trash

Environmentalists Talk Trash in Oakland and San Francisco

On Wednesday, January 27, Garbage Dreams was screened at Oakland’s Asian Cultural Center. The screening was packed by audience members from every demographic and every age group, including an entire fifth grade class from the Lighthouse Community Charter School. Audience members were struck by the degree to which the Zaballeen managed to find a use for everything. Many attendees were inspired to integrate this consideration into their own lives and think more about the value of the things they view as trash. The screening was followed by an exciting discussion featuring panelists, Monica Wilson, International Co-coordinator at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Aaron Ableman, Co-Founder of Communitree, and Ambessa Cantave, Co-Founder of Grind for the Green and Oakland Climate Justice Activist. Following is a video including interviews with panelist, Ambessa Cantave and a few of the audience members. A week before this screening, on Tuesday, January 19th, the San Francisco Main Library also hosted a screening of Garbage Dreams.

This screening was also followed by a very interesting discussion. Panelists, Kevin Drew, Residential Zero Waste Coordinator at the San Francisco Department of the Environment, Neil Tangri, Climate Change Campaign Director at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), and Bradley Angel, Executive Director at GreenAction, had some very eye-opening things to say about recycling:

“When you burn this stuff (trash), no matter how state-of-the-art, no matter how conscientious the company, you are getting emissions of the most toxic substances known to science- that are having a profound effect on our population worldwide.”
-Neil Tangri, Climate Change Campaign Director, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

“The fact of the matter is, companies are producing stuff for which there is no solution and they take no responsibility. And it’s left in the hands of Kevin (San Francisco Department of the Environment) and your tax dollars to solve that problem…If you can’t recycle it, if you don’t have a plan for it, you shouldn’t be producing it in the first place.”
-Bradley Angel, Executive Director, GreenAction

“We really shouldn’t be shipping things a long way away, we should be trying to live locally to the extent that we shouldn’t expect to get avocados year-round or other things, until very recently, we didn’t get year-round. Living within our means from a local ecosystem sense is where you’re going to find the right answer.”
-Kevin Drew, Residential Zero Waste Coordinator, San Francisco Department of the Environment

“If the waste pickers in Cairo can do eighty percent, I think San Francisco can do eighty percent as well.”
-Neil Tangri

Tags: garbage, garbage dreams, Oakland, recycling, San Francisco, trash

Monday, February 8th, 2010 All Video, Audience Talkback, Event Impact, Panelists and Performers, Partnerships and Supporters, events View Comments

In January Community Cinema Asks You To Consider Recycling… Everything

In January 2010, Community Cinema starts the new year by asking you to consider recycling, well… everything you use. Don’t worry! Our documentary selection – an award winning festival hit – GARBAGE DREAMS will help you learn recycling secrets from some of the best recyclers on the planet. Meet Cairo’s Zaballeen.

Find your free event, and join us for the film and so much more. Welcome to the world’s largest garbage village located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The Zaballeen (Arabic for garbage people) recycle 80 percent of the trash they collect—far more than other recycling initiatives around the globe. But now a multi-national corporation threatens their livelihood. Follow three teenage boys born into the recycling business who are forced to make choices that will impact the survival of their community and could also help the rest of the world figure out what to do with its waste. Local Community Cinema events will look into recycling options on the municipal level as well as connect with independent organizations seeking creative and innovative solutions to our trash troubles. GARBAGE DREAMS is director Mai Iskander’s first feature film, and is on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 15-film shortlist for feature docs at this year’s Oscars (source: Hollywood Reporter).

The Recycling School from GARBAGE DREAMS

Our national partners create unique ways for audiences to learn more about recycling, sustainability and environmental education. Global Alliance For Incinerator Alternatives is a worldwide alliance of more than 500 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 80 countries whose ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration. The Cloud Institute works to ensure that innovative curricula is available to educators in the K-12 school systems to prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future. Working Films leverages the power of storytelling through documentary film to advance struggles for social, economic, and environmental justice, human and civil rights.

Austria is the leading recycler in the European Union with about 60 percent of waste products being recycled. The United States recycles about 32 percent of its waste. At the Beijing dump, scavengers earn three times the monthly salary of college professors. Scavengers in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico earn three times the minimum wage, putting them in the top 5 percent of income earners in that city.

Learn more interesting facts and consider some of the challenging questions or activities in our Discussion Guide (PDF, 2.5M). [Consider not printing the discussion guide. You can view PDF documents on your computer, laptop, Palm, Blackberry, iPhone, or other smart device.] Then join us at one of our free preview events for GARBAGE DREAMS and bring your questions for our panel of experts. Our first event is tomorrow January 2, 2010 at the Saratoga Springs Public Library, 49 Henry Street at 3PM. There are over 30 events scheduled so far with more being added every day.

In this clip below from SXSW, Mai Iskander (the film’s director) and one of the film’s young subjects go through an American trash dumpster looking for answers to the common exclamation, “That’s not recyclable! Is it?!”

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