Vancouver couple produces 4 shopping bags of garbage in 3 years
When it comes to trying to live life without creating excess waste, Elisabeth Ormandy and her partner Oliver Giving aren't perfect — but they're pretty close.
For the past three years Ormandy, 39, and Giving, 38, have increasingly tried to keep garbage to a minimum. In July, they celebrated by finally sending the garbage they accumulated during that time to the landfill: four shopping bags worth.
"For me it's just showing that two regular folks who work 60-plus hours a week on our various endeavours can still make a personal difference in our lives," said Ormandy.
The bags were mostly full of non-recyclable items like twist ties, plastic clips from bread bags, floss, stickers and toothpaste tubes.
According to officials with Metro Vancouver, households in Vancouver produce about one large garbage bag of waste a week. That adds up to about 500 kilograms of trash over a year.
The couple said they decided to start trying to produce less waste to do their part to help slow climate change and live in a sustainable way.
"Both Oliver and I have these deep values that are committed to having minimal impact, and it's fun to try to figure out ways to live in alignment with those," said Ormandy.
Like other Canadians, Ormandy and Giving were appalled when they read about trash that was shipped from Canada to the Philippines, only to be returned.
Paul Henderson, general manager of solid waste services for Metro Vancouver, says people in the region are already more progressive when it comes to waste reduction and recycling compared to other parts of the country. The region produces about 30 per cent less trash destined for a landfill than the national average.
"I think in general, we're all realizing that it's important to make change in order to protect the environment and look to the future generations," he said.
It's the reason why Ormandy and Giving took up a low-waste challenge. They avoided single-use plastics and household products like deodorant because the plastic tubes it comes in are not recyclable.
Giving says one thing he did was switch from disposable razors to safety razor blades to reduce waste. As they learned and experimented, they created a document with tips for others.
At the top of the list is to avoid impulse purchases.
"When I think a need for an item is arising, ask myself: 'Do I really need this?' " says the entry. "Ask this question for days or even weeks, depending on the cost and size of the item."
The couple says they created the guide because so many of their friends were curious about what they were doing. Ormandy says collective action around waste reduction, however big or small, can make a difference.
"People shouldn't really discount your own individual actions. If everybody did them, it's now collective action and that becomes really meaningful then," she said.
Government action
Still, the couple wants all levels of government to do more to help reduce waste and pollution.
The City of Vancouver is currently running a survey asking residents if they support a plastic bag ban and has a goal of being a zero waste community by 2040.
