Garbage-Free February: 2010

Location: your home

Monday February 1st, 2010
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

 The goal of Garbage-Free February is to make choices as a consumer (citizen) that will not produce any contributions to a landfill*. For the entire month of February we encourage you to:

- purchase only recyclable and reusable goods
- learn about and use your local recycling program
- bring your own bag to the grocery store/market
- eat 100% organic food and buy in bulk
- compost any organic waste that you produce
- use www.freecycle.org to give away unneeded items to others who can use them
- come up with more ideas and share them with others

* exceptions - like toilet paper - are allowed!

The 2010 kick-off on February 1 was a public screening of the 20-minute documentary film "Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage" - about recycling and waste in North America based on the book by the same name by Heather Rogers. The film has great facts and funny archival video. It exposes the often magical (but false) feeling we get from "helping the earth" by recycling. It also points out the real problems: over-production and industrial pollution. PLUS, it explains corporate greenwashing and our economic system of "built-in obsolescence".

Following the film we discussed "Zero Waste" and how communities are successfully reaching targets leading to zero waste management all over the world!

This February, see how much you can reduce the waste that your home puts out.