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Finding ways to dump wasteful habits

Kathryn Huedepohl’s kids can’t figure out the whole garbage-free thing.

Kathryn Huedepohl’s kids can’t figure out the whole garbage-free thing.

When they’re done with colouring, they want to chuck the paper out and start on a fresh sheet.

Mom won’t have any of it.

“They had a bunch of papers they’d been colouring on they didn’t want anymore. So they just went ‘Oh we’re going to throw these in the garbage,’ ” said Huedepohl, public programmer for the Kerry Wood Nature Centre. “I said ‘Nooo!’ I needed to show them to use both sides. But they’re still getting on board.”

The kids — ages six and 10 — are the biggest challenge in going garbage-free, Huedepohl said.

“The toughest part of it is explaining why they can’t have whatever they want . . . explaining to a six-year-old the difference between wants and needs,” she said.

Huedepohl is one of a very small, but growing, number of Red Deer residents who are trying to reduce their garbage output as much as possible for the month. It’s part of Garbage-Free February, an initiative started by ReThink Red Deer volunteer co-ordinator Rene Michalak in 2007.

Michalak held a launch on Monday night. He said about 20 people showed up and he expects the same number will at least try to get with the program.

He said the first year it was just him, the next year there were four people in the city saying goodbye to garbage, and the year after that there were 11.

“People come along in their own time,” said Michalak, not to be discouraged by the regimen’s slow uptake. “The typical way our society works, in advertising specifically, is it takes about seven times to hear something before it sinks in. That being the case, this is only the fourth year.”

Michalak reflected that the frugality practised by past generations has been lost and needs to be reclaimed.

Melody Schmitke’s daughter, aged seven, is picking things up quickly. She wasn’t happy when the new toys and packaged cookies went the way of the Dodo, but those have since been replaced with used toys and homemade goodies.

Schmitke is now a few days into her third Garbage-Free February. While she said many people “probably think I’m crazy” for doing it, she’s been able to at least halve her family’s garbage. She said that while they usually use a 30-litre bag a week, they’re now lasting about two weeks.

Among many other techniques used to shoot for zero waste, Schmitke composts all organic waste and when shopping buys bulk with reusable bags.

“I feel like that’s a success for my family,” she said.

For more information, visit www.sustainablereddeer.com

mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com