Reduce the Juice

August 10, 2012

Wow, has time passed! We’ve already finished our fifth week of this Green Bin project, hitting more houses, parks, and events each day. Even on weekends we’re heading to markets, open streets, and local events to continue our waste reduction campaigning. Last week, we visited the neighborhood “Activa” and this week, we’re heading to a new neighborhood: Overly! It’s exciting to see how different each area is with their Green Bin usage and their various experiences when composting. So far, we’ve given out 16 free Green Bins and kitchen catchers for people who want new, additional, or replacement Green Bins.

As the days go by, more and more pledges and surveys are entered, achieving way past our summer goal (500 pledges). Over 1000 surveys and over 800 pledges…I’m just as surprised as you are! This weekend we’ll be giving it one last push, heading outside and doing full day events at the Kitchener Market and Uptown Waterloo.

It’s been a privilege to have the opportunity to learn and teach others about a program that is useful not only to our environment, but our society and economy as a whole. I am glad that I have been given the knowledge to change my ways and educate people on helping them with their green habits. The next five to ten years is crucial to sustain future generations before we hit our capacity limit. Hope the final week goes well and I hope that Reduce the Juice has convinced YOU to stay green!

“Compost” Chantelle

 

July 26, 2012

After our second week of hard work, talking to people became piece of cake! Both parks (Victoria and Waterloo Park) and public places (like Kitchener City Hall or Uptown Waterloo) have no secrets for us. We also feel more comfortable with the stuff about the green bin. We will become professionals! People are really nice with us! They are respectful with us and they’re always smiling when we are asking them questions. Sometime they propose some ideas for the green bin. I’m enjoying working with the green program and I recommend to all to use their green bins. Only in the first 2 weeks, we entered more than 400 pledges! It’s awesome and I hope it will continue like this. We’ve done two neighborhoods and we will start the third this week. The time passes so quickly when we talk to people. If it will continue like this, my summer will pass like a cookie box with hungry kids (quickly). I hope our participation with Reduce the Juice and the green bin program will be benefit for the environment.

“Topsoil” Terry

 

July 20, 2012

I LOVE my Green Bin and you should too!

This was pretty much the message of this week and the entire program. All we have been trying to convey is our intense passion for our environment and the service we can do for it by composting! This past week was incredible, as it was our first opportunity to speak out in the community. With all of our comprehensive training in our tool belts, we set off to a couple parks and the two city centres. It was extremely exciting to be able to communicate with so many diverse members of the community to see what their perspectives are regarding the green bin! The parks (Waterloo and Victoria) were splendid, as they offered an array of people who are willing to share their days to talk about Green Bins! It was great how parents took the time to talk to us about their waste while still enjoying the day with their kids. Although it was an extremely warm week with a storm scare, we set off with a bang! I could not believe how enthusiastic each member of the team remained throughout the week and how many people to whom we talked. I was definitely appreciative of the welcoming vibes we got from so many people when we went door to door. The Kitchener City Market was a blast and I was pleased at the number of people who came up to us! I realized that just after these couple of weeks, I have learned so much about the Green Bin Program that I have grown to love. I am optimistic about the rest of our project and hopefully we will get that 10% increase in participation!

“Anaerobic” Ashley

 

July 12, 2012

Our summer project began with an intense yet exciting training week that consisted of guest speakers, educational videos, tours, and research assignments to fully prepare us for educating the public about our Green Bin Initiative with as much useful information as possible. We focused on areas of climate change, recycling, social marketing, and the fascinating world of composting, featuring a special tour of the Waterloo landfill site and the new compost facility in Guelph! It’s amazing how much we can learn about our ecosystem and our local environment, and being able to apply our knowledge to the community through door-to-door campaigns as well as through multiple summer events. Just seeing how much garbage we produce on a daily basis is a scary number, so it definitely gives each one of us a reality check to do our part and conserve this delicate planet. Hope all goes well for the next several weeks!

“Compost” Chantelle

 

June 29, 2012

Waste Audits are Complete!

All this week, Reduce the Juice has been conducting waste audits in the neighbourhoods that we will be focusing on this summer. What’s a waste audit, you ask? Basically, we’re quantifying how people dispose of their waste – how many garbage bags, how many recycling bins, and how many Green Bins. In the end, we found that not nearly enough people are using their green bins. It will be interesting to see the exact number, once the data has been sorted out.

I (Mike) was joined by Solar Sara, former campaigner and current mega-volunteer Electrical Elliot, as well as some friends from the Region of Waterloo. We visited four neighbourhoods – Activa, Overlea, Eastbridge, and Suddaby. We will be doing another week of audits at the end of the summer and we expect to see a lot more Green Bins at the end of the curb the second time around!

“Minus-the-Methane” Mike

 

June 18, 2012

What a weekend! Reduce the Juice kept busy, attending the Service Centre Open House on Saturday, followed by Open Streets Uptown Waterloo on Sunday. I think it’s safe to say that our 2012 summer Green Bin Project is underway, and off to a great start!

Both events were excellent, allowing us the opportunity to talk to community residents about the importance of putting their green bins to use. Not only does green binning extend the life of our landfills by diverting waste from them, but it also has potential to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. At the Open House, we hung out next to our friends at the Region of Waterloo and informed a great deal of people about the benefits of using their green bin. While I (Mike) was certainly distracted by my desire to go for a ride on the sky jack and the ever present scent of free popcorn, the event was greatly successful!

The next day, Sara and I head to Uptown Waterloo to set up during the Open Streets event. We will be at a couple more of these events throughout the summer. A huge section of King Street in Waterloo gets closed down, and the streets are filled with pedestrians and various attractions. The event left us excited to attend the next one, when we will be joined by our newly assembled team of student campaigners!

It’s shaping up to be a great summer. Remember to check back to keep tabs on what we’re doing!!

“Minus-the-Methane” Mike