Idiocracy

This has to be one of the best ironic films of our generation. But look out for the freak garbage slides.

Living Lean, Truly a Kaisen Event

I have worked within the manufacturing realm for over ten years and have heard numerous "catch phrase" ideas trickle down from corporate offices. Most of these ideas had some good points however would quickly lose their effectiveness as my fellow coworkers would lose interest. Before long yet another "great system" would be thrust upon us from on high and the cycle would begin again.

One system that was suggested however maintained its effectiveness long after all others had faded into oblivion, that system was the concept of Lean Manufacturing.

Lean Manufacturing enlists five base principals.

1. Define value from the customer's perspective: Identify value added activities, and eliminate non-value added activities.

2. Identify and map the value stream: You'll end up with a picture of your current processes from start to finish and all parts in-between. You can then use this map to identify bottlenecks and other inefficiencies.

3. Reduce or eliminate waste, (what a great idea), and improve flow: A Lean enterprise eliminates all activities that utilize resources but that do not create value for the customer.

4. Pull from the customer: Information and material is pulled based on customer demand.

5. Pursue Perfection: Continue to perfect your Lean plan by returning to Step 1 and repeating this process for a cycle of continuous improvement.

Now if you've been a cog in a manufacturing machine such as I have, and even if you haven't, it's easy to see how implementing these ideas could improve upon the bottom line. But how do you keep this system from fading away with time as all others have before it? The difference between this program and others is step #5, Pursue Perfection. Step #5 is achieved through what is refereed to as a Kaisen Event which in its simplest definition means to continuously improve. A kaisen event empowers employees to improve their own working environment making them a part of the solution encouraging a drive to continue the process.

Now, how can this manufacturing principal be applied to every day life? Well I think we all strive for continuous improvement one way or another but let's take a look at applying the five Lean principals.

1. Define value from the customer's perspective: In this case you and your family are the customers so take some time to identify the things you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis that add value to your lives, at the same time identify activities that don't add value or detract from the value of your lives.

2. Identify and map the value stream: You'll end up with a picture of your current routines from start to finish and all parts in-between. You can then use this map to identify activities that "eat time" and produce waste as well as highlight other inefficiencies in your daily life.

3. Reduce or eliminate waste and improve flow: Take your findings from steps one and two and eliminate the activities that don't improve upon your life. Improve upon inefficient routines eliminating wasted time and wasted resources.

4. Pull from the customer: Learn to trust your own feelings and senses about what you truly need. Don't be distracted by advertisements telling you you need what they have to sell.

5. Pursue Perfection: Continue to perfect your value of life by returning to Step 1 and repeating this process for a cycle of continuous improvement.

Now I'm going to use these principles to assess one of my weekly activities, the act of purchasing groceries. This is a value added activity as my family and I need to eat and rather enjoy it too. Using a scrap of paper I'll identify the process in which I obtain my groceries from writing the list to eventually consuming the food purchased. One thing I could do is purchase items differently reducing packaging that I would eventually have to spend time trowing out and hauling to the curb. Menu planning could reduce the types and quantities of food purchased saving dollars from my bill. I also had an epiphany on how to reuse my grocery list. I think that I will post the list upon the fridge once I have returned from the store to use as an inventory of the fridges contents preventing me from having to stand with the door open trying to determine what to eat. I will purchase more whole foods rather than prepared foods using my menu plan to its fullest and in exchange I will allow myself a treat such as some chocolate or some salted nuts to keep myself sane.

I've learned a number of valuable lessons from this Kaisen event and next time I go shopping I plan to revisit this scenario and see what other steps can be taken to improve upon the process. I feel in charge of my own destiny and look forward to applying this practice to other aspects of my life.

Saving The World Is an Endless Job

Once again I have found myself saving the world from being burried within the countless layers of our trash. The best part is how easy it was to clean up the planet. If only the real job of cleaning up this world was as easy.

If we all do our part the clean up doesn't have to be a painful process. And eventualy we should be able to shift our focus from clean up to complete initial recovery within a zero waste environment..

When It Hits The Curb It Disapears

Isn't garbage day a magical day? Like clockwork every week I awake early in the morning hours and drag my previous weeks detritus to the curb and a few hours later the garbage fairies arrive, wave their enchanted work gloves and my garbage disappears never to be heard from again. I just love the magic of the moment.


The previous statement may seem cheeky but I truly do believe a significant portion of our society believes it to be true. The reality however couldn't be further from the truth. Most of the debris we toss will actually out live us taking decades, centuries, perhaps even millennia to break down.

Landfills, believe it or not, are designed to slow down the decomposition of their contents. In order to break down, organic matter requires access to air/oxygen yet in a landfill the trash is compacted and sandwiched between numerous layers of clay and sometimes stone to increase landfill space and ultimately the landfill's lifespan.

Oxygen may not be able to reach our discarded belongings however, rainwater can as its gravitational relationship allows it to percolate deep into the many layers of debris. When water mixes with the nasty garbage juices, leachate is created which seeps into the surrounding soil in the form of a Garbage Plume. Plumes can swell rapidly and often will find their way into local water tables. Most new landfills are required to use liners to prevent plumes. The liners can be effective but are far from foolproof.
The reality, though unpleasant, is that our garbage will be around longer than we ourselves will. Let's make a decision now to reduce our own consumption and leave our squanderous ways in the past.

The Magic Mountain

I happened on a great article the other day by author Matthew Power, titled "The magic mountain: Trickle-down economics in a Philippine garbage dump". He effectively paints a picture of a day in the life of a mangangalahig at the Payatas dump site in Quezon City, Manila.

The manangalahig is a scavenger, sorting through trash for recyclables which can be exchanged for a few rupees. The conditions and minimal payback may seem futile but the few rupees they do earn is far more than they would be making farming as they had in the past. And when metro Manila produces on average 6,169 tons of garbage daily you know there is plenty of trash to go arround. Multiply that mass by 364.25 days in a year, and again by 20 years and you can begin to understand how this 130 foot high, 50 acre, 45,000,000 ton mountain grows.

The Payatas dump site was home to a tradgic event in the year 2000. Monsoon rains permiated the garbage mountain, which had been piled at a 70º slope, and caused the pile to slide killing hundreds of mangangalahig and their families living at the base of the heap. Exact numbers on the casualties will never be known for sure as the recovery effort was forced to stop days later, when hope had been lost.

Junk For Christmas Callenge 2008, Dec. 30th

I'm back from a wonderful time spent with my family. As usual there was plenty of delicious food to over fill on. We played games, visited, and had loads of fun.

Earlier this year my family decided we would exchange names and give only one gift rather than finding gifts for everyone in the family. This is a great way to reduce the amount of stuff given out at Christmas while keeping tradition alive. My family also has a Christmas stocking tradition in which we usually do not partake however this year since we're gifting junk we thought, "Why not?" I drew my brothers name and my spouse drew my mother's.

My mother received a beautifully framed photo mosaic of our family tree. We left the photos out so she could choose the pictures that mean the most to her.

The frame was found where one might expect to find discarded frames, behind a frame shop. It was within a box that had two frames, one frame was broken and the other was gifted to my mom. My partner cleaned it up and repaired a few minor scratches, reset the glass which had slipped back a bit and wrapped it to gift. In the same bin on a separate trip I located my mother's stocking stuffer.

This wall sconce was in terrific shape but it's mate was not so lucky. Stores figure you can't split up a pair so they toss both when one gets damaged. My mom has already picked out a wall for the frame.

My father was not one of the names drawn from the hat but we did manage a stocking gift for him.

My father smokes a pipe so some Christmas colored pipe cleaners seemed fitting. I also gifted to him a wooden puzzle I found on a trip to the dump. He spent hours trying to figure it out, he may not have it yet. Keep the faith dad.

My brother's gifts presented themselves in a strange way. My brother had me over to his house one evening to watch a pay per view fight with some of his close friends. I left early as I had made arrangements to meat up with the Trash Can Superman at the dump the next morning. That next morning while I was scavenging I discovered a brand new fire alarm bell still in it's box. I thought that it was a strange thing to find but couldn't think of any reason why I would need such a thing so I tossed it to the side. Later that same day I opened a bag which appeared to be full of scraped up underlay from someones renovations. The black foam was uninteresting but I could see a little red peaking out from under the debris. The first set of gloves were discovered. Alone these gloves would not make a good gift so I set them aside and continued rummaging when I discovered another bag filled with underlay foam and alas the second set of gloves.

When the gloves were reunited I remembered the bell and the gift completed itself. As TC Superman would say, "The dump provides!"

As a stocking stuffer I threw in a jock strap for ladies, after all I am his brother and I can't pass up a chance to make him blush.

I was going to stop here but I discovered this beauty amongst the scrap and couldn't leave it behind.

All it needed was a cleaning, some air in the tires, and a little tune up and this machine was ready for the trails.

My family has one last tradition which is only a few years old, it's called the Pickle Gift. For those of you who have never heard of this it goes like this. First obtain an ornament shaped like a pickle, apparently they are available. One person hides the pickle on the Christmas tree while the others are out of the room. The person hiding supplies a gift suitable for any of the searchers. Everyone except the pickle gifter searches the tree until the pickle is found. The person to find the pickle gets the gift and becomes next years pickle gifter.

This year I was the gifter after receiving a set of boccie balls last year. My father found the pickle after a thorough search.

What he received from me was a Philips photo frame. I had discovered one in the trash and took it home only to learn the obvious, it was broken. For kicks I phoned the warranty line and discovered the warranty was still good. It took some work on the phone but after five separate phone calls I was finally directed to a service shop to make my claim. The new frame arrived on the 23rd, just in time to become this years pickle gift.

We all had a great time this holiday and a lot was learned.

1. Christmas is not about the stuff. It's a great time of year as you get to congregate with the ones you love sharing good times, plenty of laughs, and lots of fun.

2. We are a shamefully wasteful society. You don't have to look far to see we are squandering our valuable resources in the pursuit of a "better life".

3. Think twice before making a return. All returned items in opened packaging or slightly imperfect end up discarded by that store. They can't sell it out of its wrapper and if you returned it due to the damage someone else will too. If you can fix it or live with the flaw do so to keep perfectly good materials out of the landfill.

4. Make a reduction plan with your family. Drawing names, group gifts, handmade gifts, cards, and of course abstinence are all good ways to reduce the giving of stuff, reduce the stress of the season, and reduce the mindless consumption.

5. Enjoy yourselves. This season only comes once a year. Enjoy the time you have together, don't make it about the gifts.

There are plenty of other lessons to glean which we may discuss in a later post. If you have any great ideas on reducing consumption please feel free to post in the comments section of this or any other post on the squanderism site.

Christmas With The In-laws

Well we are back from the In-laws and a wonderful Christmas visit. We arrived Christmas eve, which happens to be the big day for my spouse’s family. We all anxiously await this day as we by tradition feast on a Scandinavian dish called palt. Palt is essentially boiled balls of potato and flour eaten with melted butter and lots of salt and pepper. To an outsider this tradition may seem very strange but once you have immersed yourself in the family you too become eager for the feast.

Christmas Eve is also when we exchange our gifts, usually around midnight as Gram arrives home from Christmas mass. This year my spouse and I decided to keep the gifts low key and opted to hand out framed photos of the kids (frames from the trash), home made jelly and handmade tree ornaments (made of sewing scraps). Gifts don't need to be elaborate or expensive to be meaningful.

We had a wonderful time and as usual, we were spoiled by all. I received some great multi tools and a flashlight, a walking stick and winter gloves, a craft kit and a pair of slippers to keep my piggies warm. While I was cleaning up the debris from unwrapping the kid’s gifts, I thought up a great use for those plastic coated wires that make it impossible to remove toys from the box.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We are off to see my family tomorrow morning so there will be more to come in a few days including the JUNK FOR CHRISTMAS wrap up and conclusion as well as some great ideas for redefining Christmas with your family and returning to the things that matter most.

Don't forget to take a look in the bin when you discard all you’re wrapping. You'd be surprised what others through away.