Waste Reduction Week 2019

Posted on October 19, 2019

Once again, it's Waste Reduction Week in Canada! From October 21-27, and each day has a theme:

Oct 21: Circular Economy

Circular Economy is all about planning for the entire life of the products people make and use. Rather than planning for the end of the life of a product to be the landfill, circular economy looks to reuse, re-make, or recycle every product. Find out more here.

Oct 22: Textiles

Textiles, particularly clothing, make up a lot of waste that can be reduced and reused. Think about repairing clothing, buying high quality, and keeping a smaller wardrobe. You can learn about fast fashion waste here.

Oct 23: Champions & Innovators

You, too, can be a champion of waste reduction! Inspire your friends and family by setting green goals for yourself and showing them how it's done!

Oct 24: Plastics & Packaging

Plastics and packaging clog up our oceans and landfills, & creating greenhouse gases as they degrade. Find out more about how to deal with plastic with our friends over at Plastic-Free YYC!

Oct 25: Food Waste

More than half of the food we purchase in Canada is wasted. You can reduce your food waste by planning meals and learning to deal with leftovers. You can learn more here.

Oct 26: Swap, Share, Repair

For all the products we buy that we can't avoid (reduce), we can try to find ways to reuse them before we recycle them. Swap, Share, and Repair are all great ways to do that. You can find lots of articles online of how to repair, and you can borrow all the tools you need from the Calgary Tool Library!

Oct 27: E-Waste

E-Waste is all our unused and end-of-life electronics. Much of these are still in good shape, although some might be in need of repair. Reducing your e-waste might be as simple as waiting before you buy the next cell phone model, or as complicated as learning to repair your own computer. Either way, there are many tips out there. This CBC article goes over some of them.

You can find out more about Waste Reduction Week here. We'd love to hear your strategies for reducing waste! You can tell us all about it on social media on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!