Community Engagement

Allow me to introduce myself - I am a happy, humble retired senior citizen living in Pictou County and learning how to “Go Green at 70”. I say humble because really – who am I to be telling anybody how to go green? Well, my little green beans it’s because I am trying very hard to do just that.

Three years ago, I moved from Ontario to my wonderful hometown of New Glasgow ready to get back to my roots, enjoy the ocean, reconnect with my friends and…… two months later the pandemic hit. Now it doesn’t take two years to unpack boxes so I had to find a Plan B. I had worked an often 10-hour day for the last several years of my life so adjusting to retirement was going to be challenging enough but confined to my new space, I was close to panic.

Plan B was desperately looking for ways to fill my time. Among many culinary disasters in the kitchen, trying my hand at gardening, reading a ton of fiction, I started looking for new interests. After many educational pursuits, the one that captivated me most was the climate crisis. I took courses, scoured the internet, and read books, trying to learn as much as I could. Like all of us, we are all aware of the current situation – we’re aware that we humans have really messed up. Now, is there time to fix this mess, who knows? All I know is I had to get on the right side of this dilemma.

I was fortunate to be living on a beautiful property surrounded by trees and wildlife so it became easy for me to grab on to this project with passion; I had to do my part in preserving the planet or at least my little beautiful section of it.

The issue for many people is they think it’s up to the corporate bigwigs to make the changes and that’s very true, however, it is also up to each one of us to do our part or at least not to make it worse.

Another factor that prevents people from doing more than basic recycling is it can feel overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be, one step forward is a step in the right direction.

Let’s get started my Fellow Green Beans….

Every week I will share a tip on how I started “Going Green at 70”; some of them might seem trivial, you might ask:

• Is she kidding me, I do this already.
• Does she really believe this will make a difference?

Let’s take it one step at a time. We’ll start with plastic.

Info I picked up on my journey:

• The Canadian government determined that plastics – especially packaging and single-use plastics – cause considerable harm to the environment and wildlife. Bottom line - it’s toxic.
• Canadians produce 3.3 million tons of plastic per year. It might be a tad bit less now that we at least have gotten rid of plastic bags.
• 2.8 million tons end up in our landfills every year; that is the equivalent of the weight of 24 CN Towers. That is one big structure!
• About 86 percent of Canada’s plastic waste ends up in landfill, while a meagre 8 percent is recycled. The rest is burned in incinerators, contributing to climate change and air pollution, or ends up in the environment as litter.
  Canada is still shipping overseas, and some shipments include clothes, plastic, and basic garbage; we’re merely shifting the problem.
• We may not physically dump plastic in our oceans; however, plastic still does accumulate in lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water that may eventually flow out into the ocean.

What am I doing:

I buy bags of milk and freeze two of them until I need them; easy to thaw in the fridge overnight. Then I re-use the empties as baggies. They make perfect baggies because they are strong and a good size. You are ridding the garbage of plastic and saving money at the same time! Obviously, you have to wash them but I use water from my rain barrel – that will be covered in Blog 45!

Start looking around your house and see what plastic you can get rid of.

and remember…

"I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another." -   Ellen Goldman