I know that we left Christmas far behind us and that the topic may seem out of the bloom at the beginning, but it is a topic that I wanted so much to write about and is closely related to my experience on Texel. Just before Christmas I watched the movie “The Grinch” and I was extremely inspired from the main character (Grinch) and the lessons for sustainability that he gives.
A bit about the plot,
Grinch is a green furry man that was rejected from the local community of his home town because of his appearance and he started living alone on a mountain nearby. There, is also located the landfill of the area, which he uses to find his food. He eats objects, lamps, old and new gifts that were not appreciated and all kinds of things that people thought of as garbage. So, his lifestyle is based on ‘waste is food’. He also talks about how ungrateful people is to not see all the things they have and throw away stuff that are even as good as new. Eventually, he returns at his home town and he is accepted back. His life style is also accepted and people learn an important lesson from him.
Back to Texel,
Being inspired by Grinch I was touched by two facts here. First, from a local entrepreneur who uses wool from black sheep that normally is wasted, to produce blankets, sweaters and woollen products. I was amazed that he found a creative way to use waste and create his own small company and in the same time decrease the ecological footprint of the sheep production.
In addition to this, the group ‘materials & waste’ proposed a design where all companies of the island will communicate to find who needs the waste from who. In this way the amount of waste will be significantly reduced and many material cycles will be closed or extended towards a sustainable Texel. It was also incredible that they found out that there were already people (farmers, producers, etc.) who had concerns about it and wanted to find a solution. An example is the entrepreneur from above that can use the wasted water from a factory nearby his land to clean the wool.
I believe that the way we treat our waste and how easily we get rid of food and products is a matter of lifestyle and individually we have a huge impact on the ecological footprint. We should all change and think the next time we’ll be in front of the rubbish bin. So let’s be green, let’s be Grinch!!!
