T.S Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month and although for different reasons than his, I couldn’t agree more. Exams are stressful, your thesis might be due, you have to nail down a summer job or maybe even decide what your graduation game plan is. You’re saying goodbye to friends and professors for the summer, or maybe for longer. And on top of all this, you might even have to move out, move in or move home. I see moving as an opportunity to downsize and declutter. One of the central tenets or zero waste is minimalism, or at least that everything you own serves a purpose and was procured sustainably. But how do you get rid of the big things, like a kitchen table or all your glassware, and not just leave them on the side of the road, or worst, throw them away. The reuse economy is the best place to get things and give away things when moving. What is the reuse economy? It is so many things! The salvation army, consignment stores, selling clothing in facebook groups or even...

~ This is a piece about plastic that I really could live without and how to navigate normative grocery stores in a more eco-friendly way. Yes more than anything really, this will be a rage piece about unnecessary everyday plastic that really does not need to exist and what we can do to live without it. ~ I began thinking critically about the everyday items I buy each week at the grocery store around September when I started to transition more and more towards being plastic-free. Like most students, my life is a balance between trying to eat healthy and work hard and then eating my stresses away with sweets. We are all trying our best. Its exam time now. Nothing a few bulk chocolate chips can’t fix. It’s going to be all good. You know what isn’t all good? Foods packaged unnecessarily! Foods for sale that have unnecessary plastic packaging when you can get the same food in a plastic-free manner! So I am going to tell you how I really feel and we’re going to go through the grocer...

As a long time fan of brushing my teeth, I was hesitant to adopt this popular zero waste lifestyle change. I love making things and I love trying new things, but most natural toothpaste recipes I researched called for simple yet not super appetizing ingredients. Baking soda? Bentonite clay? The skepticism was high even though most recipes called for a sweetening or flavour agent like essential oil or stevia. But then I looked closer at the ingredients in typical tooth paste and did a 'lil internet research. This is what I found: Triclosan : So this chemical is actually classified as a bioaccumulative, non-biodegradable pesticide! It is bad for the environment and our waster systems as it is very toxic to aquatic organisms. But it also isn't great for you, as it is linked to hormone interference and contributes to antibiotic resistant bacteria. Propylene Glycol : This chemical is often contaminated with known carcinogenic ethylene oxide and 1,4 dioxane during the manu...

In the spirit of Barney Stinson and in an attempt to really walk the sustainable walk, this past week I accepted a challenge from a fellow environmentalist to truly trashless. What challenge you ask? Sure to be the latest mannequin or ice bucket challenge to have all the youths blowing up their social feeds, the waste bucket challenge raises awareness to the amounts of waste we produce every single day. So this is how the challenge works. Any trash you produce is kept in a bucket or receptacle or whatever of choice allowing you to see how much of what you consume regularly is non-compostable or non-recyclable. So to reiterate, if it cannot be composted or recycled, it goes and stays in the bucket. I used a 32 oz. glass container rather than any sort of garbage cans as I moved about my normal life for a week. I also equipped myself with my trusty travel mug, Nalgene, mason jars, canvas bags, a fork/spoon and reusable containers. So now five days later, with a glass container...

New year, new earth? Unfortunately that's not really quite how it works. In the immortal words of Eminem, "you only get one shot". We’ve reached a point where we can no longer remain complacent in regards to the environmental crisis, especially when considering the current political atmosphere. Simply thinking about climate change, waste pollution, food sustainability and conservation is not enough. We need tangible actions, both big and small. So here are five tangibles actions to reduce your environmental impact in the new year and new academic semester. Perhaps you can even pull Marshall Mathers and lose yourself... in sustainability! That might be a weak joke, but the earth certainly isn't getting any cooler and the new year is a great time to make small changes so you can keep living your best life for you, but also for the planet. Here’s how: Make your travel mug your new best friend Travel mugs are should be as essential as coffee is to university s...

Wow, it really really feels like you don't like disposable coffee cups! In the past couple of weeks I have been getting an avalanche of questions about the infamous Nescafé booth which was on campus during the month of September. I guess the whole story goes something like this. Nescafé is invited by Community Life on campus for an event last year... Things go so well they are invited back for Welcome Week this year. Nescafé hands out heaping cups of coffee to anyone who stops by their booth. Things are going well again until... an infographic comes out announcing how many cups of coffee were handed out over the month. There is a flood of comments on a Facebook post about the coffee being handed out. The post is taken down and Coffegedgon begins... I say the whole thing goes "something like this" because our office was not involved with the event. We just got a couple of sneers and complaints sent our way but we didn't pay much attention to everything h...

So I got a lot of comments on my first post about going waste free. Thanks to everyone for all the questions and ideas. I think that the one that kept surfacing the most was around the theme of what is zero waste actually? I thought maybe this would be a great place to start the next installment of this series... If we want to be zero waste, well... "what is waste?" seems like a great place to start. If you have ever had the misfortune of attending one of my presentations you might remember me saying that there is no such thing as waste. This is technically true but not quite practically true. Take Bill Gates and his project to recycle nuclear waste . I think that we could all agree that nuclear waste is pretty high on the list of "difficult things to recycle"... but it is not impossible to recycle or reuse, nothing is given enough time and money. But we aren't really interested in fringe waste, we are interested in the everyday stuff like gum wrappers...

Another year, another Dump and Run! Every year, we tell ourselves, “we can’t possibly collect more things than we did last year!” And every year, we do end up collecting more things than we did last year. Whoops, where are my manners. I didn't explain what I am talking about. The Dump and Run is an event that targets people moving out of the residences at the University of Ottawa. Our group, the Office of Campus Sustainability, organizes the collection of unwanted (but still functional) items and food to then donate them either to the Free Store (for other students to use) or to local charitable groups. By collecting stuff what I mean is recuperating things that students leave behind when they move out of our campus residences. There are good reasons why people leave stuff behind. Some people are moving in with other people who have too much stuff, some people are going home and have no space, and some people are taking an airplane our of town – do you have room for that com...

http://www.sustainable.uottawa.ca/how-can-i-get-involved.html#Take the pledge I took on this challenge with gusto on February 5th - yes, the day of the Superbowl. I made sure the snacks and beverages I prepared were made and served in reusable containers. Then, as an added waste-reduction measure, I sorted through any other materials produced by others and recycled it. One of the best parts of this is that when I pulled a bunch of paper towel out of the garbage to compost it (yeah, garbage picking...it wasn't my finest moment), I found $10!!! Being waste-free really does pay off. As for work, everything I ate had to be packed in reusable containers and transported to and from the office. The hardest part of this was the organics...I had to bring home apple cores and banana peels in order to compost them since there were no bins at work. Everyone in the office thought I was mildly crazy for packing up a container full of organics and encouraging them to do the same, but I ...

I messed up once during the week I pledged to go waste free. I tossed my dental floss in the garbage can and it wasn’t until I was walking around campus with a container of orange peels to compost that I realized I hadn’t even thought if that floss was recyclable. After a quick investigation online I found out that floss is not recyclable, which makes sense since mine seems like minty-scented nylon. Turns out, lots of big-name floss actually contains polytetrafluoroethylene, the same stuff that coats non-stick cookware, and its production is pretty bad for the environment. Who knew? A friend of mine suggested using hair, but I really don’t think I’m up for that just yet. The internet did, however, abound with suggestions on what to do with my used dental floss. People wash it (the best method apparently is to soak it in a container with soap), and then they reuse it. Either as reusable dental floss or to wrap packages, to tie plants in their garden, slice delicate food, sew buttons...

I joined the waste-free challenge because I thought it would inspire my colleagues to rethink their habits in the workplace. I already live a mostly waste-free lifestyle: recycling, composting, avoiding products with too much packaging, unplugging electronics when they’re not in use, turning down the heat when I’m away, turning off my computer screen when I leave the office, etc. This isn’t to say that I’m perfect or better than anybody. The point is that I make a conscious effort to reduce my share of waste. Sometimes it’s a hassle, but I do feel a sense of responsibility for my actions. Let’s be honest. There’s no such thing as a completely waste-free lifestyle. Humans live on this planet. We have a right to use our fair share of its resources. Sadly though, I’ve come to realize that a large percentage of people I meet simply do not think or care about using their fair share. My last job was at an environmental non-profit here in Ottawa. I was living in a bubble. All the thin...

A summary of my first month living waste free: To sum up, I have pledged to live waste-free for nine weeks (from January 29th to March 31st) in the spirit of RecycleMania – and just to show that it is possible! What I mean by waste-free is that I will not be sending anything to landfill; I will be recycling, composting, and using my reusable containers! I have been waste-free for about a month now, and am finding it even easier that last year – now that the University recycles all forms of plastics! I am planning all my meals ahead of time, making all my own foods from scratch, and buying ingredients by bulk in jars and reusable containers. The first interesting experience I had was during my visit to the dentist. I hadn’t been in a few years, and forgot just how much waste they produce for a simple check-up: a disposable plastic ‘bib’ to protect my clothes, disposable plastic floss, a disposable cloth to wipe my face (wrapped in plastic), and a disposable plastic cup to rinse m...

For the second year in a row, I have decided to live waste free during RecycleMania. From January 29th to March 31st, I am pledging to not produce a single item that will end up in a landfill. Now that does not mean that I cannot use anything recyclable! Nonetheless I will try to keep this at a minimum by purchasing food in bulk with my reusable containers and jars whenever possible. Last year, I pledged for eight weeks, and my box of shame contained a Band-aid, a few pieces of plastic dental floss, and a piece or two of gum (I am seriously addicted to the stuff!). It was much easier than I had thought; waste-free versions of all the same products I use on a daily basis are out there, you just have to find them…and learn to cook a new thing or two!. My favourite finds were vanilla or almond extract in bulk, and compostable dental floss, which can be purchased at most organic food stores in Ottawa (Silk Floss). If you are unsure about giving it a try, I give a ‘how to live waste-...