We’re on the Road

Living is a business in which we derive what we need from stuff that we find around us and then must somehow deal with what is left over or transformed through use as “waste.” When there was lots of stuff and plenty of room for “waste,” using as much as we could and dumping the leftovers in a hole was just fine. Since our population tripled, we have begun to run low on supplies, and our wastes in the air, water, and ground have begun to take their toxic toll on us and our fellow beings.  The concept of sustainability became useful in understanding how we could live without degrading our sources of supplies.  We still don’t take it very seriously but we are beginning to do some things that are tending in the right direction.

Of most immediate concern are the things we consume and transform to waste rapidly.  Energy, like in food and fuel, comes to mind as the most obvious.  Water is in there too, but is a special case:  water is never changed or used up, but must be cleaned. We use and produce waste from these resources every day.  For time immemorial, when supplies got scarce and wastes abundant, we’ve always moved on.  Now that there is no place to go, we have to take what we need and return waste in a way that sustains the health and productivity of our place.  The best is the closed circle, such as a home orchard fertilized by humanure or other locally available compostables.  

Less obvious are longer-term consumables like buildings, clothes, tools and machinery.  We are only now beginning to realize that we are exhausting the resources that we use to make those, and that we are neglecting the proper recycling of those back into the natural environment.  Since the resources for these are limited, sustainability requires that we produce less of them, use what we have more efficiently, and reuse the materials at the end of their useful life.  Sharing rather than owning is the idea here.

It’s time to take note of a number of things that are now making Vashon a more sustainable place. First and most obvious is that we are beginning to produce some of the food we need.  We are very far from self sufficient, but the interest is there and we are moving in the right direction.  A corollary of that is that Zero Waste Vashon is figuring out how we can process our waste and reinvest it in our food production instead of sending it off island to be used elsewhere, if at all.  

Secondly, we have begun to transform the sunlight we receive into energy via solar photovoltaic collectors and Zero Waste Vashon is looking into a biodigestor that could produce power. There are a few small wind generators out there as well.  Although we are producing very little power this way, we are proving that these methods are viable and are gaining an accurate idea of what potential lies there.  

Most importantly, we are developing the organizations we need to push sustainability on in our future.  Those organizations and each of us individually are using the internet to connect and to provide us with the latest methods and products and the inspiration from what has already been done elsewhere.  The internet has been essential for the daily work of food production groups like VIGA, Vashon Seeds, and Vashon Poultry.  For exchanging goods, services, or information, Vashon Marketplace, Vashon Freecycle, and Vashon Info get lots of use.  You can become a member of any of these by searching Yahoogroups on your browser.  Once you sign in to yahoo groups, you will have the opportunity to join any of these groups and more.  On Facebook, there are a zillion groups like Vashon For All, Vashon Chicken Love, Future Water Vashon, etc.  A notable new group on Facebook is Vashon Carpool, a ride sharing site where you can offer or request a ride.  Other groups include:  Wisenergy, Greentech, Sustainable Vashon, Zerowaste Vashon, Vashon Tool Library (vashontools.org), Vashon Time Bank (tbanks.org), Voice of Vashon, and, or course, Granny’s Attic.  That’s just off the top of my head, so if you haven’t been mentioned and want to be, let me know.

One of the truly sustainable features of a number of these groups or services, namely Vashon Freecycle, the Tool Library, and the Time Bank are that they are promoting a non-monetary economy.  Most of the rest have flexible arrangements that are heavy on sharing goods, services, and information.  More and more, you needn’t have to take a look at your wallet before deciding whether you can partake of an offering.  The more we connect, the more all of our needs get taken care of, the fewer resources we use, and the more sustainable we are.  Be sure to avail yourself of these opportunities.

Comments?  terry@vashonloop.com (writing directly to me saves the editor having to forward it)