Eco-Quartier: A Tale of Dumpster Diving and Stickers

Oh, the jobs people work at!
Out west, near Hawtch-Hawtch,
there's a Hawtch-Hawtcher Bee-Watcher.
His job is to watch...
is to keep both eyes on the lazy town bee.
A bee that is watched will work harder, you see.

Well...he watched and he watched.
But in spite of his watch,
that bee didn't work any harder. Not mawtch.
So then somebody said,
"Our old bee-watching man
just isn't bee-watching as hard as he can.
He ought to be watched by another Hawtch-Hawtcher!
The thing that we need
is a Bee-Watch-Watcher!"
WELL...

The Bee-Watch-Watcher watched the Bee-Watcher.
He didn't watch well. So another Hawtch-Hawtcher
had to come in as a Watch-Watcher-Watcher!
And today all the Hawtchers who live in Hawtch-Hawtch
are watching on Watch-Watcher-Watchering-Watch,
Watch-Watching the Watcher who's watching that bee.
You're not a Hawtch-Watcher. You're lucky, you see!

I figured in life I was doomed to become a Bee-Watch-Watcher, and maybe if I worked really hard, a Watch-Watcher-Watcher. I assumed that the work I do would be a presumably powerful position, in theory, but realistically I would be insignificant. Katimavik has placed me far away from the Bee-Watchers, I get to be the bee. I get to be there actually doing something. Which is why the time has come for you all to learn the secret of my work placement: Eco-Quartier NDG. I figured I'd take the time to do a blog entirely about my work placement, and just how cool it is.

I have mentioned before my Quebecois counterpart and ultra-cool boss Nikki (two k's) Schiebel. She is an endangered species in Montreal, she's one of the only Anglophones that survived the referendum, and by survived I mean didn't move to Toronto.

Here's an idea of what kind of things I do at work:
-Making posters
-Data entry
-Door to door
-Recycling stickers
-Deliveries
-Compost
-Dumpster diving
-Eco-Crafts
-Class presentations
-Weird tasks

I work in an area called Notre-Dame-De-Grace, or as it is more frequently referred to, N.D.G. This means I wake up at 8:15 every morning, I have my breakfast, make my lunch, and put some tea in a jar. I leave just before 9 and I walk two blocks to Monk metro station clutching my warm jar of tea. I wait for my metro, maybe have a sip of tea. Ride that metro to Lionel-Groulx where everyone likes to reenact the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland, "Everybody, change places!". Then I get on my new metro heading to Cote-Vertu, and I exit at Vendome. From Vendome I usually take the 9:30 102 Somerled bus, some times I'll take the shorter 9:30 104 Cavendish bus, and if I'm feeling up to it (or I missed the other two) I'll take the 105 Sherbrooke and just walk up a couple blocks when the time is right. I'm usually at work by 9:45-10:00.

There's a lot I've learned at the Eco-Quartier, and more than just what is recyclable and what isn't (and while I'm on that note you all need to start cutting up you pizza boxes, because if they're soiled by grease, they're not recyclable).

I've learned a lot about vermicomposting which is going to be everyone's Christmas gift for 2011. Vermicomposting is an efficient indoor alternative to backyard composting, it doesn't smell, and the worms don't escape. It works faster and you can compost a variety of things, and it creates a source of super earth, a fantastic fertilizer. And yes, mum, there are worms in it. It's like grade 2 all over again, Niki loves worms, why can't you?

Let's not forget the Eco-crafts which are by far the coolest, I got some really cool craft idea for when I get home, if you don't want a vermicomposter maybe you'd prefer a recycled craft? Tissue box picture frame? Bag made from woven milk bags? Little house made out or milk carton? Oh I have too much fun.

Then there's the stickers, which, for most people, would seem like a tiresome repetitive task. Last fall the city ordered a whole bunch of 240L green recycling bins on wheels for houses in NDG. However they never actually stamped them with anything even hinting that they were recycling bins, and not just garbage bins. So with all this confusion the answer was to have recycling symbol sticker ordered from the manufacturer, and then have the stickers put on either side of the bin. This means that the Eco-Quartier is in charge of making sure that the bins get there stickers. This isn't easy, because, one, NDG is huge, two, some people don't put there recycling bins out, and three, we have to document all of this to the city. Meaning we have a list of all the recycling bin serial numbers and every time the bin get stickered, we cross it off. Simple enough until you sticker a bin in an area full of serial numbers 21000 and you get a 34000, how did you get here? It's not on the paper. Or you see a bin way over in someones backyard, you can only see the top because the rest is covered in snow. How are you gonna get that one? Or better yet, you put the sticker on someones bin and they demand you get off they're property, woops, guess not everyone likes free sticker as much as I do. The worst is when they see you and ask why, why are you putting stickers on my recycling bin. Even if you explain how the manufacturer was supposed to mark the bins with the recycling symbol, they still fail to see the importance of the recycling symbol. However for me, I enjoy going out "to do stickers" because it give me a feel for the neighbourhood, I can navigate by street names and I'll never be lost in NDG.

Finalement, there's the  recycling workshops with the kids at the local schools, this is really fun. We pack up all kind of recycling information and games and head over to one of the many schools in NDG. Guilietta is the master of these presentations, she's a teacher so she's quite captivating in her speech. We often play this game when Guilietta introduces me "This is Niki, she's from British Columbia, and she came all this way to be here today! Does anyone know what country British Columbia is in?" Some of my favourite answers include "Quebec", "Europe", "United States", "Africa", "Toronto" and "Vancouver". This is in response to what country is British Columbia in. Another moment of similar hilarity is when Guilietta asked me to speak to one of the older grades about how we recycle in Vancouver. My speech went something like "Well, in Vancouver we have to separate our recycling! Which means you guys have one green bin, I have a blue bin, a blue bag, and a yellow bag!..." "...Where you guys get to put your recycling out the night before, I can't do that, because all the bears and raccoons will come and knock it over!" The whole purpose was to explain how lucky they are to be in a place with such simple recycling, and it must have worked because one of the boys in the front row raised his hand and said "Then why don't you just move to Quebec?". Awwwwww. It was particularly sweet because all the kids had autograph books and before I left they wanted my signature, so I had a line up of a dozen kids waiting for my autograph. Then that same little boy says to me "You are moving to Montreal, right? Because you should." I said "Well, I'm here for another month!" he says "Then you should probably just stay." So cute. Then there was the kindergarten class, when I got there I opened the door and was greeted by a room of kids who said in unison "BLUE HAIR!" so that was my nick name for the after noon. Apparently, you're not allowed to have dyed hair in schools here, I certainly wasn't frowned upon in the school, in fact most of the teachers liked my hair. I really like seeing the kids getting interested in recycling and the environment. Guilietta was telling me a story about when she ask the kids "What is the environment?" and a girl put up her hand and said "It's everything" and be it a broad answer, it's true. Then you hear these kids get really passionate about everything to do with the earth, you can see they really care. These kids won't become Bee-Watcher-Watchers, that's for sure.

In short, I enjoy my job here. I don't see how I could ever even apply at Pizza Hut now, not even as a joke. I guess I'll just have to start a Vancouver chapter of the Eco-Quartier!