I love my car. Really.
I learned to drive in this car. I moved away to university in this car. I met my husband because he liked my bumper sticker. It’s driven over 200,000 kms, carried dozens of rugby girls covered in mud, and traveled to more parts of this province than most people have probably seen. It’s been towed, ferried, and flooded.
And now I’m scrapping it.
The decision to scrap the car was a tough one. I’ve been debating it for years, but always found an excuse not to. I love the convenience of my car.
It still runs fine! Sure I’ll admit it has transmission problems and costs me a ton to maintain, but I’ve always convinced myself it’s worth it. It’s just that every year (and every major repair) makes it harder to believe. So I’ve decided Continue reading…
Tonight the Vancouver Folk Music Festival kicks off their 35th annual show and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ve been working with Folk Fest for 21 years, helping them to reduce waste at an event that sees thousands of people eating and drinking outdoors over three days. Not an easy feat. Over the years their environmental committee has developed a zero-waste plan that works with the spirit of the event and could stand as a best-practices example for festival recycling. Keep reading to see exactly how they have succeeded…
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As we hit the mid-point of the summer season, (weather notwithstanding this year!), and the zenith of festival-mania in Vancouver, it’s a good time to re-visit some of the tried and true benchmarks for guaranteeing your community event comes up clean and green in terms of its waste reduction and diversion efforts!
Over the last 20 years Recycling Alternative has gained a reputation for working closely with countless community events and festival organizers to collaborate, guide, educate and help implement robust recycling at various public events Vancouverites have come to associate with summer in our city.
Here are our TOP TRASHBUSTING TIPS for ensuring your event walks the talk by setting a high waste diversion standard that organizers and participants alike can be proud of when measuring the environmental impact of your celebration. Continue reading…
We are excited to be partnering with Make Music Vancouver this year as they usher in the first day of summer with the sounds of an impressive diversity of musical genres on the streets of Gastown!
Make Music Vancouver isn’t a stand-alone event – it is part of a global live music celebration that takes place every year on June 21st in over a hundred countries! Last year over 20,000 people Continue reading…
Last Sunday a group of dedicated Drop Spot volunteers made the trek out to the commercial composting facility to learn more about where your weekly Drop Spot food scraps are going.
Each Saturday, Recycling Alternative picks up the totes from the Drop Spots and transports them to Envirosmart in Ladner. Envirosmart uses a state to of the art, windrow system to process the more than 1,000 tonnes of food scraps they receive on a weekly basis from local composting programs.
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Last week’s SCORAI conference (Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative) brought together over 100 academics and practitioners from many parts of the USA and Canada, to discuss the challenges of sustainable consumption, dematerialization, and what we need to do in practical terms to get there.
Among those gathered was Annie Leonard (Story of Stuff) who talked about ‘cul de sacs’ and ‘on ramps’ as telling metaphors on the trajectory of individual behaviour modification and the pressing need for broader, collective social change.
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When we started the winter model of our Drop Spots, we didn’t know what to expect, we just knew we couldn’t turn our backs on the amazing ground gained in terms of public awareness and more importantly, behaviour change.
In the West End, we knew we wanted to continue testing participation levels as the weather got colder and the Farmers Market packed up from Comox Street. We wondered if residents would continue to brave the weather and make the effort to participate in this community model to compost and divert their food scraps.
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