Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of speaking at the 2017 Livable Cities Forum in Victoria BC. First let me say what an amazing honour to be asked and then to be paired with 3 other amazing experts in the world of Climate Change. I was part of a 4 person presentation and panel discussion group that was sharing on the topic of Inspiring Climate Action; the Unusual Suspects. Now if you’ve ever felt like you’re just preaching to the choir on climate change mitigation and adaptation, then this was the forum to take part in. All 4 leaders, yours truly included shared on how to engage the more “unusual suspects”. Those people who may surprise you, that are playing a role in advancing low carbon resilience in your communities.
In my presentation I talked about the DTES Binners and how United We Can came to be in early 1995. I told everyone about Ken Lyotier and his vision for the Binner community. I hit home the importance of Binners in a little Math Lesson. At United We Can we receive thru the Binners and the Commercial Accounts approximately 85,000 containers per day.
85,000 containers per day
Open 365 days a year
Equals 31,025,000 cans and bottles per year
32 cans equal 1 pound
Equals 969,531 pounds per year
2000 pounds in a ton
Equals 484.8 tons of Glass Metal and Plastic out of the landfills
$1.55 million dollars (using .05 as an average for a can)
Thanks to our binning community that’s almost 500 tons of refundables out of our landfill.
The people attending the conference were amazed at the numbers and what was involved in “dumpster diving” and I feel found an entirely new perspective on what their local binners provide to their communities.
Binners, dumpster divers or how about environmental entrepreneurs make a huge contribution to our world, and United We Can is thankful for everyone of you. Thank you for everything you do for our environment.