Creating a World Without Waste…

To blindside the fact that I have not posted a thing here in two months, I have a few questions that anyone reading this should consider.

• What does it mean to live waste-free?
• Who do we impact by being more conscious of the waste we create?
• Why is each and every effort that we make important, individually or otherwise?
• How can we influence others to live without creating waste?
• Where are the resources we can use to live a more waste-free lifestyle?
• When are we able to make a difference?

That’s a lot to think about, huh? All I can say is that there is no wrong or right answer these questions. It’s about perception, and I don’t think that any one person has the right way about solving the issue of waste in our world.

There is a phrase in Hebrew known as Tikkun Olam (תיקון עולם) which is a concept in Judaism and it literally means “repair the world”. There are many different interpretations of what that means, but I think that everyone can agree that doing good for others in the world (and for the world itself) is ultimately a mitzvah that we should all strive for. In my eyes, we can repair the world by taking care of the things we are responsible for, such as our trash that we create.

Is that the type of world that we deserve to live in? Is that why we choose to litter and disregard the consequences it creates for every living thing around? I feel as though many would believe that sentiment, and that sentiment creates a despairing, cyclical feeling that we are hopelessly lost in the efforts to live in a world without waste.

Sometimes it seems as though it is impossible to clean up every bit of refuse that we have created in the world. Not only do we have a problem with too much production, creating more than what we actually need (or want), but then the product packaging becomes garbage. If the garbage doesn’t end up in a landfill or a bin (assuming it is actually refuse and should be going there), where will it end up? In our streets, our parks, our beaches… everywhere in the world!

It certainly does delight me to say that not only is it possible to alleviate ourselves of the waste in the world, but there are people actively working towards this goal! Not just in my own clean-up initiative, there are plenty of teams and organizations out there that are doing their part to heal the world.

There are those such as Pick & Run and Plastic Free Israel who provide a collective effort to clean the beaches in Israel, and then organizations like Urban Gleaners and Robin Food who are every day working to eliminate food waste in Portland and Haifa, respectively.

Also, there is technology out there that is growing with support from the community to eliminate waste as well. See if you can be part of it!

Those are just the tip of the iceberg, but a few examples off the top of my head that are active in the fight for a world with less waste. Like I said before, nobody can single-handedly prevent waste or eliminate it, but if we work together, we can really do some great things.

If you were wondering about the questions from the beginning and interested to know if I’d be sharing my answers with you, then answer is yes. However, it will be in the next post… which I promise will not be in two months!

Keep on fighting waste wherever possible!