Zero Waste in Arusha ...continued.

It's funny how the universe works....and by funny I mean epically appropriate. Just as I was starting to want to do Zero Waste here, I met a guy whose trying to do just that in Tanzania. Check them out Active Green Society.

At work, as part of my quest for zero waste I encountered some alternatives which not only saved the environment, but our pocket book too. As  mentioned in my last post, I found a toner cartridge in the garbage...yikes! So I took it out and made a plan to deal with is responsibly....I ended up finding a place called Galaxy Computers here in Arusha that does re-fills - it took an email and a couple phone calls and I had my answer....all in all it wasn't that big of a deal to spend the extra time...but it seems many of us are too busy to take that time. It's that mindshift again that needs to occur . . .it's interesting where our priorities lie.....and it's also important to recognize how easy we get ourselves into these routines that don't get broken until we pause for a moment - i.e. our process had always been - buy new ink/toner....never refill, it wasn't even on the mind. Anyway suffice it to say, I was pretty stoked that we could refill our ink, and such a price difference too! To refill the blank ink cartridge was 5,000tsh, versus a new one...28,000...boom!

It's fun to find alternatives and feels so good to treat our mother with love and respect. Not to mention, during ones quest for alternatives, you end up meeting some great people that you may otherwise not meet. Start small and you eventually source all your different areas to recycle or upcycle this, re-make or re-work that! :)

On another note, banana leaves are RAD and multi-functional, and I love not having a drawer bursting with twist ties. . . . those pesky twist ties, impossible to recycle because they are both a debatable/indeterminable type of metal, coated in a paper that is debatably coated with plastic residue........and elastics...because all my produce comes bunched with ties and elastic.. . because of course one method isn't enough! I require no such drawer here because of .......banana leafs and creative minds!

I wonder how I can bring this back to Canada.... or what sort of alternative would grow there that would double as a tie to bunch delicious organic produce. . . oh the possibilities! The thought of a grocer without twist ties and elastics....makes my heart happy.

Thoughts?