you know an industrial facility Lily and Peterborough right now. We don't have that. Yeah, it's coming. Is it coming? Do you have an inside scoop maybe like it's hard because in a lot of situations instead of a plastic bag you'd have a compostable bags instead of plastic forks. You'd have biodegradable corn plastic right or whatever, but it's like it's not a solution. It's just no no more expensive and still garbage exactly. Yeah, so I mean Mean while we may not be able to do a ban on certain items even just the strategy of asking people if they need it before they do need it or including it in something not needed or something like that. So we're looking at different strategies as well. You know, awareness based not just product based or behavior change. Yeah Behavior changes even just within not the consumer maybe but even a step further whether or not they actually I need it or they don't yeah that whole process of not offering a straw unless somebody says can I have a straw or right or a bag or you know eggs? Yeah, it's not if it's already in the bag a lot of people probably just be like, oh well and just leave. Yeah exactly rather not like don't bag things right away, even though that seems like the polite thing to do you say do you actually need bags today? Exactly Madam? Yeah, that's as easy as that or having reusable products available at different places. There are strategies that don't necessarily have to be like compostable or other things to reduce. Yeah, what alternatives are there? I guess we could have paper bags, right? I guess we moved away from paper bags in history because if it was raining it would break but like it was a few things with paper bags. I mean, you're also looking into forestry management. And resources that people consume things there's no really great alternative. Right? And I mean from the beginning we were taught, you know your arse, you know, and the first ones reduce it is but you you always end with recycle and it's like you glaze over Reduce Reuse exactly definitely reduction is something to look for for sure look and go through the ours Our Last Resort as recycling. Sighing yeah, I like it as a last resort last week's episode. I was talking with Lori nickel from Second Harvest and she was saying that you should be composting almost nothing if you're using your food properly. Yeah, nothing like you shouldn't be oh look at me. I have tons of compost I throat like half a loaf of bread even though it was still okay, like, you know, it's your last resort is worsening. So I'm sure in composting gets hard in the summer with watermelon rind stuff. I heard just today about something called a food cycler or it's a small appliance that sits on your countertop and it will break down your food in three hours and apparently takes less energy than boiling the kettle full of water anyway, so that's a random product that I was like I took a dehydrator basically and so it looks like it's no bigger than like a coffee maker and a big coffee maker. But like it comes well put your food scraps in and then then it kind of breaks it down and dehydrates it and looks like a bunch of dried leaves and you take it out. Anyway, cool little Superman know there's yeah not a water content and vegetables and fruits. So there you go. Dehydrate them all be hydrate your watermelon sprinkle it on your lawn in front of your apartment building. Yeah for sure. I don't know how we got on that. It's all connected. So where would the bin if there were a band kind of not? Cover like places like nursing homes hospitals. Not an easy. No Force, obviously when you're working with health concerns, you know biohazards. Yeah, that's a whole just leave that at all. Yeah, but I think a lot of the Bands would mostly I mean the biggest ones focusing more on like plastic bags and that kind of thing so not as applicable to maybe those sectors and but if you're looking at straws or something like that, you know, there are alternatives now, you know with paper straws or more usable. Yeah others. I saw recently like they were making straws out of spaghetti. So that's like a new thing. It's you have a gluten allergy. Yeah, they do like rice once but so definitely there are alternatives that can be thrown out or Recon posted in theory. Yeah, I don't know if we've had biohazards. If you can't come I'm stumped. So in grocery stores would we be able to reduce the amount of produce bags that are in use because yes grocery bags have always been part of the conversation for Waste reduction and people have all these beautiful probably take longer to biodegrade reusable bags. In circulation now too, but the conversation is not always fallen to the produce bag side of things. So can we just let go around and get rid of all of those stupid wheels of flimsy plastic bags? Yeah, that'd be part of your action items. Yeah. I mean, it's great what they're doing in terms of, you know, so be so sad, they're going to get rid of all of their plastic grocery bags and that kind of thing. So they're definitely moving in the right direction. Fin in terms of the produce bags. I mean that might be more on the consumer awareness and especially since I mean, they're provided but they're not smell like you have to use them. No, but we've definitely been conditioned right for sure. Yeah. I'm just like the crazy lady that walks around with like whole handfuls and we're honest just like throws it on like below the bottom of your shirt and like scoop all your oranges. Yeah, exactly. Yeah like piles of stuff. Tough, but so I mean it's alternative CPI middle easterners to this podcast know that you can just like put it loose in your guard and that it's fine. It's been touched by so many hands of this point that it's not going to get it's not going to be cleaner now having been in a bag you just wash it when your party yeah because what you know a little drop of vinegar in your water wash, that's great. That's great because that Glee exactly that's exactly how are you it's so you don't even need a bag you just throw it all in. Yeah, like I said a bunch of cloth These bags but I don't really use the yeah, I only use them when I do like box stuff. Oh, yeah box going for lentils and peas and Grains candy. I buy a lot of candy box stores. Yeah. I'm an adult. I have my own childhood stash. Yeah, and there's great stores that are now, you know, it's kind of widespread. I think originally in places it was is a little bit of a No-No to bring your own reusable containers or reusable bags or that kind of thing. But now all of these different places are warming up to it and even adding more like opportunities and options for different products for you to purchase. So, you know, we've got great options the longest-running the main ingredient. Oh, yeah has been longest running one in Canada. Yeah. I know and I cool see so the main It has been a huge I mean Bulk Barn even giving certain little spiffs if you on some weeks. I think they are doing a little bit of a promotion with the bring your own bag and you get something off and then Joanne's even with their new renovation a huge new section of bulk foods. Yeah. The one on Landsdowne were the one the one on Landsdowne rule. Yeah, so to health food store in Peterborough. But yeah, that's great. Yeah, so a great you know, they much Larger option now for and you can bring your own bags and Peter Pros great. I complain about the composting and all the things all the time, but I'm very proud of all of the things happening in Peterborough. And I mean when we're talking about sourcing and that kind of thing, we just actually for our last meeting that green up obviously green up a great organization doing loads episode 16 anyone's looking learn all about it. But yeah, lots of people to engage with the community with this whole working group has been really good for sure. And yeah, so we had our last meeting at Greenup and obviously Kristen does a great job at their store and she's really thorough with you know, making sure nothing's green wash and that it is actually, you know, as environmentally conscious so you can push back on, you know, different companies to say, you know, hey this ended up coming up and packaging and it was supposed. You know, what? Supposed to have as much packaging or its kind of deceiving that it came with that much packaging so really putting a hard line on whether that's good purchased from them. So yeah, so they're doing great stuff new store sustain that popped up as well downtown Pedro. Mommy's to refill and ritual Apothecary also has lots of great refill options. So lots of lots of stuff popping up in Peterborough. It's obviously, you know, and talking with all those things, you know. Great for the health food stores in the eco-friendly stores to be doing it, but we really want to make it accessible for everyone. Yeah, exactly. So, how do we get with your waste reduction week starting tomorrow Monday? What campaigns are going to be put out to kind of start this Behavior change? Yeah. So for Waste reduction week, it's really a great opportunity for people to just kind of learn more about waste reduction and what they can do and what they could do it is business and and kind of what the idea is in terms of waste reduction in Canada because this is Canada wide so you can actually go on the website and learn more about it. It is wrw canada.com so you can go on the website check it out. There's lots of different communities that are pledging to waste reduction Week Canada, just like we did I'm good. We had a little spot on checks TV about it. I just recently kind of proclaiming so the city actually proclaimed October 21st to the 27th waste reduction weeks weeks. So it's a recurring thing every year and each day is a different theme. So you start off with Monday talking about big picture stuff. So it's kind of the kickoff and talking about circular economy how great yeah, so kind of how we can close the loop and reuse and then Tuesday's talking about textiles. Textile Tuesday. Is it in textile recycling at all? Like is there any conversation about that? Yeah, there's a lot of different conversations and it is mostly canada-wide. So in Pedro yet. We haven't, you know done a separate agenda for Waste reduction week as you know, we're just starting this group and and getting things going maybe next year. We'll have a bigger part in it. But yeah, so textile Recycling and how to properly use your textiles and Pair of hair. Yeah, great, Wednesday talking about Champions and innovators. So, you know kind of what's coming up at the Forefront of waste reduction and then Thursday is Plastics and packaging. So that's kind of our jam and what what we're into Friday is in your food waste so talking about food waste and reducing food waste obviously big component and then Saturday is swap share or repair. So cool. Opportunity to obviously on Saturday get together with your friends and maybe put together a swap share repair day and then Sunday is e-waste. Oh and ago anyway stuff. Yeah. So looking at you waste programs so good. That's great to be able to have it all into different categories to because yeah, it's a little overwhelming to just say hey reduce your waste and you just kind of like but garbage is everywhere or how am I supposed to do? Sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it's great opportunity kind of just think about it and take each day and read about it online and see you know, what you can do in terms of reducing your waist. They're all on Twitter. So I think Twitter is the mode of communication for Waste reduction Week Canada, so they do have a Twitter account and you can follow along on Twitter and you can follow along on their website as well. There's lots of good information there to each Day is sponsored by a different business as well. So yeah, the beer store is part of the circular economy kickoff. Yeah, they've been doing that for decades. Yeah, exactly. So again, you know talking about what we can do but also, you know what's going well and what we can kind of build upon exactly because I can't talk about this whole conversation without being like but wait we are doing good things. Yeah, I'll do man Gloom exactly accomplished quite a bit already. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, as I said, there's there's great examples to be seen, you know, not just throughout Canada but throughout the world and all over so we're definitely kind of picking apart the good things that are going on and how we can you know Implement some of those locally if we're not already. Yeah, and then building upon what we have already. So the point of reducing single-use items in general not just plastic. I think it's obvious we want to extend Life of our landfills. We want to extend the life of our planet. We want to cities to be cleaner. But how much longer will you know say the city of Peterborough is Linfield currently as it is last if we reduce single-use Plastics dramatically hard to say our current landfill has about 13 years okay to go. Yeah before it's reached capacity and we have to find a new place to put our eggs crash cheese. So Yeah, 13 years at flies by uh, so yeah, I mean it would definitely make a dense hard to say the composition exactly of how much it would reduce. It depends on the percentage. I mean just in general plastic waste is there really big issue, you know, only a small percentage of it actually does get recycle the former talking about the Recycled portion. Oh, yeah, especially with the whole remember to wash your recycling people being right? Honestly, that's just Yeah, so I'm gonna Ding and making more garbage exactly. So about 86 percent in Canada ends up going to the landfill for percent goes to incinerators and 1% ends up as litter really. So those are statistics in Canada. So it's a lot of plastic that's wasted even when we're talking about recycling. I think it's also another great reason why we're trying to reduce it at the Source yeah birthday whether that's you know consumer is getting products or businesses providing products because I think people are seeing that there was recently a CBC Marketplace Spotlight on on the issue and it going overseas and not being actually recycled. So, I mean, I think people are more and more aware of this and are seeing this and I think recycling is while it can be good is also a disheartening at this point. So I think a lot of consumers are are interested in other ways of reduction, you know, rather than going to the end and recycling because not a lot of it ends up recycled. It is a real issue in Canada and just canada-wide. I was actually we were recently on this towards zero waste towards zero plastic waste in Canada presentation a webinar that happened first that was put on by environment and climate change, Canada. Yeah, so it was really eye-opening in terms of you know, what's going on. What's not getting recycled as I mentioned but then also just the opportunity that they're seeing to recover the value from plastic packaging and that kind of stuff so it could really actually be around 80 to a hundred and twenty billion dollars like US dollars per year as like a global opportunity to recover that value from those plastics. It's so thin king of it in terms of like a circular economy. Oh, so being able to develop packaging that is reusable and returnable like at the beer store. You can bring yeah and properly recycle was he nice? Yeah, so I mean there is an opportunity, but the only thing is with businesses is when you're talking about kind of closing the loop and getting somewhere you need someone to want to buy those products that have been old plastic turned into new plastic and a lot of the time those recycled products are actually more expensive than Like the Virgin new products, so I think it's just, you know, the cheapness of yeah plastic right now and just how much you know cost goes into producing and recycling a new you know plastic from the old plastic versus something like a glass bottle that could be returned to a company and immediately sanitized refilled exact back out. It doesn't have to be you know, it's not like a package. Age that has been torn open melted down recreated and then sent back out again like that. Exactly more work. Yeah, and I mean these are things you know, things were thinking through as a working group is, you know, if you are trying to create some sort of circular economy and businesses don't you know want to spend the extra money especially, you know, the smaller businesses for sure aren't going to watch it, you know pay that they don't have kind of the margins to pay for. Exactly products like that. So you don't want local businesses to suffer from this right exactly Edition know for sure. So looking into definitely partnering with different businesses that are suppliers of you know products whether they be reusable alternative to single-use Plastics. Yeah, looking to work with businesses and then seeing if we can also have businesses work together as well exactly just like teaching them to take this on. I really like the idea of reuse. Us and working with businesses, like is there some sort of thing that we could commission like a reusable takeaway Cup right for all of the places that serve coffee in Peterborough that you can take a couple Evac up sort of thing. Like if you have got your takeout from this coffee shop in the morning and you again get another one on the afternoon or the next day you go somewhere else. You can drop those cups off anywhere and pick one up anywhere. Yeah heard of thing for sure. Yeah. Definitely things that are on our radar and that we've seen and we're looking into for sure. Yeah. I love it when things we've talked about and I know we haven't mentioned it but as well schools are a big thing, too. Yeah getting involved in the school. So we have a few Representatives on our on our working group from you know, elementary high school and as well post-secondary, even the teachers or students from both level. So well teachers real Okay. So this is like Noah ten-year-old. Yeah. Well, you know we have student who's in high school a teacher as well and at Fleming so lots of yeah, lots of opportunities with schools. There are looking to reduce their waste obviously waste is a cost for them to obviously there could maybe be some other options that we can look at to helping schools and reduce waste and even if it's just, you know, continuing awareness program. I know Greenup has had awareness programs in schools about Recycling and reducing and and you know your arse and exactly yeah, so yeah, so schools are also going to be a huge huge portion of it to is it an option as part of your working group to implement some sort of higher cost for Waste pickups or two things. So I know that you have curbside pickup, but beyond having one bag or one can or Nothing, like is there extra cost you have to pay for tags to have people pick up garbage? I think could that be an option for reducing waste because if people don't want to pay for it, or will that just lead to more dumping in the woods? I don't know. Yeah. I mean that's if you've run into I guess also the code thumping. I know as a business I've had people dumping are in our bins and the people in some cases that Creating more single-use garbage or have fewer choices when it comes to being able to afford products that are packaged for your whatever are going to be the people that also can't necessarily pay for their own tags. Right? So like that's not a fair thing actually maybe businesses could be. Yeah for sure businesses are already paying a little bit more as it is. Yeah in their interest to reduce the pickup for recycling. It's a to bag maximum believe so for a lot of Businesses that run, you know a lot of the same for garbage or just recycling because it's almost discouraging just recycling. I'm aware of it as recycling. I'm not a hundred percent sure in terms of its kind of image. Yeah, I'd be surprised that they wouldn't do it. Yeah, both Recycling and garbage are there ways that people can get involved with this working group at this point or are there ways that people could start them in their own cities. Yeah, I mean at This point we're still kind of in our own Zone trying to figure out what we can put on the report, but I'd be happy to field any emails if anyone has any good ideas or things that they've seen in other cities or things that they've seen online that they think anybody has any advice for this working group. Yeah, and that kind of information for sure as we're going through and thinking of some options. So definitely if people I'd be happy As one of the co-chairs to float my personal email out there. Sure. Yeah and and get any feedback that anyone has yeah in terms of how to start one in your own City. I mean, we were quite lucky to have a counselor that was behind this initiative and was really focused on on providing that but I think you could just also just get together as a group within a city and come up with your own. Friends and solutions and kind of think through the same things. We are, you know, look for your local Solutions and look for what other people are doing and see so I don't think it has to just work within you know city council. Yes, they might be able to help with potentially some funding potentially, you know backing of different programs I Citywide so it's definitely helpful and a little bit more authority to exactly putting yeah things with businesses as well. Yeah. So obviously it it has a little bit more leverage in terms of helping in the city. But if you're in a city like Peterborough that has you know, 80 however many people your city councilors are fairly available 80,000 Peter Rosalia bigger than the surrounding areas. Well like a hundred thousand. Yeah counselors are available and you know get counselors would love to talk. With you, so if you are able to reach out to the one that's for your burrow or your area, then you could definitely let them know that you're developing a report like this and that and you could always see if they'd be interested in collaborating like yeah in Peterborough or just because they're busy and they want to get things done. So give them the stat. Yeah, if you show initiative and you know, you're working on something. I'm sure they'd be happy to back you up and and Help you out. Is there a format for a report like this or it's literally just like this is our list of action items. And this is what we're proposing we can do some Alternatives find me on Instagram barely Peterborough specific and report will be coming from our staffers. So it'll be definitely something that could be replicated in other cities in terms of just basic reports or strategies or that kind of thing, you know, Vancouver and Toronto both have strategies that Oh great, you know put out there so you can have a look at that and see as an example of kind of a strategy they have great websites to so they're all user friendly and good and easy to maneuver and kind of you know, very infographic e kind of to look at so great examples of really good things and just awareness building. Yeah. Yeah cool. So definitely Follow You Know city council and what they're Doing following the city of Peterborough. They usually put out, you know, when there's any reports or you know, if you're the kind of person who digs down into city meetings. Yeah always find those online that's true. And if you ever wanted to just to look up they always post what their agenda is going to be for City Council meetings on Monday nights are interested go to the ones that interest you and you know, is there any sort of public participation in those or just literally just listening to it depends on I don't know at what point, you know after the report has put out, you know at that point. We'll see kind of what it means in terms of Engagement. And I'm sure we'll be looking for a lots of people to help out. Yeah, in terms of Engagement and businesses want to meditations and implementation. Yeah. So at this point we're we're more on the investigation and research and figuring things out side. Yeah. So yeah, so long process. It is. Yeah, it's a long process and we want to find something as I mentioned that's you know going to work and going to work for everyone and it was a long time ago and you know work for us now to because you know, we mentioned we can't compost now so different things that you know, we're looking to that's great. Thanks again for listening everyone. If you want to learn all about waste reduction weekend that you can head to wrw canada.com to find it the daily themes and help spread the word if you enjoyed today's episode you'd probably We also enjoy episode 18 with Luke's tour and episode 28 reusable Revolution. You can find those in our archives wherever you get your podcast is your city reducing single-use and switching to a more circular economy. We'd love to hear all about it. So send us an email at practically zero waste at gmail.com or tag us on Instagram and Facebook at practically zero waste pod so we can see your ideas happy waste reduction week to our friends and listeners not just in Canada, but around the world in America the UK, Australia France Germany the Netherlands Is and wherever you're listening from, have a great week everyone and talk to you soon.
Reducing waste from coast to coast to coast, welcome to Waste Reduction Week Canada, October 21-27! Today I talk with Dominique Murray of the working group for single use plastic reduction Peterborough all about just that >> HOW do we do it not just in our own homes but in businesses and corporations across the city and across the country? Is an outright ban the answer? How do you find the best alternatives that aren’t just green washed garbage in disguise? Listen in and check out some links below for all the great tips this week on how to take action NOW by reducing your waste! Waste Reduction Week Canada https://wrwcanada.com/en/about/waste-reduction-week-canada Theme Days https://wrwcanada.com/en/2019-theme-days Find them on Twitter https://twitter.com/wrwcanada?lang=en Take the Pledge to End Food Waste https://wrwcanada.com/en/food-waste-pledge New episodes every Sunday. 