Trashman: garbage never smelled so sweet

Innovation seems to be at its height during tough times. It didn’t take long after the city workers went on strike for some innovative Torontonians to come up with solutions to a potentially stinky problem.

Bill Hennessey took an entrepreneurial approach. But what Ryan Taylor is doing is an inspiration to us all. Ryan developed a plan to pick up people’s garbage with help from his partner Asaka Yamashita and friend Michael Penny. The cool thing is all money collected will go to War Child Canada, a charity helping children in war torn countries.

Ryan Taylor isn’t a guy with extra time on his hands. He devised this plan while working on his new business venture, Fair Trade Jewellery Co. (The FTJCo) set to launch in mid-July. (Stay tuned, it warrants a post of its own.)

I recently interviewed Ryan for Bargainista:

B: Where did you get the idea to pick up garbage during the garbage strike?
RT: I’ve read and heard a lot of negative feedback regarding the labour dispute, a lot of anger but nothing constructive. I think people are upset with changes to their routine and illegal dumping is always unacceptable for locals, who take pride in their neighborhoods.

While the city and union work out their differences, I thought a simple solution to ease tensions would be to offer a small scale pick-up and drop off service especially for families, seniors and those physically unable to get their garbage to an official drop site. By offering this service for a fee we achieve two things: people are more considerate of what is essential to dispose of and with all the proceeds we support a worthy cause in War Child Canada.

B: How can Bargainista readers arrange to have their garbage picked up and where does it go?
RT: We’ve tried to make it as simple as possible visiting my “trashman” blog and use the form on the site to enter your pick-up details, if your readers are paying by credit card they can do so direct to War Child. It’s an honour system so just make a note that payment was made using that method on our form.

B: Will you pick up garbage from businesses as well as households?
RT: Both absolutely.

B: What are the three most important things we need to do if we want to arrange to have our garbage picked up?
RT: Ask your neighbors if they’d like to take part, help those around you in need, and consolidate your trash.

B: What can we do to help?
RT: Blog about it, tweet about it, and better yet print off the 8.5 x 11 posters and show your support offline.

B: How big is your team?
RT: My incredible partner Asaka, my videographer, Michael and me.

B: How did you decide to donate all proceeds to charity, specifically War Child Canada?
RT: My relationship with War Child was really solidified after NetChange week. I really enjoyed working with James, the War Child team is incredible and of course the cause really needs our support.

B: What has the reaction been from Torontonians?
RT: Generally positive, I think these ‘spark’ programs are new and hard to grasp. People like long planning sessions, big brand sponsors and traditional media coverage to confirm legitimacy. Is it shameless promo or good community? I leave that for the public to decide, in the mean time I’m renting a truck, up at 3 a.m. hauling 50lb bags dirty diapers from around the city. ;)


B: What has surprised you most since you announced this initiative?
RT: I’m getting more attention speaking to people in the community using good old-fashioned DIY posters than Social Media. There’s something to be said about a smile and a handshake from a neighbor.

Where can you find Ryan when he’s designing treasures instead of collecting trash?
Ryan Taylor
Goldsmith, Adventurer
The Fair Trade Jewellery Co.

Atelier: 523 Parliament St. (map)
Toronto, Ontario M4X1P3

image credits
photo of Ryan Taylor from http://blog.ftjco.com/blog/
poster concept designed by Jason Murphy

Fit-in 15 – we’re all winners!

Thanks everyone who participated in the Fit-in 15 challenge yesterday. Bargainista readers really stepped up their game and in a friendly “add an extra 15 minutes of activity to your day smack down” against Parent Club, we came a head by a nose (9 Bargainista readers compared to 8 at Parent Club) and get to display the trophy here. Yay! Congrats to all Parent Club participants as well.

Daniele Rossi will be getting a 4GB iPod Shuffle and iTunes gift card courtesy of Canadian Chiropractic Association’s Fit-in 15 program.
Here’s his comment:

“Did a power walk as a warm up before my workout in the gym today. Set it for 15 minutes and found it was the best warm up I've ever done!”

I just happen to have another prize pack lying around so, Tanya McGinnity who took a 30-minute power walk with her sweet little pug, will receive one too. Congrats to both of you!

As for the random draw, I invited Caroline Fernandez from Parent Club to do the honours. She had a little help from a sweet tool called Random Interger Generator. Thanks Caroline!

Oh ya, and I guess you’re all wondering how I’ve been managing my Fit-in 15 for the past week. Well, here’s the rundown:

June 17 – I took a brisk lunchtime walk, then after work headed over to the Toronto Girl Geekl Dinner in a brisk walking mode only to learn I was early. I headed home and did some more brisk walking too.

June 18 – I attended the ChickAdvisor Recessionista Shop Crawl, skipped two subway stops after work and walked to the starting point plus another two hours of shopping on foot.

June 19, 20, 21 – Getting around in Kingston on foot during the three days of Podcasters Across Borders counts, right? ;-)

June 22 – 15 minute brisk walk at lunch for the Bargainista – Parent Club Smack Down and another brisk evening walk.

June 23 – 15-minute brisk lunch time walk (and I’m sure there will be much more this evening).

I’m certainly making an effort to add at least an extra 15 minutes of activity into my day. The bike is coming out this weekend too. You’ve all inspired me.

When it comes to daily physical activity, what inspires you?

Disclosure: Canadian Chiropractic Association is a client of Fleishman-Hillard, a sister company to iStudio and I've been working on this project.

DIY decor not just for nurseries

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson completes her DIY nursery series.

As a final follow up to the Nursery on a DIY budget series, here’s a recap of two bargains we found/created for less than $20, which in theory could be applied to any room of your house really.

When painting, generally you take off the light switch and electrical plate covers, which of course got me thinking. They were boring, plain, white things. I wanted to dress them up somehow – and have them match the theme of the room if we could. I went looking in stores and online and saw lots of light-switch covers, but also saw the prices and thought surely this could be recreated for less.

During one of our trips to Michaels, Mark showed me some scrapbook paper he found for $4.99 which matched the flash cards we had. He wanted to know if there was something we could do with it. For $4.99 I said we must be able to and threw it in the cart.

It wasn’t until we got home that it dawned on me. Why not cover the light switch and electrical covers in the paper? I passed the idea on to Mark who is much better with a pair of scissors than I and he too was game. After wasting a few sheets trying to figure out how to make it work, we finally figured it out and found yet another use for that wallpaper glue we still had left.

After tracing the light switch cover (including showing the outline for where the hole would need to be for the switch itself and cutting out the shape, we affixed it by applying the wallpaper glue to the paper (minus where the hole cut out was traced) and then carefully sticking the paper on the cover. Once we’d let it set for a couple of days, we then took an exacto knife and carefully “exed” out the middle, affixing it with some more glue as needed. For a final touch, we applied al light coat of a shellac just to protect the paper so it wouldn’t tear prematurely from everyday use.

One other piece of the puzzle we wanted was to find a nice drape or shear for the room. We already knew from advice from friends that we wanted a blackout blind for the room so it could be closed during the sunniest of days allowing baby to sleep.

With an older style house, we have some odd-shaped windows so on a trip to Fabricland looking to buy fabric to make curtains for another room in our house, we thought we’d see if there was anything we could find for the baby’s room. Always one to look through discount bins, my husband and I were rummaging through the “clearance” bin for packaged draperies, when he exclaimed – “I found it!”

Sure enough, it was the perfect sheer for the room, the exact colours we were looking for and everything. We checked the price tag and found it said $7.99. Bonus! So excited with our find we immediately headed for the check out in case it was a mistake…

As I neared the cash register, I saw something on the package that made me stop. It wasn’t a sheer, it was a shower curtain! I immediately groaned, showed Mark and we went back and put it down looking for something else. Very disappointed we were getting ready to leave when we both stopped and asked ourselves why we couldn’t use that as a sheer? Immediately we went back and checked it out and discovered that if we didn’t tell anyone it was a shower curtain, they might not know. All we had to do was buy some nice curtain hooks and none would be the wiser.

However, we’re so proud of our find and our thought to use something “unconventionally” that we now proudly point it out to anyone who sees the room asking if they like our $8 shower curtain turned sheer. What do you think – can you tell the difference?
Lessons Learned
1. Practice with scrap paper first – especially good if you have paper the same thickness (scrapbooking paper is a thicker stock)
2. Once you glue on the outside, the middle gets hard so you need to cut with precision and trim carefully; don’t glue anything until you’re sure it will fit where you need it to
3. Just because something is labeled with a purpose already, doesn’t mean that’s what it has to be used for – get creative
4. Bargains are available to be found, you just have to be open minded

My Shop Crawl haul

Have you ever been to a ChickAdvisor Shop Crawl? Maybe you’ve thought about it but weren’t quite sure about spending $25* to save money and party with a bunch of other women (well, mostly women) who love shopping too.

Last Thursday, I attended the ChickAdvisor Recessionista Shop Crawl. The weather was a perfect ’cause the rain stayed away. My plan was to see how much swag I could walk away with without dropping a penny. Well, things didn’t quite go as planned. The deals were hard to resist and I spent some of my hard-earned cash. At least it wasn’t all on me. With an extra 25% off regular and sale items at Banana Republic, I bought Mr. B a Father’s Day gift too.

Anyway, I thought you’d like to know what I got for free, so I’ve included a photo. As you can see, I came away with a lot of goodies, including a $100 gift certificate towards an overnight stay at the Park Hyatt (another gift for Mr. B), a $25 gift certificate for Stillwater spa, 10% off at Roots online store and lots of beauty products from Maybelline – the event sponsor. All shoppers who completed the crawl got a swag bag with a bunch of stuff from the sponsor, a martini ticket and a lot of surprises on the way. Plus there were games and prizes at the FLOW after party.

Over the next little while, I’ll be coming up with a contest or two so I can share some of this swag with some of you.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a shout-out to Ali, Alex and the rest of the ChickAdvisor team for making the night a success, and especially to Sumaya – we finally met in person and she’s a sweetie.

What did you think of the Shop Crawl? Would you go again? What would you suggest to make it even better?

*Full disclosure: as a media friend, I received a complimentary ticket.