Waste and Consumption

Consumables are those things which you can eat or have the ability to decompose, and this would be a great feature to incorporate into products, something that is being done more and more. For example, much research is being done into the creation of biodegradable plastics that can be subsequently composted after use. By returning the products used back to the soil during decomposition, we would be mimicking the cycles that occur in nature, as opposed to our current recycling methods. This is a method known as biomimicry, which we would be wise to employ more often.

Personally, most of my consumption is food purchased from the grocery store, and interestingly enough, just by consuming these goods I will also be generating lots of recycling and waste created from packaging. However, I also do compost so a large portion of my food waste is diverted from landfills and able to degrade naturally.

Many ‘durable’ products are created, marketed and sold these days which in fact, quite often are not that durable. In order for companies to continually profit, they must sell items which will eventually break down and require replacing. I can think of endless examples in my life when this has happened - from coffee pots to cars, it seems almost everything requires repair or replacement at some point. Up until more recent years, I never really thought about what happens to those products afterwards, but the truth is they mostly went on to help fill another landfill and this is an incredibly unsustainable way to live and consume materials.

As someone who is environmentally oriented, I try to purchase locally created, sustainable products whenever possible although this is not always feasible as a fourth year University student! In order to reduce my waste flow I also attempt to compost and recycle as many good as possible, and make a point to purchase recyclable, compostable or reusable products when available. Even small steps like taking reusable bags to the grocery store instead of using plastic bags are a way for me to avoid creating waste in the first place.

It is incredible thinking about all the electronic gadgets I have as well and the amount of waste created from the production, use and disposal of these items – and this is common for many people in modern times. We all have televisions, phones, ipods, computers and more.  It would be wise to find a way to create and use products that involves low energy inputs with little waste or toxic outputs created, again employing simple ideas involved in biomimicry.

When considering recycling, it is not an attempt to return products we have used back to the earth, but a way to divert waste from landfills, reusing it for other anthropogenic purposes. In this way we are able to reduce the amount of NEW materials needed for NEW products, but this process still requires an energy input, and waste materials are still created. Regardless, this is another way to assist in waste diversion and therefore improved efficiency.

On a final note, with so many products on the market, and several recycling services available it can sometimes be difficult to know how to recycle products properly. The CRD has recently created a great website found at:

http://www.myrecyclopedia.ca

This website contains a complete list of common household products which displays their harmful environmental effects and any opportunities for reducing consumption, recycling or making greener choices. In addition they have an excellent list of recycling facilities in the region which is very useful for people such as myself, and others who wish to further reduce their wasteful outputs.

Community Vitality

Within a community, most people take comfort in knowing that the community is surviving, trucking along in a business-as-usual manner. However, community vitality is a communities’ ability to THRIVE and ADAPT to changing conditions. What is interesting is how closely this ties to the definition of sustainability – something I defined in a previous blog as:

“development that does not diminish the quality or biodiversity of the natural ecosystems on which we rely to sustain ourselves in a manner that considers implications from a local to a global scale, while maintaining rich cultural diversity and ensuring greater social equity”.

It leads me to wonder if in fact a community can achieve great vitality without a strong commitment to sustainability. How can a community thrive and adapt to changing conditions if there is no social or cultural diversity? This diverse, interconnected group of individuals within a community are the ones who will help to enable the community to adapt.

So what factors indicate the overall vitality of a community? One website created by Community Research Connections (CRCResearch), has selected six key factors based on thorough research, to try to assess community vitality, which can be found at:

http://crcresearch.org/vitality

Using these six proxy indicators, they have developed a tool where you answer a series of questions about your community. The resulting analysis reveals how your community measures up in relation to each of the six key factors. This in turn indicates your community’s relative vitality.

The six key factors listed are:

·         Diversity – this refers not only to a diversity of people and cultures, but also a diversity of different spaces to interact in, foods to buy, etc.

·         Dead Space – this refers to old/aging infrastructure, unused or devoid areas such as parking lots, condemned buildings, neglected civic infrastructure, etc. The less dead space in your community the better.

·         Accessibility – to several things such as food, events, nature and companionship.

·         Vital Space – for things such as inspiration, debate, or even artistic expression.

·         Community Capitals – such as shared space for engagement, exercise, art, play or even food production.

·         Connectivity – to your community, to nature, to food, to heritage and even to exploration.

Through the use of these six factors, overall community vitality can be assessed and any weaknesses could potentially be identified. This could be a very useful tool in helping communities to not only survive, but to thrive as complex and vital spaces with strong interpersonal connections.

Social Capital

This week, I am going to discuss the topic of social capital, or the social networks and interactions that help to shape an individual or a community as a whole. These social networks within a community help to encourage interactions with others in a healthy and diverse environment.

For example, within my social network I need to consider my family, friends and schoolmates. Several relationships exist within and between each of these categories, forming a complex network. This network assists to improve connectivity and access to all components of my social capital. Some of the relationships that are within my social network are shown below in the diagram which helps to visualize the concept of social capital:

As you can see, there are some key nodes in the above diagram where a lot of intersections occur, especially between relationships involving my family and friends. These nodes are critical to maintaining good social capital. Through the nodes created within a social network, bonding with family, friends and your community can occur where trust and closer relationships develop, another major part of social capital.

I really want to emphasize how much social capital depends on connectivity within a community. This does not just depend on the social interactions that occur, but other factors as well such as how we travel between places, or the types of activities we are involved in. For example, I feel that driving in an automobile isolates me from others in the community, and therefore decreases my social capital as opposed to walking where I can talk with others and enjoy the environment my community has to offer.

Another aspect to consider is vertical equity within a social network. It is important to make sure all members of the community are involved and interconnected with leaders and decision makers, so that all are involved in the processes which help to form the community. This too increases social capital. Within my own community I feel as though there is not a lot of civic engagement. In fact, the last election had an all-time low voter turnout of 14%, leading me to conclude that my social capital is diminished regarding vertical equity within my community.

The overall social capital one attains is very connected to the sustainability of a community. For example, as I mentioned earlier, I feel more isolated when driving, thereby decreasing my social capital. However I also consider a community where everyone needs to drive to be less connected and therefore sustainable. Interestingly, I feel as though my community is currently developing in an unsustainable manner, but I feel as though I have a fairly high degree of social capital. By using the networks and nodes created within the social fabric of my community, I can encourage more sustainable choices and actions through active community involvement.

Walk-Score

This week, I went to www.walkscore.com; a website where you can enter your street name or postal code, and it estimates how ‘walkable’ your community is. My walk score was determined to be 67/100, or what is considered a somewhat walkable community. This is based on the idea that proximity to key amenities defines the walkability of a community. When using this walkscore estimator, amenities include groceries, coffee shops, restaurants, shopping, schools, parks, books, pubs, entertainment and banking. Within 1km of my house, there are several amenities available.

For example, Costco and the Millstream Market are within 1km in order to get groceries, several coffee shops and pubs exist in the area, and several other commercial shopping outlets exist nearby. In addition, the area supports other everyday necessities such as school, banks and entertainment facilities. Unfortunately, there are not any parks or public spaces in the immediate vicinity, something interesting to note in an area that has recently been subjected to extensive urban sprawl. In fact, the neighbourhood I am currently renting in did not exist ten years ago. The nearest park is shown to be almost 2km away, and is not accessible without highway travel. The map shown below reveals some of the various amenities found near my house, as detected by the walkscore website.

Screen clipping of Walk Score Map at Cavalcade Terrace, taken: 01/02/2012 8:58 AM from:

http://www.walkscore.com/score/Cavalcade-Terrace

It is important to note that there are some problems with this walkscore model. For one, the results that appear will depend on the resources used to find and list local businesses. In this case they are located using google maps, and this may not accurately capture all the businesses found in the area. Another problem that seems to occur frequently is businesses being categorized incorrectly. For example, the West Coast Tap House is listed as a restaurant, just a few blocks from my house. I would personally categorize the Tap House as a pub and generally don’t go there for meals, although they do serve food. In addition, while it is true that there are no major parks nearby, there are a few walking trails and lakes in the area which provide the opportunity for recreational activities.

Ironically, I find that it is somewhat difficult to walk around in my neighbourhood, because while there are amenities nearby, they are not necessarily ones I personally use very often, and they are almost all clustered together in a big strip mall located down the road. It is too bad that these newer developments didn’t use a more integrated approach while planning construction, where businesses are actually integrated into the local area. My residential neighbourhood has one main road leaving it, as you can see on the map (above), providing terrible integration with the amenities that are so nearby, as the crow flies. The walkscore also doesn’t consider the topography of the land, and that needs to be considered in cities such as Victoria where steep roads exist in abundance. This is especially true when considering others, such as senior citizens, or those with physical disabilities.

Overall, while my walkscore indicates that my neighbourhood is a fairly connected and walkable, and thus perhaps sustainable, I feel like this is an overestimation. While there are several convenient amenities located within a short distance of my house, (resulting in a high walkscore rating), they are not integrated into my neighbourhood. In addition, the solitary road network leading to and from my neighbourhood is frequently congested with traffic, with little or no sidewalk existing to connect the residential neighbourhoods to the commercial centres.

To end this post, I’ll leave you with a couple pictures I have taken over the years, spending time in Dawson City, Yukon. Dawson was once a bustling boom town during the gold rush days, and the town core has largely been preserved with true Klondike style and charm. With hardly any changes occurring there regarding development over the past several decades, Dawson is probably the best example of a walkable community I can think of. The streets are mostly unpaved, and they are all lined with wooden boardwalks. The local grocers, pubs, restaurants and other shops are all integrated with residential buildings, and the need to drive anywhere is essentially eliminated. The entire town is about 8 streets long by eight streets wide, in a highly connected network, making it easy to choose the most efficient route to walk to your destination.