All the garbage that the Leblonds make in one year fits into a large pickle jar. PHOTO COURTESY KATELIN LEBLOND
Living sustainably and producing less garbage?it?s a beguiling idea. With climate change and growing plastic patches in the ocean, it feels like the right thing to do. But given the sheer amount of stuff that comes with raising kids, it also feels impossible.
The Leblond family?Katelin and Kevin and their kids, Phoenix, 6, and Cléo, 4?have taken the impossible and made it their reality. Their goal" Zero waste, which means that they try to send as little to landfill as they can. Heading into their fifth year of living minimally, they?re not quite there yet, but they are very close. They manage to fit the garbage they produce each year (which they track annually from one Earth Day to the next) into one large glass jar.
Though she had always been eco-conscious, Katelin says she struggled to match her concerns with her actions. Her desire to help got even stronger once she had kids and she started to make small efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, like avoiding plastic-wrapped produce. But she was eager to do more.
Four years ago, Kevin, who is in the Royal Canadian Air Force, was on a nine-month deployment and Katelin was on maternity leave in Victoria, BC, with their then-eight-month-old daughter, Cléo, and 2½-year-old son, Phoenix. Katelin was on Facebook and came across a video by Bea Johnson, author of Zero Waste Home: The Ult...