By Mathieu Bonin

When we decided a few months ago on the theme of this newsletter, we stopped to consider the resolutions and decisions we could make for the coming year. Last year, I followed the excellent program, Waste Warriors, in Burbank, which offers a real education about waste. Visiting a recycling center or landfill should be mandatory in a school curriculum. Waste is an excellent topic for developing critical thinking.  

This year, after a bit of looseness on my part, I counted in a week all the plastic and single-use objects that I could have done without but that I had turned into waste due to a lack of preparation: the plastic cup that contained the beer I drank when I went to see a movie last week,  this little plastic glass next to the water jug available to customers during my lunch, this plastic coffee cup you are given at the coffee shop, no matter whether you say “for here” or “to go” (I roll my eyes). More seriously, I also wasted food after Christmas, which has an even more significant impact than inadvertently accepting the plastic straw or the small bags of ketchup, all of which ended up in the trash without even being opened. Where did my resolutions go? 

So I got (did not buy) re-usable Cantines, one for work, one for the car, and one at home. I decided to buy more than 3/4 of my clothes second-hand. And I wondered how to enjoy South Central Street food without participating in the waste that this stand generates. Nothing is simple.  

However, as I write these words, Los Angeles is experiencing one of the most dramatic fires in its history. The fires that have destroyed entire parts of the city, the foretaste of what the next administration will be like, and the pessimistic predictions about species extinction or climate change, all make me wonder what the impact is of refusing a plastic cup. What does a praise of sobriety change in the face of such cataclysms? Why should we care about small gestures like refuse? 

A few months ago, to prepare a series of interventions in the classrooms on the importance of sorting and collecting organic waste, a colleague reminded me of the hummingbird story he had heard about in Colombia. One day, when the forest was burning, the hummingbird decided to extinguish the fire. He would go to the river with his long beak, draw water, and then water the flames. Pointless right? The other animals were intrigued and began to laugh at him. How was this tiny bird going to put out this fire on its own? The hummingbird's response to his companions is worthy of reflection: "Maybe I won't stop the fire, but at least I'm doing my part." Indeed, we are not going to change everything right away, and sometimes our strengths are below what we would like them to be, but is it not through a sum of small individual and collective actions that we can show the possibility of change?  

When Mathieu isn’t teaching philosophy at the French School, he volunteers with the Central Group, leading Trash Talk Saturdays and being its Conservation Chair.