I put out a challenge to island neighbours to walk the shoreline and collect all the junk they could find.  Several took up the charge and made a difference in their area.  There was a surfeit of styrofoam of all types along the shore.  Much of it was broken up in to smaller pieces that could be mistaken as food by fish.   The photos above were shared by friends and neighbours who participated and recorded their finds to share with others.  

The next question was what to do with it?  In our area, Island Return It will take styrofoam if it is dry (not water logged).  There are a multitude of different types of "foam" and not all is recyclable, so you need to bone up on your recyclable materials.  I wanted to know the end result of styrofoam recycling and found some interesting Youtube stories on the process which can be large scale, or very small.  It was good to know that it is very successfully recycled - but then it's back again in another form! 

We need to protect our oceans and every bit of garbage we pull off the beach helps.  Most garbage ends up ashore, however briefly, within one week of entering the waters.  If we continually monitor our beaches and collect the garbage, we will save it from enlarging the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and save a few fish along the way.  We are all connected. 

I encourage anyone who has waterfront property to take a stroll every few days on the high tide line - you will be amazed what you collect.  If you are not on the waterfront, then visit your favorite beach and take a stroll.  The walks will benefit us all and recycling the found materials will help the oceans and all marine life.   

#beachwalks #hightide #collecting #recycling #styrofoam #singleuseplastic

By Pauline Olesen

The first Piers Island Beeswax Wrap workshop was held today at the Firehall. We were using a method and recipe that I found on YouTube by Crafty Patti. We used her fave method, I forgot a few steps, but we worked through it anyways. So...things we learned...we had a full group of 12 booked, 3 couldn’t make it and really it was so intense, 6 would have been an ideal group. There were waits for the irons and the wax kept cooling and slowed down the process. In the future, we will ask everyone to bring their own ironing board and iron.🤣. With respect to the wax mixture, we will have a way figured out for next time, to keep the wax hot and do it like Craft Patty!  We probably only got half as many wraps made as we could have because of the cooling wax and limited irons that we also should have had on higher heat. Lessons learned!

​Regardless, I think everyone had a good time, made a few wraps each, learned the process and would be happy to do again if they wanted more. Scroll down for the recipe we used in a downloadable and printable format.

It's been about a month since I started this journey of changing the way I shopped.  In that time I've gone from being all excited using my "net bags" in the bulk and produce section at Thrifty Foods, to being told that it was acceptable for produce only - not in the bulk section.  :(  My only way to buy chicken was covered in styrofoam and plastic and I haven't eaten a cucumber in a month!  English cucumbers are covered in plastic but apparently there is something new coming along.  I retweeted the announcement and can only hope that we see it soon.  I miss my cucumbers! 

I am now baking my own bread and snacks and have found other sources for interesting meats, cheese and refillable soap products!  Advice...don't give up!  Over the past 30 years, I have probably spent $250,000 in food at Thrifty Foods (now owned by Sobey's).  The bad news for them is that they are already seeing less of my money.  The good news...I'm finding lovely new local sources that are happy to help me ditch the plastic.  I know that if you are a working family, you don't have time to search out these things - I'll do it for you and hopefully, your local grocer will get the message and as sales go down they'll make changes and we'll find a new balance supporting local businesses. 

By buying bulk, even if I have to use mushroom bags, not buying produce covered in plastic, using a seltzer maker & CO2 cartridges and baking a few things myself, we've seen our recycling and landfill volume reduce by 75%!  We can succeed in the goal of  #ditchtheplastic