WEEK 9: Is waste free a waste of time?
Two months into our challenge and we are starting to generate enough interest that even people who don't give a toss about their rubbish are starting to talk about ours.
One media critic said our blog was enough rubbish for one year and
pointed out that even if there were 1000 more Kate Valley landfills the area would still be less than 1 per cent of the South Island.
Another guy has started a rubbish-bag-a-day group on Facebook to counter our Rubbish Free Year Challenge group!
Ha! So our adversaries are both witty and creative. We are sure there are plenty of people out there who agree with them; the question is why?
Has this become our religion that people feel the need to defend their way of thinking against it?
We never did say that we were campaigning against landfills specifically or that the act of throwing out your dental floss made you some sort of enemy of the peace.
We know that there are bigger things to worry about and that we are all on different journeys. Yet for us the Rubbish Free Year is addressing something big.
We didn't start with a passion for rubbish reduction but with a frustration at the way we lived and the system that we lived in.
While the challenge ignores the complexity of whether a product is ultimately a good thing for our world and doesn't address aspects of lifestyle, it has put the power in our hands, and frequently channels us into the positive paradigm we were trying to connect with.
We support local farmers at the farmers market.
We buy fair trade and ecologically friendly alternatives because the packaging is usually biodegradable or recyclable.
Yes, we actually enjoy living rubbish-free, and you can't argue with that!
