Earth Carers

Last night I went to a meeting about becoming an Earth Carer. Earth Carers are a not-for-profit community group that help to raise awareness of how people can help the environment by reducing, reusing and recycling waste. Earth Carers teach people about composting/recycling options via the media or stalls at events including Gardening Week and the Perth Royal Show.

One statistic that I read somewhere in their info last night was that the equivalent of Subiaco Oval filled to 1.5 times the height of the goal posts with wastegoes to landfill at Tamala Park each year. And that's just the from the residents in Cambridge, Stirling, Perth, Joondalup, Vincent and Victoria Park. Where the other Perth residents' waste goes, I don't know.

I put my name down to do their free Earth Carers training course which is starts on the 13th May.

Josh Byrne from Gardening Australia was at the meeting as a special guest speaker. I don't watch Gardening Australia but it was actually really interesting hearing him speak. Most of the examples he used were taken from his place in South Freo - his worm farm in an old bathtub, his chicken tractor, the greywater system for watering the garden, and the rainwater tank under the decking. Clearly he walks the talk, practices what he preaches, etc

One example that particularly stuck in my mind is that a 3,500 litre rainwater tank if used to flush the toilet and running the washing machine all through the wet months, can save around 40,000 litres of water each year. This is slightly different to conventional thinking which says get a rainwater tank to water the garden with . But as Josh pointed out, getting a rainwater tank for this purpose means it's full/overflowing in winter when you don't need it, and rapidly runs out in summer when you do. By using the rainwater tank, at the time of year when it's frequently being refilled, it's like putting water in the bank for the summer (by using less in winter and allowing our dams to fill up more). Interesting. Apparently it's also quite easy to install a mains backed-up system like he's got and what with water conservation being such a hot topic at the moment, you can even get a government rebate for it.


----------

5 out of the 8 library applications I put in, have called me regarding an interview. This is good although the last three I've had to turn down as I'm starting my new job on Mon. Yay!

It's an average of 30hrs a week - Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri and every second Sat morning. I'm looking forward to it. I met about half the people who work there the day before yesterday and they all seem really nice.