Great Lakes Green Pages

So the Cleveland Sustainability Summit 2019 is over. The good feelings have all sunk in and we are all glad knowing we did our part. So what happens now? Do we sit back and relax, waiting for Cleveland to push ahead and do all the things that we told them to? Or do we move forward-staying connected to those we worked with at the summit to clarify our ideas and hone our prototype? If there is to be true change in Cleveland, we have to put forth the effort to really make this a Green City on a Blue Lake. Can we really afford to wait for government to do it all? The answer is no. We need to push forward and make our dreams a reality. But where to begin?

Our group came together to work on turning waste into profit. There were lots of great ideas in our group. So many, in fact, that we had to split up into smaller factions. Our sub group came up with a great idea. We created a prototype. Unfortunately, by the time our group was able to speak, we could barely even share our idea. So here it is: Wastipedia. Wastipedia is a location. At this location, we take in materials and turn them into something else. Our main goal is to divert 2019 tons of resources from landfill annually. How will we do it? We intend to bring together partners into one main space. This space would allow us to turn organic material into compost. We would take building materials and resell them. We would take materials and reuse them to create art. We would re-distribute materials where they could be reused, rather than deposited in landfill.

We intend to redefine waste for the city of Cleveland. We won’t do it alone, we will use the community to help us redefine waste as something else. When we say waste, we mean many things. There is, of course, the traditional idea of usable trash that needn’t be put into landfill, and housing materials that are thrown away when they are perfectly usable. But in order to truly redefine waste, we need to look at more than this narrow definition. We plan to address some of the more grave aspects of waste in this region. Things like wasted opportunities, wasted energy and wasted human potential. Sounds like a grand idea. It is. One of the great things about the city of Cleveland is that it is a town where you can dream big, and with hard work you can make a dream come true.

What do you do when you have a crazy huge idea that can change the world? Well, the bunch of us that sat around that table at the summit looked at each other and said “lets do this.” Why? We all had our own reasons, but the one thing that we could all agree on was that we wanted to be a part of the solution. We want to make a difference in the world. We had our first meeting on Friday and have agreed that we will continue to meet every week and start to hammer out the plans. We started our plans, identifying our key first steps and starting our action plan.

What is Wastipedia anyhow? Image a reused industrial or educational space. Have a bunch of building materials, samples, fabrics, etc? Drop them off here. Then what happens? Members of our cooperative will separate and organize these resources. Members will have the chance to cull these materials for their own projects. Builders, designers, artists, all many of members can find materials that will suit their needs. What isn’t claimed will be sold at a huge discount, donated to charity, whatever it takes to keep it out of the region’s landfills. Members will help the community by teaching classes relevant to their specialties. Who knows how far this idea could potentially take us? Business incubation for green industries, educational partnerships with local schools, career retraining in resource management.

What are you doing? Where is the energy you felt from this summit going to take you? Tell us your story. Email me at: Robert@thegldc.com and let us help you get the word out about your project.

Tags: environment, recycling, Sustainability Summit

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Cleveland, Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.