Global Climate March - A Waste Audit of Sorts

Today I attended my first demonstration - I was part of a small group of volunteers from the Master Recycling program tasked with handling the waste needs of the Global Climate March, taking place on the grounds of the Vancouver Art Gallery. I would receive 3 hours credit toward 30 hours community outreach needed to complete the course. My job: overseeing a recycling station - directing unwanted items into one of three categories: organics, paper, containers.

Five thousand in support of the Earth on a cold, sunny day

I arrived just before 1PM, as the upbeat, bundled-up crowd was beginning to gather. There were hundreds of banners and placards with catchy, pro-environment slogans, groups of enthusiastic people in home-made costumes: kooky green getups covered with leaves, or over-sized, ominous grim reapers. Others wore masks, wigs, capes, crinolines, face paint. A group of people held aloft 50 cardboard salmon on sticks. I saw a small child with red hair carrying a sign: Gingers for Climate Change.

The atmosphere was hopeful, optimistic, friendly. Drummers and singers performed on the gallery steps, others waited their turn, danced, smiled, milled about, warming themselves with coffee, hot chocolate, tea. Serious business, but fun - the square was crowded with well-informed people, ready for change.

Concerns, enthusiasm

Soon, the recycling equipment arrived, towed behind the bicycle of one of the recycling course facilitators: a few blue, metal frames, a box of plastic bags, some work gloves and garbage pickers. 

We set up 3 stations, spaced strategically around the perimeter - in the line of foot traffic, but just barely. Soon enough the bags began to fill.

Here is what I learned: 

Organics, paper, containers. Masses of white fluff bound for the landfill.
Note the garbage picker - this kind does not work well!

Recycling Protocols are Confusing

Despite the pictures and words on the lid of the bins, explaining what goes where, people were confused. Wanting to do the right thing, but not being certain how, folks deliberated before committing their waste. Coffee cups: with the organics or containers or paper?*

What about plastic cutlery? A man showed me the triangle arrows symbol** on the back of his spoon. "It must be recyclable," he told me, "It should go with the plastic containers." The woman in the nearby food vendor truck confirmed my hope that the cutlery was compostable. Ah... the organics slot. Who knew? 

The bags continued to fill.

*FYI, today, coffee cups were to go with the plastic, metal or glass containers, along with their plastic lids, removed. Technically recyclable, Vancouver's blue boxes accept coffee cups. However, it is cheaper to make a new cup than to separate the thin plastic liner from the paper to recycle it, so you might wonder what actually happens to it

**The triangle arrows symbol indicates the type of plastic the item is made of, NOT that it is necessarily recyclable

Not Everybody will Take the Time to Work Out What Goes Where

Those who did not hesitate generally chose the wrong slot for their waste: napkins in the paper recycling, instead of with organics. Paper sleeves from take-out cups thrown along with the cup into the containers section, instead of being removed and added to the paper. People thinking they were doing the right thing, but not finding out for sure.

Cleaning up while the crowd marches for the climate
Cups, paper, bits of costume, cigarettes, plastic

Some People Litter

As the crowd began to march, our small group prepared to follow along, tidying up as we went. Garbage bags and pickers in hand, we would leave the streets spotless. I stayed behind, picking up debris from the frozen Art Gallery grounds. The amount of trash I found scattered about surprised me. 

As I worked, I was approached by the building's custodian, who confirmed the trash I was picking up was solely a result of the demonstration, as he had cleaned it just the day before. I had expected folks so passionate about the climate wouldn't litter, but I found coffee cups, paper flyers, banana and orange peels, apple cores, cigarette butts and packaging, many abandoned placards, and clump after clump of white, curly, polyester? fluff, fallen from various protestors' costumes. It was everywhere.

Sorting the waste

A chilly hour later, the crowd - now less than half the size - returned. Speeches and music continued while we six sorted and amalgamated bags of waste. The biggest collection: coffee cups, by far; followed by organic waste from lunches and snacks; then paper waste - bus tickets, cigarette packages, leaflets, newspapers and free magazines: The Georgia Straight, 24 hrs, Metro. Warning inserts from many, many cigarette packs. There was one bag of landfill-destined debris containing straws, candy wrappers, paper too dirty to recycle, an acrylic toque. I was amazed when I saw it all gathered up: just how much paper and plastic was discarded in the course of less than three hours!

Beautiful message; what about the medium?

The placards, too - many made of foam board and pre-cut, paper or foam art supplies, likely sourced from China - seemed incongruous. And the fact that many people were trying to ditch the placards by the end!

Sorting done, the bags were divided up to be transported by the volunteers to the appropriate destination: recycling or composting facility, landfill. The organizers, who have managed the recycling at many events before this one, seemed satisfied at the dwindling amount of waste produced, compared to past events - it could all be carried away by hand or bicycle. 

We said good-bye, and I went home to warm up and think about the day, my first demonstration. I'm encouraged to know the trash situation is improving overall, and excited to be a part of a larger movement toward a healthier, more sustainable Earth, but my impression from the day is that there is much change still to be made on a smaller, personal scale. I am left wondering what more I can do to effect change in myself and the caring, engaged people around me. I will start with something small...

What can we change about our habits that will impact the climate?

Carry a drink cup? Refuse a straw or a plastic bag? Quit smoking? 

Even small changes make a difference

Related links:
Waste Audit, 14 Days
Garden 3: Family Portrait
Divorce: a Waste Audit

Humatrope 8/Sewing Tip 8: Tassel Tutorial

Tassels give weight to the closure of the Humatrope collar, helping it stay in place

The tassels of the Humatrope collar are modelled on the ones taught me by my mentor and friend, the wonderful Vancouver couturier, Blossom Jenab. I spent a year of free time (seriously!) busily making an embroidered, beaded corset to Blossom's specifications. The finishing touch - the tassels - were fun to make and so over-the-top decadent, I just had to try a riff on them for the Humatrope collar. 

Tassels from corset made from Blossom's instructions; the left one is unfinished

Embroidery floss is wound around cardboard, much like a pompon is made, and secured at the top with heavy-duty thread to form a bobble, which is then beaded and attached to the braided cording that is the closure.

Here are the instructions, in case you want to make your own.

Ingredients for tassels: 15 year-old floss, needle caps, found pearl beads, cardboard 

You will need a folded piece of cardboard the height of the desired finished tassel, and some sort of thread or floss. I used a flattened box from my daughter's alcohol swabs and a left-over spool of glossy, woven embroidery floss from a beading class with Blossom, 15 years ago.

• Estimate the amount of floss needed by quickly wrapping it around the cardboard until it looks the right thickness. Count the wraps as you go. I used 27 for each tassel. Add an arm's length, or so, for good luck. Unwind. 
• For the optional beading on the tassel loops, count out the necessary number of needle caps and pearl beads - 1 set for each wrap. Poke a hole through the end of each needle cap using a sharp pair of pointy scissors and twist to make a smooth hole. Each of the tassels has 8 purple caps amongst the green, to represent my daughter's age. (We changed needle type partway through making the thing, and wouldn't you know but the new ones were a different colour!) 

String the beads before winding onto the cardboard, spacing randomly

• Using a darning needle, string a needle cap onto the floss. String a pearl, which will act as an anchor, then go back up through the needle cap. The blunt needle will help avoid piercing the floss when working back up through the cap. Repeat with remaining caps and beads. The spacing will be only rough at this point. The floss will look kinked, like a string of Christmas lights.

Wrap in an "X" shape, one needle cap per wrap

• Begin wrapping the floss around the folded cardboard, with the fold at the bottom. Wrap in an "X" shape. Slide the beads along the floss, if necessary, so that each wrap contains exactly one cap and bead. Wind both tassels in the same manner. Secure the thread tails with tape.

Beginning to sew the tassel

• Thread a heavy needle with strong thread or embroidery floss. Knot both ends together, so the thread is doubled. Push the needle between the two layers of cardboard, under the floss at the top end of the tassel, then back through the doubled thread loop. Pull tightly, to secure the windings. Remove the tape and slip the mess of threads off the cardboard by bending it slightly.

A reject tassel - not thick enough - showing the bobble being formed. Too skinny

• Sew repeatedly through the top end of the tassel, all over the place, to form a dense mass of stitches that will prevent the wraps from coming loose. Go in and out in all directions, wrapping the thread occasionally, too, to form the bobble. You will run out of thread once or twice. Re-thread your needle with a single ply of heavy thread and keep going until you have formed a nice, chubby ball on top.

Forming the handle around a pen. Note the bobble, made of lots of heavy thread

• Make a handle on top of the tassel with two loops of heavy thread.  I formed the loops around a pen. Secure well by stitching in and out of the bobble a few more times.

The handle: two loops of thread, covered with buttonhole stitch

• Cover the handle with buttonhole stitch, using whatever colour or type of thread your little heart desires. I used silver on the corset. On the Humatrope collar, instead of matching floss, I (inexplicably) chose old, pink embroidery cotton that probably once belonged to my grandmother.

The cord is braided right onto the handles

• Bead the ball as you desire, to cover up the mass of stitches. I used random-coloured beads from clothing hang tags that have been amassing over time, cotton thread, and a very fine beading needle. I went through each strand of beads twice, just in case. 
• Attach the cord by stitching it to the handle then covering with another layer of buttonhole stitch to hide the evidence, as I did for the corset tassels.
  Or attach by folding three strands of cord over the handle, and braiding the resulting six strands together, as I did with the Humatrope collar. This second method makes a clean finish, and doesn't require further embellishment to cover up the stitching.

8 purple needle caps because she is 8, and love in every stitch

All that's left is figuring out what to do with the exquisite little item you just made. But as Blossom says, make the garment and the occasion to wear it will present itself.

Humatrope 1: Ingredients

Humatrope 2: Test Swatch and Scoliosis Brace

Humatrope 3: Foundation, More Brace

Humatrope 4: Lost for Words
Humatrope 5: Hello Little Girl in the Bullet-Proof Vest

Humatrope 6: Three Distractions
Humatrope 7: From the 13th Floor