
Confused about where trash goes? This workshop feels you
CBC
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Puzzling over pieces of garbage, fashion designer Kendra Francis questions herself.
"Did I do this right?"
She's one of a few participants at this Ecoblitz event, put on at the University of Guelph-Humber in northeast Toronto. Faced with four categories — paper, recycling, waste (landfill) or organics — Francis had to sort the following:
Quickly, the doubts go beyond the game in front of her.
"Do I do this right on a daily basis? And I think I do not," acknowledges Francis, "Because that means what I do at home, where I think I'm doing the right thing, is not always the right thing."
(The correct answers depend on the recycling system where you live. In Toronto, the coffee cup lid can be recycled, the sleeve can go into paper, the soiled paper bag can go into organics — and the rest are headed to landfill.)
But the point, according to the event's host, Zamani Ra, isn't to get it right.
"We actually like it when people make mistakes," said Ra, environmental educator and founder of education non-profit CEED Canada. She usually puts these events on for people in low-income housing communities, and says residents there often feel the same nervousness about getting it right. Which is why keeping the mood light is important.
"Once you make the mistake, everybody has a laugh," Ra explained. "And then on the wings of that humour, we course-correct. We let people know where things should go, why they should go there."
Ra, who lives in a low-income community, says this non-judgemental approach — centering joy, as she puts it — can inspire authentic and culturally relevant environmental solutions from within the community. But given the history of being ignored or overlooked when it comes to environmental issues, breaking through is tough.
"A lot of folks, you know, trying to get them to come out to do the workshops, it gets really challenging because of the fact that they're not interested in doing what you're asking because they don't see change," Ra explained recently on an episode of CBC Radio's What on Earth with Laura Lynch.