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Now what? When China refuses our refuse

I once wrote a letter to the Gazette pondering a scenario in which each of us had to keep our waste on our own property. Whether it be exhaust fumes, packaging, retired “goods” or excrement, we had to take responsibility for it.

I once wrote a letter to the Gazette pondering a scenario in which each of us had to keep our waste on our own property. Whether it be exhaust fumes, packaging, retired “goods” or excrement, we had to take responsibility for it. How quickly would we curb our consumption, find compostable or sustainable alternatives and demand industry reduce packaging and increase the quality of products? 

The concept of throwing things “away” seems to have reached a tipping point and it is dawning on us that there is no “away.” Be it China or Canada, we are all situated on this globe within an atmosphere, and cycling through our shared and finite supply of air, water and other elements essential to our existence. 

Mother Nature has developed this system to cycle these elements so that all lives are interconnected and interdependent: the web of life. Each creature sustains and relies on others. There is no waste as all matter flows among members. Elton John sings of this in “The Circle of Life”: “The sun rolling high through the sapphire sky keeps great and small on the endless round.” Simple, intelligent and beautiful.

Humans have attempted to remove themselves from this ecosystem into what some call an “ego system.” We have denied our place among fellow creatures. We have denied that we are part of an integrated system. We have taken a run at living beyond the cycle as “stewards” at the top of an imagined heap. We have extracted resources from the closed loop cycle, disrupting the balance. We perceive a linear system where our waste is sent “downstream” forgetting that this is upstream for our neighbours, be they human or amphibian. We forget that our home is a sphere and all movement must “loop.”

Let’s break for some potty talk to illustrate the concept. In nature, the nutrients we ingest, digest and excrete return to the soil to be broken down by micro-organisms. They become available again for plants that we might harvest to nourish ourselves once more. This is a loop. It is sustainable. Currently, we harvest food, ship it to another land, ingest, digest and literally flush the nutrient “away.” Away in this case is generally into our waterways which creates algae blooms that choke out oxygen needed for water creatures to live. We are extracting the nutrient from our soils and not returning it.  We then mine nitrogen and phosphorus to use in chemical fertilizers. These are linear systems and result in a degradation of the land, our health and our environment.

During a course this past summer, I experienced a composting toilet. It was a simple roofless outhouse with a large pail under the seat and a bucket of sawdust (carbon) to dust over top of urine or feces (nitrogen). Result: no smell, and the satisfaction of participating in a system not an extraction. More people are incorporating slick, indoor composting toilets into their home systems.

St. Albert is experiencing a rude awakening with news from China that they will no longer agree to be our “downstream.” Our waste is about to start piling up at our feet, forcing us to take a look at our behaviour and re-evaluate our “ego system.” I recommend we look to Mother Nature for inspiration.

Jill Cunningham grew up in St. Albert, has a Bachelor of Education from University of Alberta and is passionate about nature, the environment, and building community.


 

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