HHW Last Day!

Our last day of training, but definitely not an easy one.  We tackled a preview of Ozone Depleting Substances today, moving through some concepts that we were even questioning as instructors. 

Full agreement by everyone:  the best part of the day was the giveaways.  Thanks to Steve's generosity we gave away the safety gear and the remaining prizes.  The gear put a smile on everyone's face and created a lot of excitement in the room.

As a wrap-up we talked about some of the things that the participants felt they could do in their communities now.  Here are some of the answers we received:

• Improve my storage practices, I've cleaned a lot up, but I can still improve some of the sorting and storage steps I've taken.
• Begin talking to Town Council and community members about the important things we need to address.
• Talk to my landfill operators and find out what we are doing with these hazardous wastes.
• Begin making the changes to the bylaws and to the rules at our landfill so we can begin talking to the businesses about their responsibilities to manage their own hazardous wastes.
• I will put up signs saying that dumping is illegal.  Then I can deal with the situations that happen.
• I want to get my community involved in cleaning some of the problems up.  This impacts our land, our animals and our children.
• I will deal with my waste batteries.  I know I can get them prepared for storage and shipment and then begin the work to find a receiver.
• I want to continue to raise awareness.  I think that we can get the community involved in changing the way they handle household hazardous wastes.
• I want to extend my battery collection program to include another product. 

One of our goals was to create champions that would begin to influence their communities to take the issues seriously, make their needs in this area a priority and invest effort in improvements.  From the responses we received it seems like the participants have left with a strong interest in sharing their knowledge and influencing change.  It will be great to see some of these ideas come to fruition.

So far we have received kudos for supporting this training initiative.  Initial feedback is very positive and impressions should only gain strength after participants have a chance to see different ways to accomplish the work we discussed on their tours in Edmonton.  We may not see everyone in Edmonton, but it isn't due to a lack of interest.  Some participants have other commitments that will keep them from coming, but there is strong interest in the opportunity overall.

Jim and I spent some time shopping this afternoon.  As we trekked through the -25 temperatures we chatted about our impressions and experiences.  We definitely agreed that we were all learning in that classroom.  Jim, Steve and I have a much better understanding of the implications of life without some of those basic services, utilities and infrastructure that we tend to take for granted now than we did before we got here.  Things that we imagined would be very simple are actually very complex in this environment.  We also agreed that it would be wrong to assume that a lack of forward movement was due to a lack of interest or concern.  We definitely got the impression that everyone in the room was passionate about doing the best they could.

I've included a few pictures...

Hilda, Sam and Jamessee work in the foreground, Greg, Dennis, Shawn and Don in the background.

Cold, wind and snow outside our classroom. 

Iqaluit from the best viewpoint in the city.  Nice, clear day.