On January 14, Awareness Film Night and Transition Sooke will present the film The Clean Bin Project as part of an evening that will focus on ideas for waste reduction in the Sooke and Juan de Fuca Districts.
There will also be a “Free Store Table” (bring functional items you no longer need and pick up some you might), a few upcycled reusable produce bags for sale and a chance to hear about and present ideas for reducing our waste footprint.
In November of 2013, over 100 people came to the Awareness Film Night’s screening of the film Trashed, an excellent but disturbing documentary about the world-wide problem of garbage - strewn, piled stories high, toxically burned, buried, drowned, and leached, but never really gone.
Since then, Transition Sooke set up a plastic-reduction display at last winter’s Seedy Saturday event and, in recent months, has received tacit approval from our local grocery stores to have “Grab Your Bags” reminder signs posted in store windows and in their parking lots so that we all remember to bring our canvas totes with us when we shop.
On January 14, Transition’s Tony St. Pierre will provide an overview of some of the reasons why cutting back on our plastic dependency matters. Featured speaker for the post-screening discussion will be Buddy Boyd, a team member of Zero Waste Canada and co-founder of the award-winning Gibsons Recycling Depot (check out gibsonsrecycling.ca to have a virtual tour of the depot). And, most importantly, Transition Sooke and Awareness Film Night will be gathering names for a Zero Waste Committee to hopefully work with local elected and appointed officials on initiatives to reduce our need for garbage dumps.
If you are thinking that Zero Waste sounds like a pie in the sky, know that over 400 communities in the world have committed to a zero waste process. According to a report in the Watershed Sentinel on the Zero Waste International Alliance Conference held in Nanaimo in October, speakers told of many success stories from Chilliwack to San Francisco to Salerno, Italy, (which went from 17 per cent diversion to 70 per cent in just two years) as well as presenting information about policies and ideas that are currently being implemented in cities and towns around the world to reduce waste.
In The Clean Bin Project, young Vancouver partners Jen and Grant go head to head in a light-hearted competition to see who can swear off consumerism and produce the least garbage over a year. This award-winning documentary features laugh out loud moments, stop motion animations, unforgettable imagery and captivating interviews that make it a fun and inspiring call to individual action that speaks to crowds of all ages.
If you feel that the time has come to be part of the waste reduction dialogue or are just curious about what is possible, the Zero Waste/Clean Bin project evening will take place from 7-9:30 p.m. at Edward Milne community school. Admission is by donation.
For more information on guest speakers for the post screening discussion on Zero Waste and on guidelines for bringing items for the “Free Store Table” check www.awarenessfilmnight.ca
AFN runs from October until May at 7 p.m., generally on the second Wednesday of every month.