CED Profile: The Waste Reduction Store

ORGANIZATION:
The Canadian CED Network

Year: 2011

This is one of the Canadian CED Network’s CED in Manitoba Profiles Project produced 50 stories of Manitoba communities working to build fairer and stronger local economies, reduce poverty, and revitalize neighbourhoods.

How often do we think about what happens to take-out containers, Styrofoam cups, plastic cutlery, and plastic plates once they are used? The reality is that many of these disposable items are not generally reused, and end up in a landfill shortly after their purpose is served.

This became a real and unavoidable question for The Waster Reduction Store founder Kathleen Boylan when she lived steps away from a burgeoning landfill in Swaziland, watching a large hole in the earth getting filled with garbage. She wondered, however, what would happen if the waste generated from take-away meals and picnics was compostable, and could be used to nourish the earth it came from?