Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Melbourne vs Chicago.

Hello Possums. If you asked pretty much any Victorian child what the three R’s of sustainable living were, they would be able to tell you.Reduce the amount of waste you make. This includes sensible packaging choices. I like to shop at the fresh fruit and veg markets because things don’t come on foam trays and wrapped in plastic (also the food is generally fresher).Reuse stuff instead of buying something new to do the same job. My parent’s generation were excellent at this. They have the skills to repair virtually anything. The skill to sew was passed down to me, but not my sister. There are fewer and fewer people who can sew or who can just generally wield a tool these days.My father and his sister are still Magpies* as a result of this philosophy. My favorite cousin and I often discuss this trait of our parents’. We do believe that there are limits on the number of broken bits and pieces, plastic bags and ice cream containers that one person needs to save. My aunt hardly has room on her shelves for useful items, because of all the junk she refuses to throw out (that’s another story).I reuse glass jars when I make jam, and plastic containers for the kids’ painting fiascoes, ice cream containers for mixing bowls for play doh, and large glass jars for vases. I repair holes in the knees of my kids jeans by sewing on a patches, and other general clothing repairs. The hubby is handy in minor ways and can repair things made of wood or fibre glass. His dad is handier, has more tools, and can repairs things made of wood or metal. He fixed the handle of my griddle when I burnt the original handle and it eventually fell off, by turning another handle out of wood, encasing the end in metal and welding it on for me! … the father-in-law fixes quite a lot of stuff for us, and the inlaws give me their sewing jobs.It’s not much. We still tend to throw out the toaster when it nolonger works and buy a new one. Repair people won’t usually bother with toasters either, because the cost of labour to repair it would be more than what you’d pay to buy a new one. I can’t help thinking that there is something inherently wrong with the way economic discourses tend to dominate our thinking and our actions. Where are the sustainability discourses? The market price of a lump of metal, does not reflect its value! Nothing short of a societal rethink of values is needed here.Recycle. Now I’m proud to say that in Victoria, most councils provide excellent recycling services. Our household now has more to put in the recycling bin than in the rubbish bin. In our municipality, the rubbish bin provided by the council is half the size of the recycle bin to encourage just that. Our household also recycles food waste as compost. We have two compost bins on the go out the back and we also have chooks, who equate to the best recycling deal I can think of. I never stop marveling that they can turn grass, seeds and our scraps into beautiful, fresh eggs. (And they make great pets. I often hear myself saying hello girls as I arrive home and they run across the yard clucking to greet me – pic of Sally cuddling Chickpea).If any of you are from Australia, you could probably add a thing or two about how the whole country is applying the reduce, reuse, recycle philosophy to water. Some of my friends and neighbours are becoming very inventive with their grey water reuse. Over summer it was common practice for people to shower with buckets on the floor to catch the water, then empty the buckets onto their garden afterwards. There are water saving devices readily available and most people I know have reduced-flow shower heads. Also, research is being done in urban design that includes trial suburbs with the infrastructure to treat and recycle water locally.But, in Chicago recently, I was surprised at the waste generated in the city. Every cafe served us on disposable plates and provided disposable cutlery. Everyone carried around disposable cups, meal sizes in restaurants were twice the size they needed to be – there was so much waste! In contrast, at the San Fransisco air port, I noticed posters up around the place about conserving resources and recycling. So Illinois, what’s your story? In this day and age, there is no excuse: Chicago, lift you game!*The Magpie is an Australian bird that tends to collect things, especially shiny things.