Dealing with textile waste is really tricky business, as our clothes are more often than not made up of a blend of different fibres and materials. Polyester/cotton t-shirts, acrylic/nylon scarves, coated backpack fabrics, and laminated waterproof jackets mean that it’s difficult to separate various components for effective recycling and reuse. With that in mind, what are our options for processing textile waste?
Within Edmonton, the City of Edmonton’s WasteWise app suggests that clothing in good condition be reused through donation, resale, or given away and offers a list of potential donation avenues through its Reuse Directory. The Directory lists nonprofit organizations such as Bissell Thrift Shop, MCC Thrift Shop, Salvation Army Thrift Store, and Goodwill. You can also donate to local small businesses like Chubby Fem Thrift. Make sure to check with these organizations first in case there are items they do not accept. Note that this is not an exhaustive list and that other nonprofit and for-profit organizations accept clothing donations as well.
Outdoor clothing bins located throughout the City are owned and operated by different companies (e.g. Value Village) with proceeds of these donations benefiting various programs or charities. If these bins are full, do not leave your items outside! Clothing that gets wet from rain or snow can become mouldy or smelly, making it no longer sellable.
Unfortunately, Edmonton does not have a formal municipal textile recycling program. The WasteWise app suggests throwing these items in the garbage. However, you can repurpose your unusable textiles to divert them from landfill. Searching “repurposed clothing” or “upcycled clothing” will give you many ideas to creatively make use of these items. Blenderz Garment Recyclers make and sell craft kits and items made from unwearable items, which would be a great place to start and support a local business!
The move from plastic or metal garbage bins to automated cart collection can be a jarring one. We’re used to filling our garbage bin on a weekly basis with bagged garbage and familiar with the volume and capacity of our bins. When carts were rolled out and garbage bins became obsolete, many wondered what to do with them — we’ve come up with a list of ideas, with contributions from members of the Waste Free Edmonton community.
Here are 15 things you can do with your old garbage bins.
Turn it into a Composter
Upcycle your old bin into a backyard composter. Check out this tutorial for more information on how!
Already have a composter? Use it to make leaf mould!
Store Leaves for Your Compost
A garbage bin is a perfect place to store excess leaves for your compost, keeping them dry and on your property to easily supplement your compost year-round. Make a composter out of one bin and use the other bins to store leaves and other organic waste!
Store Your Empties
Garbage bins are perfect for storing empty beverage containers for recycling. If you use them for your bottles, you can eliminate the need for plastic bags when bringing them into the depot! Just bring the entire bin with you and empty it there. Bring the empty bin home, give it a rinse, and you’re ready for the next bottle run!
Collect Rain
Check out this simple DIY for transforming your old bin into a rain barrel! A clever way to keep your bin from going to waste AND cut down on your water bill. Keep it out of direct sunlight to discourage any leaching from the garbage bin!
Grow Your Own Produce
Use your bin to grow your own produce! Members of our facebook group have grown potatoes and corn in theirs. Do check if the type of plastic is food safe first, and don’t forget to drill drainage holes in the bottom. You can even cut your bin in half and make two mini raised garden beds!
Keep Firewood Dry & Accessible
Use your bin to keep your firewood dry. Perhaps you already have a dedicated space for firewood that’s a bit inconvenient to get to, but you could use your bin closer to where you will use it and refill as necessary!
Additional Storage in the Garage / Garden Shed
Garbage bins are great for storing any tall, awkward items. Perfect for holding shovels, rakes, and poles! And not just garden tools — sports equipment (skis, hockey sticks) works great too.
Transform it into a DIY Cat Shelter
Edmonton winters get really cold, and the strays will be thanking you big time for this one. Insulate your bin and use it as a cat shelter; you can find lots of DIY tutorials like this one online.
Recycling Container
Just because your bin was intended for garbage, doesn’t mean that’s all it can hold! Why not use it to store your recycling that you put out for pick up? Remember to put it in a blue bag!
Transport Loose Items
Your old bin could save you tons of trouble next time you head to the Eco Station to pick up free mulch! Load it up in the garbage bin to keep it contained.
Blend Your Soil
If every spring you find yourself mixing fifty tiny batches of soil blends because you just don’t have a big enough container… this one’s for you! Use your old bin to mix your soil in the spring, or even to store your soil all year long.
Flip it Upside Down!
If you are out working in the yard or garden and find you are in need of some counter space or a raised, flat surface, you might find that your bin is actually quite handy! Flip it upside down and use the bottom of it for some extra working space.
Mouse-proof Bird Seed Container
If mice have a way of finding your bird seed or grass seed over the winter, your old garbage bin might be just what you need to keep them out! Store any such items with the lid sealed to keep critters at bay.
Give Bins to Someone New
Remember, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure! If you still have no use (or perhaps, no space!) for your old garbage bin, try to rehome it. If none of your friends or family members are interested, post it in your local Buy Nothing group, list it on Marketplace, Kijiji, or donate it to a second hand shop. Someone else is just waiting to get their hands on it! As always, when passing an item on to a new person, it is important to clean or mend it beforehand.
Bring it to the Eco Station
As a last resort, make sure your bins are taken care of properly. Dispose of your old garbage bins at the Eco Station or wherever facilities exist. Learn more here.
Many of these ideas were pulled from members of the Waste Free Edmonton Group on facebook and from comments on our “Wheel Conversations” post about garbage bins. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed and shared their ideas!
Kaz Haykowsky was one of the owners of Spruce Permaculture, a local landscape design firm that brought sustainable, restorative landscapes to front yards and green spaces around Edmonton. Permaculture is a way of thinking about the environment that embraces the connections between humans and nature. Waste Free Edmonton interviewed Kaz to learn more about permaculture, its relationship to waste reduction, and how permaculture concepts can be incorporated into everyday lifestyles.
Andrew: Let’s start with the basics: could you tell me a bit about permaculture?
Kaz: I like to describe permaculture as a system of design that is inspired by nature, by patterns we see in nature, and how nature solves problems. Permaculture can be applied to ecological, physical systems like water or food catchment systems, but it can also be applied to social systems like communities and families. It’s an all-encompassing worldview, almost like a philosophy for approaching life.
It’s important to mention that permaculture originates in Indigenous thinking and teachings, that close relationship with land and nature lifecycles. A lot of people think that permaculture originated from a couple Australians, but they were inspired and drew a lot of their learning from Indigenous Australians, and how they live in harmony with nature and became a part of the cycles and patterns around them. Permaculture in its best, truest form is really Indigenous knowledge, and there’s a debt of gratitude to Indigenous peoples for preserving that knowledge over generations.
A: Are there any Indigenous practices that Canadians have adopted that we might not recognize as permaculture?
K: I think a lot of permaculture we interact with as settler Canadians is the kind of packaged permaculture taught to us by permaculture teachers and design courses. It can be difficult to see permaculture when practiced in other ways, but we could look to Central or South American Indigenous peoples that practice burning of the forests to control the successional cycles of the forests, participating in the lifecycles of the forest, supporting the growth of food for humans but also ecology and niches for a broad range of animals and plants, so that generationally these people manage the forests. The same is true here on the plains and aspen parkland of Treaty 6, where Indigenous people actively managed the bison across the plains and the grasslands by actively burning or by harvesting food ecosystems. When settlers first arrived here, unbeknownst to them, they were stepping into a managed ecosystem in which humans were a part.
A: I’ve seen people treating the reintroduction of bison to their traditional habitats as not just returning the species, but using them to further develop the ecosystem around, recognizing that the animals can benefit their ecosystem in a way humans can’t.
K: It’s valuable not just because it’s a bison, but because it becomes interlinked into this web, where it’s connected with the grasses, with the birds, with the water, and with building food-healthy soil, sequestering water and carbon. If you think about the bison on the plains, the bison didn’t exist without a relationship with Indigenous peoples. You can’t just have bison in isolation from all those systems, including the human system. It’s a crucial mindset to have when we think about how we can make the way we live more in harmony with these cycles. I think there’s a connection there with waste, in that our current waste system is linear, and we need to close that cycle before it’s too late.
A: What experiences drove you to permaculture? Culturally, I don’t think it’s a part of our education system or how we were reared to grow up in a consumeristic world — when did the unlearning begin?
K: For me, my family has always been pretty close to the land. In the last few generations my family has been living in Edmonton, but before then, my family were Ukrainian immigrants who arrived here in the late 1800s and started farming north of Edmonton. They were some of those first settlers who turned these ecosystems into monocultures, and over the past few generations my family has become city dwellers, but I’ve always had a garden.
My father really taught me how to garden and the beauty of taking food out of the garden and preparing it for a family right out of the land. I was always enchanted by that. So I was gardening from the moment I could walk. That was the beginning of my education and this connection with the land. When I went to university my degree initially was in botany, and I decided I didn’t want to be a scientist so I moved into political science and then human geography. It was the intersection of those disciplines, thinking about plant science and politics and how we relate to power and physical space; I didn’t realize at the time, but that is permaculture. Later on, some old friends of mine, Andy and Marcie came up to me with this idea, “we’ve got this idea to practice permaculture in people’s yards, more people need to be doing this”, and I drove right in. I didn’t have my permaculture design certificate at the time, I’d really only watched YouTube videos about permaculture, but I thought this was something I needed to be doing and I’ve been doing it for the past five years.
A: How would you say permaculture is connected to waste reduction?
K: I think waste is intimately connected with permaculture. Waste is an amazing starting point to think about permaculture. There’s this metaphor of a forest, where if you walk through a forest, there is no “waste” in a forest. The only waste you’ll see in a forest is the Coke can someone left or a plastic bag that’s blown in that humans have left behind, but in a functioning ecosystem, nothing is wasted. Everything is plugged back into those cycles. The waste that a tree produces, you can hardly call it waste, because it’s the stuff of life for the fungi that live on the forest floor or the excess seeds from the tree that become the winter sustenance for the mice and voles that live in the forest. Humans, in the last few hundred years, have become very good at producing waste. We haven’t remembered the lessons that nature has taught us for millennia, that you have a responsibility for the things you create from when you create it to when it’s disposed. You can make your waste not a liability to something else, but a gift. A tree that sheds its leaves doesn’t do that to mess up someone’s backyard, it’s a gift to the soil and the creatures that live on the ground, which benefits the tree. Thinking about waste is a great inspiration to start permaculture, because it’s about creating yields out of waste of connecting needs out of the waste that’s being produced.
A: Home composting is one way for people to reduce waste in their own ecosystem — what are some other ways people can apply permaculture principles to their own lives?
K: There’s a thought experiment in permaculture — a needs and yields analysis. It often comes up in permaculture, and it’s the idea of assessing any element in your system and finding out what it needs in order to thrive, and what it produces, whether it’s a net positive or a liability. Then you balance it out, connect elements in your system in a way that reduces or eliminates waste and work. Work is a waste of time — forests don’t have waste, and forests don’t have work. That’s the way we should be interacting with our ecological systems.
In a needs and yields analysis, you can think about anything in your yard. Something like the roof of your house — what does it yield? It yields shelter, heat mass, but it also collects water. When that water flows through your eavestroughs and down along your house, that can be a liability if it doesn’t get far enough away from your house. It could get into your foundation, unsettling your house, or activating your sump pump, which is waste. You can then turn that liability into a positive, collecting that water into a rain barrel near your house. It’s something we worked with quite a bit at Spruce Permaculture, creating water catchment systems. We also avoided buying any new plastic products, we were always digging landscape fabrics out of people’s gardens or collecting cardboard out of recycling bins and talking to shippers and receivers to get their cardboard. We were probably some of the only people leaving the Eco Station or recycling depot with more garbage than we came in with. Those were free resources that would otherwise be landfilled and was a really satisfying way of plugging waste back into the system.
A: On the topic of gardens, what do you think about weeds in a permaculture landscape?
K: Weeds are kind of a contentious issue in the world of permaculture. You always want to begin with long, protracted observation before you go in and change something. You walk around a yard and see a lot of creeping bellflower or purple loosestrife, something considered a noxious weed by the city or province. But what is that weed trying to tell you? What is it telling you about the soil, how it’s been worked with in the past? These plants are not nefarious, they are making an existence on this land, doing the best they can and filling a niche.
Some permaculturists might say that plant has as much a right to be there as anything else, so can you find a yield for it? Or is it so much of a liability that it does need to be converted, how can you make that process a regenerative one, turning that weed into something else. We can learn something about the growing conditions — maybe a site has a lot of water, so you try to grow something that outcompetes the weed. You accept the feedback and learn how best to use that part of the garden.
A: One final question for Waste Free Edmonton — why is waste reduction important to you personally?
K: Waste is one of the biggest products of our lives, if we really think about what humans make today — so few of us are actually making real, tangible things, but we are making a lot of waste and we need to take responsibility for it. It doesn’t have to be a nasty or bitter sort of thing, it can be inspiring to think about your waste, because our waste is one of the main ways we interact with our ecology whether we think about it or not. The waste we produce is probably our greatest impact on our land. By taking ownership of that, it can actually be quite empowering.
When we eat, when we live in our homes, when we give gifts to each other or ourselves — by doing that, are we leaving scars on the land? Are we mining the tops of mountains, deforesting ancient forests, drawing or poisoning water that’s been clean for millennia? Or, when we do those necessary human things, can we leave the land better, can we heal the wounds we’ve left? When the food we eat no longer sustains us or the home we live in doesn’t support us, does that become a scar on the land and lead to more pain or suffering? Or can that plug back in and become something valuable to ourselves and others?
To me, thinking about waste reduction and interacting with the land differently is almost an ethical or spiritual practice. It’s a beautiful relationship to be in, to own our capacity to be good actors in the world by living our lives. Waste reduction should be a joyful process, otherwise humans aren’t going to do it. Like composting: it shouldn’t be a chore, it should be fun and regenerative, doing it in communities and together. If we can start to do some of these things together and make them rewarding, we’ll have a much easier time addressing our problems of waste.
Permaculture can be implemented on a range of levels, from micro to macro. Whether it’s looking at your garden more critically or the way you consume resources from your broader environment, the lessons to be learned from permaculture are applicable to numerous concepts in your daily life.
It’s been a year of wishing things were back to the way they used to be. Especially in the world of sustainable practice, there have been a lot of steps backwards. One of the biggest impacts that COVID-19 has had is the reversal to disposable cups in the coffee industry. Leading up to 2020, the world had morally turned its back on disposable coffee cups. The people had realized that the “paper” cups are not recyclable, and that the plastic lids are rarely recycled. There was a real push to get a reusable water bottle and a travel mug. But alas, COVID-19 reverted us to the practice of filling the landfill when we picked up our morning coffee. But 2021 is a new year.
In an international statement, health professionals confirmed that reusables pose no risk of COVID-19 transmission when washed with proper hygiene measures. Standard health and safety measures are enough to keep COVID under control, and poses no risk to the next customer. Simple measures like gloves or a cloth to pick up used cups, protecting workers.
Some businesses are reluctant to re-adopt reusables, citing insurance policies or risk of shutdown. But others are stepping up and providing Edmontonians a place to get their caffeine fix without sacrificing a cup, lid, and sleeve.
Remedy Cafe // @remedycafe // 109 St, Jasper Ave, 124 St, Southgate, and more
Edmonton’s most iconic coffee company is on board to reduce waste this year. Bring your reusable mug to any location and have it filled with their coffees or teas. Be spicy, drink chai!
This cafe, in a grand brick building, holds a grand espresso machine. It’s also grand that they will refill your mugs with a smile. It’s an aptly named place. Try their Swiss Water coffee beans, as they’re the only place in Edmonton to find them.
Tucked into a little window off Whyte Ave, Overflow is the most adorable takeout window in town. They are happy to refill your mug with organic coffee, to start your march down Whyte off right.
This cozy shop will whip up a delicious brew, and a delicious bagel to boot. Their stellar service and tasty Ace coffee beans are sure to keep you grinning. Don’t forget your mug!
The Moth Cafe is a relatively new addition to the downtown scene, but it has made a statement with their sustainable practices. They will be happy to accept your reusable mug. Try their Kuma coffee beans.
Located deep downtown, this cafe is perfect for the government worker or downtown trooper. Happy to take your refillables, Nook Cafe is an accessible and adorable treat. Try their Roasti coffee in that mug!
Just a few steps from Southgate Mall’s East entrance, this chic cafe with a touch of the Philippines will be sure to brighten up your day. They are happy to fill your mug for you to maintain their environmental sustainability along with their social sustainability initiatives!
At a bustling intersection, this bakery and cafe is perfectly placed for a commuter. The adorable Dutch atmosphere will get you smiling, and they offer free coffees on Mondays. Just bring your mug!
Credo Coffee // @credocoffee // 104 ,100, or 124 St
Credo provides almost the full span of Central Edmonton with fantastic coffee. Whichever location you visit, you know a great cup of coffee, responsibly sourced and served, is waiting for you.
Whether you’re stopping in for a meal or just a drink, Cafe Mosaics is happy to serve customers with refillables. In the heart of Whyte Ave, you’ll have plenty to do with a coffee in your hand. Try their sustainable Kuma coffee beans.
District Cafe serves a mean vanilla latte, and now you can rest easy knowing they will accept your travel mug. Nestled near Grandin LRT station, it’s accessible from anywhere on the transit line. Try their to-die-for Anchored espresso.
This trendy cafe in the heart of the city is a hotspot for coffee lovers, so check them out. They have confirmed that they will be filling mugs this year! You will love their home blends!
Woodrack’s new location off of Whyte Avenue might want to be your next stop — their new shop is vintage-chic to the max. They have made a fair compromise on refillables this year, where each barista can choose whether or not they are comfortable filling your mug. Enjoy their ethically sourced brew!
Anvil is an oasis of fantastic coffee and community in Ottewell. They are leaders when it comes to brewing up coffee and sustainable solutions to waste. Contactless coffee, reusable mugs, locally sourced options, they have it all.
Anvil also sells their beans in reusable mason jars! Source: @anvilcoffeehouse
Wondering if your favourite cafe is accepting reusables? Just send them a message or an email! We have compiled this list simply by asking, and many shops have made adjustments once they have understood their customer base’s desires. If your local coffee shop is hesitant to bring about reusable mugs in 2021, firstly make sure you understand their concerns. They want to keep their customers safe, and their reputation high. What you can do as a customer, however, is provide them with resources that assure them that reusables do not compromise safety. The statement mentioned above is a good resource, as well as this video which depicts how safe reusables really are. If they are still hesitant, reminding them that other shops are doing it safely and effectively can be very helpful as well. And if at the end of the day, they are sticking to disposables, now is a time where we can’t hold a grudge.
Reward those businesses that accept reusables by commenting your thanks on their social media, telling your coffee-loving friends, and of course, bringing in your mug. As always, make sure your mug is empty and take the lid off before handing it to the barista. And remember, shop policies might differ or evolve over time, so keep an eye out and respect their rules or restrictions. Stay safe, and stay sustainable!
We all know people who are reluctant to embrace sustainability as part of their lives. Maybe it’s your mom, who is too busy to think about sustainability. Maybe it’s your friend, who can’t afford to prioritize beeswax wraps or organic produce. But as someone who cares, you want to keep your sustainable influence going. So how do you balance not offending your mom, and not seeming too ‘above’ your struggling friend? It can be tough to play your cards right in these situations, especially in the gift-giving season.
The best way to navigate slipping sustainable gifts into skeptical stockings is to find sustainable alternatives to items you would already want to buy them. With a little digging, you can almost always find an alternative to conventional items! So make your shopping list as you would always do, and then plan a little twist.
One of my favourite seasonal items is the candle. It’s a simple, crowd-pleasing gift that’s not too pricey, either. However, traditional candles have environmental consequences. Paraffin candles are known to emit greenhouse gases when burned, and are made from non-renewable petroleum. Fan favourites like Bath and Body Works contain fragrances that originate from petrochemicals, which are known to cause health issues when burnt frequently. It’s not in anyone’s best interest to invest in conventional candles, but what’s the alternative?
Beeswax candles are a great option- as a natural by-product of the beekeeping process, these candles are renewable sourced, and beeswax products are trending! Honey Candles is a growing BC company that specializes in pure beeswax candles, with no added petrochemicals. You can also ask your local beekeeper about beeswax. Backyard beekeepers may have leftover wax for sale- use this map to locate a beekeeper in your neighbourhood.
Soy candles are another option, and perfect for the true vegan. Soy wax is 100% biodegradable, and is sourced from renewable materials. Local company Wick’d Petals uses soy wax, paired with dried flowers, to create a clean, local, and delicious fragrance, all packed in a reusable tin! They have also implemented a container-return program, where the candle tins can be returned for a discount on your next purchase. This motivates people through savings, but in the end facilitates sustainability. It’s a neat product to gift, for sure.
Looking to combine environmental and social sustainability? Look into Misiyo candle company, an local brand that supports disadvantaged Rwandans with the sales of their beeswax/coconut wax candles! By purchasing a candle, you provide health insurance to widows and orphans in Rwanda, helping to boost social sustainability and keeping you involved in global citizenship. You are also purchasing a renewable-sourced product in a reusable tin that can be returned for a discount; it’s a win for the buyer, the receiver, the Edmonton company, and the Rwandans.
You pinpointed one item on your list; the candle. You found three local companies finding innovative alternatives to conventional candles. You have eliminated harmful petrochemicals. There is no more black smoke coming off your candle. You’ve cut down on packaging and shipping. You’ve found a reusable tin that gets you a future discount. And, your money has stayed within the community, helping Canadian artisans thrive. Why would you spend that money any other way? And the best part is, you don’t have to flaunt it as a sustainable purchase. Know your audience; do they care most about the local investment, or about the future discount? Do they love the dried flowers, or the cute tin? Play to their interests. It makes you look like a great gift giver, and it gets them interested in a sustainable product. You’re not stuck with a big-chain product. This holiday season, dig deeper into your shopping list, and dig up those sustainable alternatives to products that you already know your people will love.
Adrienne is the entrepreneur behind The Avant Gardener, one of Edmonton’s few sellers of red wigglers. Vermicomposting is the science of using worms to break down organic matter and is a quick way to reduce food waste while generating fantastic compost for your garden. I visited Adrienne to hear about her vermicomposting business and how she reduces waste.
Pulling up to her property, I marked its owner as having a green thumb immediately. Her house is ribboned with plants and greenery, vegetables and herbs planted wherever there’s room for a pot. Her backyard is also her headquarters for the Avant Gardener, with worm factories dotted throughout. We crack open a bottle of homemade rhubarb wine and start our chat.
“I worked in community gardens for a few years and was constantly running out of good soil for my plants,” she says. “Learning about vermicomposting was amazing. It solved my need for healthy soil and improved my plants at the same time.”
Composting is a simple, natural science that has existed for millions of years. The right proportion of greens (wet, nitrogen-rich materials) and browns (dry, carbon-rich materials) exposed to air and water will break down organic matter. Adding red wigglers — a specific kind of worm, not every earthworm has this ability — into this mix speeds up the process considerably. When Adrienne heard how quickly the addition of worms helps break down organic matter, she dove into vermicomposting wholeheartedly.
“I started home vermicomposting in 2015, started selling excess worms in 2016, and joined the Master Composter Recycler program in 2018. It’s been a lot of fun going out and talking to people about worms and waste.”
Snoots the pug is at my feet, receiving skritches and splooting in the grass during a hot summer night. Adrienne laughs. “He’s a great help.”
Snoots keeps a watchful eye on the decomposition
We’ve only talked about the positives to vermicomposting — I ask her what issues she’s had, if any, with worms?
“I was worried about my worm bin at the start. Is it too big, too small, are there enough holes, things like that. I kept searching for answers on the internet, which left me more confused. But my compost mentor told me a valuable quote:
“If you’ve seen one worm bin, you’ve seen one worm bin.”
“It reminded me that worm composting is supposed to be less fuss and more fun. Soil ecology is a complex and fascinating science, it’s easier to observe and relate with the simple hands-on approach. Your bin has to work for you.”
She walks me through her backyard, pointing out her worm factories nestled between, underneath, and around blooming flowers and rapidly-growing vegetables. She points out kale, potatoes, chard, tomatoes, cucumbers — too many to mention. “All my plants are fed with worm castings. Just throw a handful into your garden!” She opens up a nearby factory, skims some castings off the top, and lobs them into a pot of peppers.
Adrienne shows off a worm factory
“It’s no longer unusual to hear someone say they have a box of worms helping break down their food scraps. It’s an inexpensive project, and you might already have everything you need except the worms.”
Adrienne lifts a handful of worms
Adrienne’s hands are dusted with dirt and castings, but this is Adrienne at her most comfortable. Her story is one that stands out for how ordinary it is; we all have desires to reduce our carbon footprint or address the environmental problems in our day-to-day lives. Hers were solved using vermicomposting, and with a little research, yours can too.
Adrienne’s worms, worm tea, and worm castings are available to purchase today! Her contact information is below.
