Food, Flip-Flops, Refills, Oh My! – Five Hopeful Wins For the Planet (On Wednesday)

Who else blinked and experienced autumn, all of a sudden? *waves hand wildly* I can’t say I mind: here in BC, we were the unfortunate recipients of a record-breaking heatwave, severe wildfires, and some crispy drought conditions for most of the summer. Only in September did things start to calm down again, and we were blessed with a few short weeks of blissful blue skies and warm temps.

Truth be told though, autumn is my favourite season. I grew up in the northeastern region of the USA and the fall colours really stuck with me. Plus, it’s harvest time for gardens and farms alike which means right now is such a delicious time!!

It’s also that time of year when we start to get back to routines and enter into a more reflective time. Cue the return of Wednesday Wins! The days are getting shorter and temperatures slowly dropping, leaving lots of space to sit back with some tea (or, wine) and think about all that this year has brought.

And…it’s brought a lot (2020 Part II, anyone?). But! I’m not here to talk about all the worldly dramas. Nope, nope, nope. This is Wednesday Wins, after all, and that’s what I’m here to deliver! So without further ado: five hopeful wins to keep your week on the up-and-up! Enjoy! ☀️

1. Swapping Shirts for Plants

As any low-waster will tell you, “reduce” and “reuse” are paramount when it comes to the waste-reduction hierarchy. Frankly, “refuse” is-/probably should- be at the top of the list, but of the traditional, “big three,” reducing your waste and reusing whatcha got are great ways to live with a lighter footprint. One way to tackle those Rs? Swapping! As with thrifting or consignment, all swapping asks is that we humans quit it with the notion that things need to be “new” all the time. It turns out, this way of thinking is pretty amazing, and there are some deals to be had!

Recently, I caught a story shared by a friend of mine, who used a fun, new app to swap a shirt she owned for a plant. Yes, that’s right: there is an app that allows you to exchange pretty much anything you can think of. Even a shirt for a plant. It’s called “bunz” and while I haven’t myself swapped anything (yet) it looks pretty freaking neat. It might not be in every city (yet) but I’m sure time will change that. Hopeful win, check! 🙂

2. Urban Farming in Prince Rupert, BC

I’m not sure what it is about community gardens, but when I see them, I get really excited. It’s even more exciting when they’re located smack-dab in the middle of a parking lot, right across from a chain grocery store (owned by a multinational).

Obviously, I am talking about a specific community garden here. 🙂 This particular garden (urban farm, actually) is located in Prince Rupert, BC. And let me tell you, it is a thing of beauty!

Unfortunately, on the day we happened to stop by to check it out, the gates were shut. No matter. Even on a rainy, fall day (and perhaps especially so), this garden was like a beacon of hope and beauty. It was neatly laid out with raised beds throughout, a small greenhouse, and picnic benches and chairs for gathering. There was squash slowly reaching out of their beds; beet greens looking fresh and vibrant in the rain; rainbow swiss chard standing at attention. In the back, a heaping pile of beautiful, rich, black compost and a string of prayer flags decorating the chain-link fence. And it really was right across the street from the local Safeway, which I just recently learned (thanks to a great book called Grocery Story), is an American supermarket chain.

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Urban Farms Combat Global Food Systems

The Kaien/Kxeen Island Urban Farm feels so perfectly placed here. Upon learning of its inception, that feeling only deepened. You see, the Farm is a food sustainability initiative, co-created by EcoTrust Canada and the Metlakatla Development Corporation. Its purpose? To enhance local food security for Kaien Island/Prince Rupert residents, shorten food supply chains, and support the community in growing their own food. How freaking RAD is that?!

Not that there is anything wrong with Safeway, but the more I read about industrialized food and our complicated global food systems, the more it’s clear to me that this is perhaps not the best way for us to obtain our food. Reducing the number of links in the food chain, improving soil health, and providing fair and equitable access to real food is the way forward (full stop!). Urban agriculture projects like the Kaien Island Urban Farm tick all those boxes – hooray! Another hopeful win serving up delicious success.

3. Chain Reaction: Refill Revolution takes over chain hotels

A lot happened on this trip to Prince Rupert – here’s another win we uncovered!

Refillable soap in hotels.

As I’ve written about before, individualized plastic-wrapped nonsense in hotels is the bane* of my (and probably most low-wasters) existence. It’s a good idea in theory – provide guests with just enough supplies to get them through a day or two, in a safe and sanitary manner – but it’s also highly wasteful of both resources and money.

So it’s always a highlight when we walk into a hotel and discover nary a shred of plastic to be found. Even better? When the hotel has refillable dispensers for soaps, shampoos, and lotions! Huzzah! This was our experience recently while staying at a chain hotel in Prince George, BC where each room was equipped with large, pump bottles for all the requisite washing liquids. Why is this exciting? If this chain can do it, so can others. I’m gonna be cautiously optimistic with this one, folks and chalk this up to a hopeful win, indeed. (Frankly, my only regret was not refilling the tiny bottle of lotion I’ve been carting around for three years from the larger vessel in our room. Shoot!)

*In the interest of full disclosure and lest you think I am some kind of perfect human, I will readily admit to occasionally squirrelling away the tiny bottles of lotion, sometimes. The majority of the time though..this plastic crap is a source of much consternation!

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SUPs are UN-sustainable

Awareness of individual-sized and single-use plastic (aka “SUP”) everything is growing at lightening speed these days, thank freaking goodness. It’s even caught the attention of the UN! They recently published a report in June, calling specific attention to SUPs within the travel and tourism sectors. In it, they analyzed procurement records from 69 hotels in destinations all over the world, including in Europe, the Caribbean, the Americas, the Middle East, and South-East Asia to get a handle on how problematic SUPs really are.

The findings? Ding, ding! Water bottles and hotel toiletries were most commonly found! The report goes on to discuss trade-offs for switching to alternative products or implementing other programs (such as take-back, refill, etc) with handy infographics to guide tourism-based businesses in making appropriate decisions. It’s worth checking out if you’re a plastic-free nerd like me. 😉

What I’m most curious about though, is your experience in hotels. Have you seen refillable toiletry options before? Where, when, and what was the experience like? Drop a note in the comments!

4. Flip-Flop Art Makes Waves & Educates

These Wednesday Wins are so much more fun when they’re fueled by stories you share with me. So please, if ever you come across something you think is a “WIN” for our earth, let me know. The following story was shared by my friend, Heather!

Heather lives in the midwest US now, but she used to inhabit the East Coast, and one of her longtime favourite shops to visit was Foreign Cargo in Kent, Connecticut. Recently, she was on a trip back east and paid a visit to the shop, where she came across art sculptures…made out of flip flops!

It turns out, this art was created for Swahili Modern, by a group of Kenyan artisans, who collect flip flops off their beaches and turn them into something beautiful. They also collect bottles, cans, plastics, fabric, and wire to turn them into sculptures large and small. Really, the work is stunning and it seems unbelievable that something we see as garbage could ever be so beautiful.

Here’s why this is awesome: this art – made out of trash – connects those perusing Foreign Cargo’s wares with an issue that can sometimes feel really, really big and “far away.” Even though we interact with plastic daily (minutely! hourly!) it’s turned into such an invisible substance that we almost aren’t aware we’re interacting with it at all.

Having tangible reminders in the form of art can keep us aware of the issue, without leaving us down in the dumps. Hopeful win, you betcha!

Speaking of reminders…

5. The Power of Giving In (for a hot minute)

Holy bananas, Batman! I posted about this on my Instagram a couple of weeks ago (on that same Prince Rupert trip I keep yammering on about) and was quite surprised at the amount of discussion it generated!

It seems that while we’re all feeling the eco-anxiety somethin’ awful, we are all similarly figuring out that it’s A-O-K to give it all up for a hot minute. Or maybe it’s not OK but do you know what? We are only human. Not robots. Nor can we be “on” all the time. There are days when it’s just plain tough (remember 2020?😂 ). In those moments…it’s OK to give in.

(For context, in the aforementioned post, I was talking about giving in to convenience – as you can see in the above photo, we were bombarded with plastic sachets and other items…but we were also really tired, hungry, and in need of a good meal. This purchase supported a small, independent restaurant and filled our bellies. We ate everything, used up all the food-related bits, and recycled as much of the material as possible.)

Give In, Then Move

When you are feeling small, frazzled, and overwhelmed at the checkout counter because the till person just double bagged all your groceries before you got a chance to say anything because you were too tired from a long, exhausting day at work…take the groceries, go home, and save the bags for another purpose. If you are feeling lonely, frustrated, and tired and you know a helping of piping hot chow mein from your favourite Cantonese restaurant will help soothe your aching soul…get the chow mein. Seriously. We are not on this planet to be miserable. Go out for a walk tomorrow and do a 5-minute litter pickup to make up for it.

Here’s the thing: you. are. only. h-you-man. (See what I did there?) – Stop expecting to be anything but. In order to refill our hope reservoirs, we have to let go of the weight of the world, refuel, reenergize, and then move. Giving in can be a hopeful win, even though it sounds like an oxymoron. Give in, and then get up and keep moving. And also virtual hugs to you, being a human is hard.

And that’s all she wrote! Well, for this week anyhow. 😇 I hope these stories of hopeful wins bring you a modicum of hope and some lightness to carry you through the rest of this week. If you have a planetary “win” you’d like to share, please reach out! I’d love to hear from you.