They say that the little things add up, and that as they do, they make a greater impact. Those 15 minutes of exercise a day, the 20 minutes you read with your child each night, and every single little yogurt container you wash and recycle. They all add up to make big changes in our health, our kids and the environment.
I remember when recycling first became a “thing”. There was so much confusion about what we could recycle, where it went and how clean it actually needed to be. I remember when our city community launched their recycling program and each house was given a giant blue bin, a green bin for composting and a very small garbage.
I was shocked that the garbage pick-up was only every other week! How could we manage, as a family of 5, with this “small” garbage bin that was only emptied every 14 days?
Over time we adapted, as you do. Our recycling bin was overflowing each week, while the garbage remained roomy.
When we moved to Salt Spring, our waste needed to be reduced even further. Every small bag of garbage is $5 to dispose of here, and you need to drive it into town to do it. With limited space for disposal, every bag counts.
Our recycling has gone to the extreme because of this. We use reusable lunch boxes, mason jars for food storage and recycle everything, down to the little flap on top of our yogurt. It has become second nature to us, and is automatic in our kids.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle used to be a catchy tag line to retrain a society hell bent on consumption. Now it is an automatic way of life.
For most people anyway.
As a family, managing your waste is intimate and easier to do. For big business, it needs to be a company commitment of the most serious nature. Not only to manage the recycling needs of warehouses, but to also make this mindset a priority in your staff, is a huge endeavor.
But, when they do it, they can take the small impact a family has and multiply it by the extremes.
When I found out that SC Johnson is a company that is deeply committed to environmentally friendly, sustainable business practices, it changed the way I felt about them.
To know that a company, as big as SC Johnson, makes it a priority to recycle 100% of its e-waste and surplus IT equipment, including hardware, is impressive (I don’t think I have ever been able to recycle 100% of ANYTHING).
The fact that SC Johnson’s Brantford Canada plant has not sent ANY waste to landfills since January 2013 and plans to continue this into the future is not just impressive, it is awe inspiring.
Not only that, but SC Johnson Canada has a waste diversion rate of 98%, far above the industry requirements. In order to reach this waste diversion rate SC Johnson made several changes, such as replacing garbage bins at individual workstations with centralized sorting bins to ensure zero waste leaves the office areas.
SC Johnson wants YOU to join them in their challenge to reduce waste. They want to hear from you about what YOU can do at home, at work or at play to achieve ZERO WASTE!
This includes recycling ALL the things, purchasing in bulk and storing in reusable containers and washing even the ickiest of packaging so it can be re-used or recycled.
This means bringing a reusable cup when you grab a coffee before soccer, and saving any of those snack wrappers to go in the recycling bin when you get home. It’s repurposing, and reinventing items that are no longer good for their previous use.
In general, it is thinking EVERY SINGLE TIME you approach the bin, and looking for solutions OTHER THAN tossing it out.
It sounds difficult, but with every decision NOT to toss something, we are making small steps towards ZERO waste!
Watch this video for more easy things you can do to move your family into the zero waste zone.
So, this month, join me as I try to commit to zero waste and let’s see how these small steps can add up to big impact!
“Disclosure: I am part of the PTPA Brand Ambassador Program with SC Johnson and I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.”