Garbage on my blog?! Never! Well…until this post, that is. Garbage – The Revolution Starts At Home is a dvd documentary about how the typical family home has become…well…one of the worst pollutants out there.
After having his baby boy (ok well, HE didn’t have it but anyway…) writer/director Andrew Nisker took an average Canadian family, the McDonalds (just a coincidence people!) and had them save their garbage for 3 months. Can you imagine? Then, Nisker takes the family on a pretty trashy journey showing them and viewers how their consumption and dumping affects our planet.
I admit, I really don’t like to think about these kinds of things. I throw out my trash, and didn’t really give much thought to where it was going after it left my curbside. That’s for other people to deal with, right? That’s for the politicians and policy makers to work out, right? Hey, I just produce the trash, it’s left for someone else to deal with. I admit it, I was a pretty trashy gal.
This documentary opened my eyes, by showing me real people with real lives and real problems as a result out our garbage. How so? Well, viewers get introduced to residents of Huron Township, Michigan which just happens to be where Canadian garbage from Toronto gets dumped. I had heard about this on the news before but admit I never gave much thought to where it was going. Not my problem, right? Listening to the stories from residents, hearing how one homeowner listens to 130 garbage trucks drive past her house, and then back again, every day is pretty sobering.
Other communities visited are a few coal-mining towns in Virginia. Ever give much thought to where your electricity comes from? Me neither. After listening to the residents of these towns describe how their homes are literally covered in dust from the coal mines, how one resident who refuses to sell his land for millions because he doesn’t want to see the mountain tops destroyed hears explosions in the nature outside his land line, I pause for thought now when walking past a room where I’ve left the light on yet again. As Larry, the land owner who refuses to sell so aptly puts it, “The next time you flip a switch on the wall, think about what I hear.”
I thought this documentary would really focus on a smelly garage, the wide eyed family describing how they just can’t believe they could accumulate so much garbage in 3 months time. I was surprised that while the family is the basis for the story, the director takes us so much further down the line. You know, past the curb where we lay our garbage to rest and let someone else deal with it. Kudos to Andrew Nisker for a fantastic lesson on human consumption and dumping, literally.
Garbageman Productions, the team behind this dvd, has offered up 3 copies of Garbage – The Revolution Starts At Home to 3 readers. To enter, I’m taking an idea from their site and asking my readers what Action Plan they have for being a better resident of our planet. What are you doing to be a green citizen (it all starts somewhere right?)
For additional entries:
~ Follow me
~ Subscribe via email
~ Grab my button
~ Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link
Please ensure your profile is public or leave me your email address in your comment. This giveaway will end on March 31st at 10:00pm CT. I will use Random.org to choose the winner, email the winner, and post the win here. Giveaway is open to Canadian and US addresses.
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