Tag Archives: garbage

The Tragedy of the Commons: Photo Essay

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“In my household we produce much of our own food and try to do without as many frivolous “necessities” as possible — and yet, like everyone else, we must shop, and when we shop we must bring home a load of plastic, aluminum, and glass containers designed to be thrown away, and ‘appliances’ designed to wear out quickly and be thrown away.”
What Matters? Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth by Wendall Berry

In spring, I seem to be particularly sensitive to the effects of garbage. I have been picking garbage around my home in the Ironmask Industrial Park. I know an industrial park is a strange place to raise a family — but providence has brought me here — and I will take care of the land that I am given.

There appears to be a long history of dumping in Kamloops. I have found numerous dumping spots all around Kamloops. Kamloops being such a dry place means garbage lasts a long time. Metal doesn’t rust very quickly, nor does wood decompose with any vigor, while bones and plastics are bleached white in the sun. I would like to take you on a short walk into the Tragedy of the Commons that is taking place in the Crown Forest Lands behind my home.

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There is nothing like taking an early morning walk in the tranquility of the countryside. Unfortunately, this walk is not as pleasant as it could be.

“I confess that I am angry at the manufacturers who make these things. There are days when I would be delighted if certain corporation executives could somehow be obliged to eat their products. I know of no good reason why these containers and all other forms of manufactured “waste” — solid, liquid, toxic, or whatever — should not be outlawed.”

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This old camper was set on fire and partly destroyed. Only the metal framework remains but it has the look of something that has been around a long time.

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These sand bags were dumped last week into the middle of the road. I wonder if the next vehicle to pass by will bottom-out on the bags.

“Much of our waste problem is to be accounted for by the intentional flimsiness and unrepairability of the labor-savers and gadgets that we have become addicted to… We have made a social ideal of minimal involvement in the growing and cooking of food. This is one of the dearest ‘liberations’ of our affluence.”

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I wonder if this large screened television was once someone’s pride-and-joy. Now it stands sentry as a burnt out wreck in the forest.

“But our waste problem is not the fault only of producers. It is the fault of an economy that is wasteful from top to bottom — a symbiosis of an unlimited greed at the top and a lazy, passive, and self-indulgent consumptiveness at the bottom — and all of us are involved in it.”

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What is the story behind this engine block? Shaen wondered why the person dumped this piece of metal in the forest when scrap metal yards will pay money for steel.

“The mess that surrounds us, then, must be understood not just as a problem in itself but as a symptom of a greater and graver problem: the centralization of our economy, the gathering of the productive property and power into fewer and fewer hands, and the consequent destruction, everywhere, of the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community.”

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This poor beast with its broken leg just appeared a few days ago. I have no idea how it found itself dumped in with the garbage. Someone came along and tried to burn it but the job was only partly done. Someone is in the woods trying to clean-up this mess but this person can’t seem to keep ahead of the dumping.

“The ecological damage of centralization and waste is thus inextricably involved with human damage. For we have, as a result, not only a desecrated, ugly, and dangerous country in which to live until we are in some manner poisoned by it, and a constant and now generally accepted problem of unemployed and unemployable workers, but also classrooms full of children who lack the experience and discipline of fundamental human tasks, and various institutions full of still capable old people who are useless and lonely.”

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Discarding Christmas trees in the forest makes a lot of good sense because they will decompose over time and make soil. These sad Christmas trees — which I see everywhere — have become a symbol for me of holiday excess and our throw-away culture.

“I think that we must learn to see the trash on our streets and roadsides, in our rivers, and in our woods and fields, not as the side effect of ‘more jobs’ as its manufacturers invariably insist that it is, but as evidence of good work not done by people able to do it.”

I don’t know why there is such a long tradition of dumping in Kamloops. I try to understand why they dump by looking at the garbage and wondering about its story. If someone has a vehicle, why go into the forest to dump when there is the Kamloops Landfill and free recycling in the city?

I want more freedoms for us all. But here in the forest where it’s free, I see sad evidence. Governments point to such behavior and justify taking away everyone’s freedom because a few people act in less than enlightened ways. I don’t have any solutions other than picking up the mistakes of others. I just wanted to share with you what is happening in the forest lands near my home.

If you would like to reduce your waste stream, here is some Solidarity Homework. Here is an essay by Garrett Hardin called The Tragedy of the Commons.

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There are some isolated giant Douglas Firs in the forest lands around Kamloops. These isolated trees give us a window into the past. I can almost see the vast grasslands, interspersed by these great trees.

Updated May 4, 2013: Garbage is unsightly, but a more serious Tragedy of the Commons is happening in BC regarding water and fracking.

Last week I was talking with Todd Stone, Kamloops South candidate for the BC Liberals, about his government’s policy to promotion fracking. He says fracking has a forty year history in BC and is totally safe due to government regulations. He told me the problems with fracking can’t happen here in Canada because Canada has the best regulations in the world. I contacted Big Bear Ranch for evidence about fracking damage in Canada.

These two videos are about Jessica Ernst from Rosebud, AB. Jessica Ernst worked for the last thirty year in the Oil and Gas Industry as a Environmental Scientist. The first video is a six minute introduction. The second video is the documentation of the contamination that occurred in Rosebud, AB. Presently, Jessica Ernst is suing EnCana Corporation and the Alberta Government for water contamination. If you want your children to be able to drink clean water please watch both videos.

Updated May 7, 2013: I have just watched a National Film Board documentary called Wiebo’s War. You can watch it online for just a few dollars. Here is more information about the film:
“Wiebo’s War is a feature documentary that tells the story of a man’s epic battle with the oil and gas industry. In the 1990s, natural gas wells were drilled near the home of Reverend Wiebo Ludwig and his clan in Alberta. Soon after, livestock began to die, and the Christian community started experiencing health problems, including a series of miscarriages. After 5 years of being ignored by the oil and gas industry, Ludwig decided to fight for his land and his family’s survival.”

Updated May 9, 2013: I just had to post this pile of shotgun shells. I couldn’t believe the size. It’s piled two feet high, with a diameter of five feet. I could tell that someone was cleaning up the mess.

This morning I met David. He lives up at Lac Le Jeune, BC and comes here every day for a walk and to pick-up garbage. David said that the Thompson Nicola Highway Department will come around and pick-up the pile of garbage. Seeing David’s commitment to the forest makes me want to bring a garbage bag on tomorrow’s walk too.

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David is Goose Lake Road’s “forest guardian”. He comes here every day and picks-up garbage.

Solidarity… of a Sort

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It doesn’t rain much?in Kamloops. When it does rain, it’s torrential. The rain will blast down Lac Le Jeune Road and hit the ditch hard and fast. After the last rainstorm the ditch in front of my home filled in minutes.

Each of us needs to think carefully about our actions because “on mass” we cause the outcome.

World Rivers Day is on September 29, 2012. Some of my friends from 350.org and the Thompson Environmental Network want to meet down at the Thompson River for a garbage clean-up day. I really wanted to go pick plastic bags and garbage out of the river but I have to work on Saturdays. I still had the urge to help. It got me thinking about how the garbage gets into the river in the first place.

I realized I didn’t need to go anywhere. Every spring after the snow has melted, I have done a spring cleaning in the Ironmask Industrial Park. I started the clean-up because I got tired of looking at all the garbage in the ditches as I walked up to the mail boxes. It just seemed natural to me to pick-up the garbage and dispose of it. In my neighborhood I do two roads: Bowers Place and Roper Place. I have never timed myself but the spring cleaning takes about 2-4 hours every year.

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During a rainstorm any plastic or garbage ends up in the ditch. In time, the water carries the garbage to the river.

I have decided to do a fall cleaning to support World Rivers Day. During heavy rainstorms I have watched the rains blast down the hills and fill the ditches in minutes. This water can be full of plastic bags and garbage. All this garbage will make its way to the river at some point. I don’t have to go anywhere to help the rivers of the world. I just have to clean the ditch in front of my home. Of course, people could stop throwing garbage into the ditch but I don’t have any control over other people’s behavior. Nor do I want laws that will penalize people for littering either. There’s an old bureaucrat’s joke: “You can’t regulate good sense… But we certainly try!”

I have never asked anyone for permission to clean the garbage off city property. I just go out there and do it. In five years, no one has asked me what I am doing. It’s like being invisible. If you have the time, I would like to invite you to clean-up the rivers of the world with me, by cleaning up a ditch or ravine near your home. I know we are all very busy so take a week to clean a ditch or ravine in your neighborhood. Don’t kill yourself. Do one or two hours of clean-up between September 15-29, 2012.

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I did my garbage picking on September 4, 2012. This is six months of garbage on Bowers Place. I picked garbage back in March 2012. Picking garbage in the fall is harder than in the spring because of all the plant growth.

If you would like to make your garbage picking activities into a social event join The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup between September 15-23, 2012. There are groups gathering everywhere so you should easily be able to find a group near your home. What gets me cranky is these events have become marketing opportunities for big government, NGOs and their buddies in industry. I find myself sickened by the self-congratulations that can go on during these events.

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Cleaning the river doesn’t need to be a special event requiring a press release. If you want to clean the rivers of the world, just clean a ditch or ravine in front of your home.

What really needs to happen is people need to stop littering. But even before stopping littering, people need to stop buying one-use disposable items. I can’t tell you how many plastic, styrofoam and paper cups I have found that were used for one hot drink. Or the number of one-use plastic water bottles and one-use aluminum cans. Plastic bags are everywhere and I don’t think the so called bio-degradable bags are any improvement because they break into small pieces and cause more contamination. The bag may disappear and solve the garbage problem but the degraded tiny pieces just move into the soil and later our water sources. One-use packaging for fast-food-outlets can be found where people eat their breakfast or lunch in their cars. I picked up hundreds of cigarette butts. Someone even dumped the contents of their ashtray into some bushes. With all the scorch marks, we were lucky we didn’t have a fire. I learn a lot about what goes on in my neighborhood by picking garbage.

Here are six small changes that would stop the garbage from getting into the ditches in my neighborhood and avoid the garbage making its way into the river:

  1. Do not buy one-use items ever. Never let these items into your household. Recycling is an overrated activity which promotes wasteful practices. The dark side of recycling is people feel “good” about “recycling” one-use items. People need to stop buying these one-use items in the first place. A full recycling box in front of your home should fill you with shame.
  2. Reducing and reusing is more important than recycling. Use a garbage can if you have to throw something out, but reduce and reuse first, if possible.
  3. Get a stainless steel thermos for hot and cold drinks. Don’t use plastic drinking containers because synthetic estrogen will get into your body. Synthetic estrogen gives men “man boobs” and makes women cranky. Those are the “nice” symptoms.
  4. Make your own lunch at home and use a reusable lunch kit made of stainless steel or glass. You will save money and be better nourished. Stop using fast-food outlets. These businesses generate massive amounts of garbage.
  5. Buy or make reusable shopping bags. Save your plastic bags and bring them back to the store for reuse.
  6. If you smoke, roll your own. You will save money. Find a quality organic tobacco and safe rolling papers. Filters don’t help protect your health very much but avoiding the additives in pre-rolled cigarettes might. Be careful about your disposal practices.
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Here are two types of canned smoked salmon. It is easy to see which one will produce more garbage because of a one-use container. In our modern world, it is not easy to reduce your waste stream but slow progress can be made.

Solidarity… Homework: If you would like to reduce your waste stream, critically look at your weekly household garbage and recycling box. See what you throw out the most. Ask yourself the question: “Can I buy this item in another way to reduce garbage or recycling?” Whenever possible use reusable glass and stainless steel containers. Try to avoid storing your food in plastics. I know this is difficult in our modern world, but give it a try, especially if you have young children in your household.

travel-lunch-kit

When our family travels we bring our own food in a cooler. Here are two stainless steel lunch kits and glass mason jars for raw milk. I try to avoid using plastic whenever possible. This is enough food for a four day trip.