Michele LeBlanc-Havard, Government of Nunavut: I don't know if I was always passionate about garbage, but I lived in a small community in Nunavut and they burned their dump. I was really struck by how difficult that was for the community.
You know, there was nowhere to go. There was nowhere to avoid the smoke if the wind shifted, and how powerless I felt.
Jessica Cook, Arctic Council Secretariat, Podcast Host: That was Michele LeBlanc-Havard, the Director of Environmental Protection for the Government of Nunavut in Canada. She shares how a trip she took with the Government of Nunavut to visit a landfill in Greenland inspired her to take action in her own community.
The landfill in Greenland had just undertaken a project to improve local waste management practices. Since Greenland and Nunavut aren’t so far away from each other and share a lot of environmental and logistical realities, Michele went to observe and learn from Greenland’s approach.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: I went to Greenland and I saw what they did. And I realized that, you know, having a dump in close proximity to where you live, most of these dumps aren’t hidden. They're very close to the community. Everybody sees the dump. Everybody experiences the dump. And it's a mental health issue too. I always felt that it wasn't acceptable. It wasn't appropriate.
Having that vision and seeing the before and after in Greenland, I was completely like, why can't we do this in Nunavut? We're just across the pond. We can definitely do the same thing. We just have to do it. And so now I see every dump as an opportunity – a complete opportunity to change so much in a community’s life.
And I feel that waste is a resource now. We should capitalize on that commodity. I think that we should only see opportunities.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: You're listening to This Way Up, the Arctic Council podcast bringing you stories and experiences from the Arctic. I’m Jessica Cook from the Arctic Council Secretariat.
Rosa-Máren Magga, Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat, podcast host: And I’m Rosa-Máren Magga from the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat. Let’s get into it.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: We just heard from Michele LeBlanc-Havard. And I have to say, this was one of my favorite interviews because - you know what - I’ve never been passionate about trash before. But Michele might have changed my mind.
Rosa-Máren Magga, podcast host: I actually grew up seeing solutions for waste management in small remote seasonal Arctic communities, that came to be out of necessity as these small settlements haven’t traditionally managed large amounts of modern waste.
And I’ve heard about sites, like beaches and lakes that are a no-go for swimming as there’s waste, such as cans, been dumped. In the remote seasonal villages or communities outside the local governments waste management, burning trash has been the only solution or transporting dry waste when the season and transportation allows, mostly winter times. So, it takes a lot of planning and coordination and puts a responsibility on individuals.
But generally, I grew up with teaching from my family and elders that you only pack the amount of products, that you’re able to carry back. Meaning that whenever you go to forest or mountains, you need to be able to carry the trash back as well, if not burnable, leaving no trash and trace behind.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Yeah, the concept of leave no trace is really important. I've never lived in a truly remote community, like one where there are no roads leading in and out. And I know that a lot of people just toss away their trash and roll their bins down to the end of the driveway and let the system take care of it. In other words, it doesn’t really make you think twice. But waste management is an important component of building a resilient future.
Rosa-Máren Magga, podcast host: And from this topic you can hear some really inspirational stories of communities coming together with passion and purpose. In this episode, you’ll hear two of these stories about solid waste management projects that are making a concrete difference in Arctic communities.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: I think these stories can serve as good examples for communities that are looking to re-vamp their waste management practices. But wait – if that’s not you, don’t turn away just yet. This is also just a really good story if you’re want to feel inspired by some passionate people in the Arctic making a difference in their communities.
Rosa-Máren Magga, podcast host: And stories of how just one person can inspire huge change, even if they don’t have any resources to start with besides a motivated attitude. Jess will take you through these stories and then we’ll catch up at the end of the episode.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Before we jump into the stories, I just want to understand more about why we’re even talking about waste management in the first place. So let’s start with, what makes solid waste management challenging in the Arctic?
We spoke with Patrick Huber from the U.S. Environment Protection Agency. He’s Chair of the Arctic Contaminants Action Program, a Working Group of the Arctic Council, which – together with the Sustainable Development Working Group – serve as the Arctic Council’s hub for work relating to solid waste management. Patrick shares an overview of how waste management is different in the Arctic from regions further south.
Patrick Huber, U.S. Environment Protection Agency and Arctic Contaminants Action Program: Quite simply, the circumstances are so different in the North and the South. And so in the Arctic, you have communities that are separated by vast differences. They may not be connected by a road system. There are no road systems that lead out of their community that would connect them to other communities. So, a traditional solid waste management municipal system is not viable in those locations.
These communities are very far spread out. They may be very small, and so it may be cost prohibitive for any municipality or territory or province or state government to manage solid waste from those places back to a centralized collection facility. So that alone – the distances and the time – present a huge logistic challenge.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Since centralized waste facilities were established, small remote Arctic communities have needed to find ways to transport their trash to these larger waste sorting facilities – a process referred to as backhauling. These centralized facilities can often be hundreds to thousands of miles away from Arctic communities.
Because many of these communities not connected to roads, they need to rely on ships to transport their waste during the short sea-ice free windows in the summer, or when winter freezes rivers and creates ice roads for trucks in the winter.
Patrick Huber: Then you've got weather. It's obviously much, much colder. And so getting access to facilities and managing a solid waste system when it's a freezing cold is much more difficult.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: While many communities are surrounded by vast space, in some cases the available territory can’t be used for landfills because the ground is permafrost, or permanently frozen – preventing the kind of digging and burying you need to do in a landfill to ensure the waste is stored safely.
Patrick Huber: So cost, logistics, and when you have things that come into your community and are hard to leave, what it ends up doing is producing a lot of informal measures that communities or individuals take. And those just build on themselves. They become the standard way to deal with things.It may not be pleasant, and it may not be the most appropriate way to deal with it, but it is what works for that community. And frankly, they have to do something. They don't want it piling up in their homes. And so they have to find solutions that work for them.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: So how do communities deal with their garbage?
Patrick Huber: There's a couple that are fairly common. One are informal landfills or informal dump sites. These would be non-registered, but places that maybe everyone has just sort of decided this is where it goes. Sometimes that could be dug out. Sometimes it's just a place that's convenient for everybody to bring their items.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Open dumping is the leading method of waste management in remote Arctic communities, but this has its health and safety hazards.
The decomposition of organic materials can produce methane, a greenhouse gas. In fact, waste disposal is the fourth largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Waste from dumpsites can also clog drains leading to flooding issues. Waste can also produce leachate – a contaminated liquid that drains from a dumpsite or landfill. Leachate can run off into lakes and streams, affecting clean water and ecosystems. And waste from unofficial dumpsites can impact the entire food chain.
Patrick Huber: You think about fish and birds and small creatures that will consume things that look like food. Starting from the lower ends of the food chain, there are microplastics in the environment, and then there are larger plastics that seabirds and fish will consume. And then those get consumed by larger animals, sometimes by humans. And then those end up in our body so that we end up with these things that have been processed through our food that end up in us.
Some of those plastics or wastes carry other chemicals or toxins that can be very harmful to humans. So the the human health risks are many. There are so many of these risks that are out there. You know, what we think of as like acute risks, these are things that you can be exposed to very quickly.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Another waste management method is burning.
Patrick Huber: A lot of communities can burn their waste. That releases a lot of toxins into the environment. Obviously, it causes undue emissions into the environment. And so, there's a lot of health and safety hazards that accompany informal burning and that creates an issue.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: But there are also non-hazardous approaches to waste management.
Patrick Huber: I mean, then of course there are creative ways to use your materials, right? One of the things we talk about in environment work is nothing is waste. Everything has a purpose, right? So, it's a material that can be used or reused. And so, a lot of communities find ways to reuse things very cleverly. That's in the ideal situation, but obviously not everything is easily reused.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Several years ago, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations in the Arctic Council were asked - what are the most important topics they would like to see addressed within their communities. Solid waste management was one of the top areas of concern. From that, the Solid Waste Management in Remote Arctic Communities project was born.
Aleut International Association is one of the Arctic Council Permanent Participants that has spearheaded this work on solid waste management. To learn more about the scope of the issue, they surveyed small isolated Arctic communities. Their survey revealed that the top challenges these communities face are:
The need for stronger regulations
The need to improve or replace landfills
Lack of regional waste management facilities
And insufficient resources for maintaining landfills and equipment
More information on this survey can be found in our show notes.
Recently, the Arctic Contaminants Action Program and Sustainable Development Working Group put out a request for proposals where Arctic communities could submit for grants to fund solid waste management projects. The Working Groups awarded four grants to communities in Canada and Alaska to take on pilot project work to bring resilient solutions to waste management in the Arctic.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: With that, we turn to our first case study – one of the pilot projects that’s currently undertaking a solid waste management project in Nunavut, Canada. Michele LeBlac Havard, who we heard from at the top of this episode, is spearheading this initiative.
Nunavut is the largest and northern-most territory in Canada. It has a population of around 36,000 people spread throughout 25 remote communities. These communities are separated by vast distances, with no roads connecting them.
Nunavut’s growing population is facing a significant solid waste challenge. With no inter-community infrastructure and minimal waste management, local landfills are overburdened. Now, we’ll turn it over to Michele.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: Well, as you can imagine with no roads, you're cut off from the rest of Canada and services where there may be facilities that could recycle, reuse, repurpose, dispose of contamination or polluted goods. We don't have any of those supports really in Nunavut.
So, our communities manage their solid waste by themselves. And every community has a coastal landfill, which is essentially a dump. These landfills don't have modern collection, leachate collection devices or infrastructure. They're often not serviced appropriately in terms of capacity and the ability to separate and segregate and manage waste. So those types of resources aren't available to communities.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Like in many places around the Arctic, people in Nunavut rely on hunting and fishing on the land. Pollution is therefore a big concern.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: The environment is fragile. It's important. And there's a heavy essential link between Inuit and the land and harvesting. So, protecting the environment, keeping it clean for the animals. So that when they harvest, they know that they're harvesting animals that are in an environment that's healthy. Right now, the landfill situation as it is there, there's no control for leachate. So that leachate eventually ends up into the marine or surrounding environment where the animals live. So it's important that we do something to change that reality.
A lot of people had concerns about solid waste in communities. So when you're struggling with capacity, you're isolated, you don't often have a lot of staff or resources or programing, you start talking amongst yourselves and you find commonalities.
So this is the inception point, I think, for a number of people saying we need to do something. We need to change a reality that's not working well in the territory.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: From this, RecycleNU was born.
RecycleNU is a pilot project to establish a pay by item recycling system for aluminum cans and plastic drink bottles in Nunavut. The initiative has a focus on collecting, processing, and recycling 300,000 aluminum cans and 100,000 plastic bottles, offering a refund of $0.10 per can and $0.05 per bottle.
Every bit of waste that ends up in the landfill will stay there unless it is burned or removed. In some communities in Nunavut, waste from landfills is removed or backhauled further south only once a year.
At the same time, people still need to throw away their waste. With limited landfill space and only one opportunity to remove some of that waste a year, that means one of the most important benefits that a waste management project can give is time and space. And that’s exactly one of RecycleNU’s goals. To remove bulky items like cans and bottles to buy the landfill more time and space found for the management of those facilities.
So how were cans chosen as the focus of the RecycleNU project?
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: We do have some statistics about the number of cans and bottles that are used. So we see that this is a huge volume and a huge volume that's going into almost every landfill in Nunavut. And we thought, okay, let's pick the low hanging fruit. This is where we can make the most difference. And also there's markets there, so we feed back into a circular economy. We can help support providing some additional assistance to community minded people who want to go and collect cans, give them a return for that collection and ensure that there's a bit of a motivation to pick up cans and clean up.
So it's sort of hitting many targets: pride of place, cleaning up, being able to give back to community members who are motivated to clean up and collect cans and also get that waste out of the landfill. And then we also see an opportunity for training and running low tech equipment for the removal of cans, like crushing cans and ensuring that they're ready for transport. There's a lot of opportunity there even for entrepreneurship. So community based buy-in and engagement is really important.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Once the project shows results, it can serve as a guide for other communities facing similar challenges in the broader Canadian Arctic and beyond.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: And then through multiple targeted areas, we can make a discernible difference in that community. And work then towards a strategy for the entire territory that helps guide solid waste management for all communities, not just piloted ones. So then we demonstrate that the pilot works in one community, and we can roll it out into another one.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: A big focus for the RecycleNU project is to engage youth.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: We see this is really important and significant and almost anything we do in the territory. Youth employment and skills development, anywhere you go, is important. And we want to inspire youth to take ownership and protect their land, but also to stimulate innovation and motivation.
There's a number of different components to RecycleNU, not just cans. We can look at reclaiming plastic from bottles and making 3D printer filament, which is very interesting for a lot of youth. And, then also the marketability of that product. We also are looking at cardboard recycling and turning that into fire logs.
And so, we have a number of things that will feed into innovation and training. And, I think that we'll see positive results if we approach the youth aspect as well as the like nuts and bolts of recycling.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: However, the project is not without its challenges.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: The reality of getting equipment into the territory is not easy.
So initially we had costed out the equipment. We knew where we wanted to purchase it. It was in Germany and so okay, great. We can purchase that equipment. We have the money for that equipment. It's great. And then we realized we missed the shipping window. We knew we had to book in advance for the shipping season, but we didn't realize how far in advance. So for next summer, we need to book in January.
And then we had to find a space to put it. Well space is at a premium in a small community. And you often can't find space. So these are some of the things we ran up against.
But you know, we live and learn, right?
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Michele and the project team also realized how crucial community capacity is. Solutions that are brought to communities can’t be forced upon them. In order for a project to be successful, communities need to want the project in the first place, so they can feed into the project and assist in carrying it out.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: Those are things we've now realized we need to spend a little more time doing. The ideas sometimes are great, but when the rubber hits the road, it's often difficult to have the community mobilized quickly. So this is something we've had to take a little bit of a step back and realize how we can better support the community. And so that was a good growing pain for us. And I think that'll just make us better.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to solid waste management in the Arctic. Challenges in one community may not be an issue in another. And a solution that works for one area may not be the best option for all.
That means a top-down approach isn’t the best option. Solutions need community investment, and that’s what Michelle highlighted when we asked her – what is the key for success in implementing a solid waste management solutions?
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: Community buy in, without a doubt. And I've been reminded many times that it's all well and good to have, you know, senior folks in organizations or in municipal councils be all for a project. But it's really those boots on the ground, the people who are running the facilities, the public works staff, those are the ones that really understand what they're up against and what can be done and what perhaps shouldn't be tried. So having that buy in or having that direction and guidance is really important.
We brought lots of great people with great resources to a table, but it's not to drive solutions down to the community. It's to say, okay, what's out there? What can we do? How can we go to communities and say, here's a buffet of potential solutions that may suit your needs? And then solid waste solutions can help target maybe funding. Maybe we can speak to other departments or federal partners and say, okay, can we run a project that will help alleviate some of what I call pinch points in the communities, take some of that waste out and that buys them time.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: While community involvement at all levels is key, at the same time, it’s important to recognize that small Arctic communities have limited capacity.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: I don't want the community's feeling like, they just drop this stuff off and that no one's there to help them. We want to be there at every step and ensure that they can highlight the good work they're doing and then have it live on with someone else. Oftentimes things happen in the North where it's great as long as there's a champion. And it doesn't matter how small, but the actions of one individual can can go a long way, have a huge ripple effect.
And, you know, finding those champions and keeping them motivated and ensuring that they're supported is really important.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: We asked Michele if she could share advice for people that are interested in solid waste management solutions for their community.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: If I could say to anyone who was thinking about finding solutions for their communities and solid waste is that: talk about it, keep talking about it, and reach out to elders in the community. Reach out to people you respect and then see where you can go with that. So, reaching out to a local Department of Environment, reaching out to your elected officials and saying, you know, I see this as an issue, and I want to be part of that solution. I think that you'll find likeminded individuals and then there's always a way, there's always a solution. And we just have to keep that focus.
So if you came to me and said, I'm very concerned about solid waste in my community. I think first, I really want to hear what your concerns were. And usually the people in the communities have very strong opinions and they know what they don't like. And so hearing that and understanding the situation is really important. And then saying, okay, well, let's get into this a little deeper. What would you have at your fingertips for resources. Do you have anything? And if you don't, let's identify what you need first.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: According to Michele, these resources can be quite simple.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: Sometimes there's a recycling or an environment committee at a local school and that's a resource. Sometimes there's a teacher that's really interested in the environment, that's a resource. Sometimes you'll have a hamlet or a council or an individual who is particularly interested in the environment or in waste management. But I often find the very best people to talk to are the people who work at the dump or at the landfill, because they're the ones that see it every day, and they know what they'd like to see changed.
There are other types of resources too. Some communities have large equipment. Sometimes there's been a recycling project years ago that was launched and maybe fell by the wayside. There's all kinds of internet resources now. These are things that people have at their fingertips that they didn’t have before.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: And for the interested listeners, we do have some of these resources linked in our show notes on the Arctic Council website.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: So and above all, not to lose faith in the fact that you've identified a problem and that you are putting a voice to that problem and someone's going to hear you. So reaching out a lot, talking about it, I feel like I've talked about waste for so long, and at times I was disheartened. But now I feel people are listening, and now we're all singing the same song.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: It’s clear from talking to Michele that she is the sort of passionate, driving force that can help bring about positive change. The RecycleNU project is still in an implementation phase as we speak, and we look forward to following its progress as part of the Solid Waste Management in Remote Arctic Communities project.
Michele spoke about the importance of pilot projects and how they can be scaled up and implemented in other communities across the Arctic. So, now let’s look back on a project that has come to completion, and what inspiration can be derived from that.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: For this one, we’re traveling to north-west of Arctic Russia, in the Kola Peninsula. In 2018, the Saami Council, a Permanent Participant in the Arctic Council, took the lead with local Sámi communities in Russia to help clean up waste sites in a project, supported by the Arctic Contaminants Action Program Working Group, or ACAP for short.
Now we’ll hear from Julius Mihkkal Lindi, a Project Advisor for the Saami Council, who will tell us more about the project.
Julius Mihkkal Lindi, Saami Council: The Sámi People had been complaining and had a lot of concerns about unauthorized waste dumping sites that were found across the Kola Peninsula and the Sámi communities there relied on their traditional ways of living and reindeer herding and fishing.
And these waste dump sites, of course, posed a big threat to this livelihood. And so, that was a big motivation to start the project.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Murmansk – the largest city in the Arctic Circle – lies within the Kola Peninsula, and that was the region of focus for this project. It was a Sámi community in Russia that decided it was time to improve the ecological situation.
As a first step, the project mapped unauthorized dumpsites and found 43 in the Murmansk region. Early clean-up efforts focused on several of these dumpsites, especially in Krasnoshchelye and Revda, with Lovozero also playing an important role in project implementation and waste transport. One of the primary dumpsites, located in Krasnoshchelye, contained household waste, construction waste, scrap metal including cars and broken appliances, as well as used oil barrels that still had remnants of oil that could leak into the environment.
Julius Mihkkal Lindi: The waste poses several different types of risks. So of course the main was environmental contamination, which threatened the food security of the Sámi living in the Kola peninsula. It contaminated water sources and local ecosystems, as well as wildlife.
Whenever the rivers got flooded, there would be a lot of waste running down from certain dump sites down into rivers. And so, there was a large risk of the toxins entering the food chain.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: After this, the second step was pulling together a team to coordinate cleanup efforts.
Julius Mihkkal Lindi: So there were local laborers, there were volunteers. There were community members who were engaged in cleaning up the dump sites and were encouraged to be part of it.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: The project had to ensure that the proper waste management authorities from all levels – from local to federal – were involved. Along with their assistance in the clean up, these authorities also provided equipment.
For more extensive and laborious clean-up work, representatives of the local community were contracted. One example was a rubbish dump that was formed on the banks of the Ponoi River in old concrete silage pits used decades ago to prepare and store special feed for cattle. Historically in the spring season with frequent meltwater and floods, waste would wash into the nearby Ponoi River, polluting it downstream. The Ponoi River is the largest salmon river in the Murmansk region and an important food source for Indigenous Peoples, making its cleanliness a priority. The waste from the old concrete silo pits was cleaned down to a depth of 1.6 meters, and the remaining waste was covered with soil material and compressed.
Involving youth was an important initiative of the project. With the involvement of teachers and students from Krasnoshchelye school, a volunteer campaign was carried out to collect small-size waste in the vicinity of the village. Overall, community outreach and education was a big element of the project. Educational seminars were organized for local community members to learn about waste sorting, disposal methods and health and safety around waste.
While the project was successful, especially in rallying a community to participate, it wasn’t without its challenges.
Julius Mihkkal Lindi: We are talking about very remote areas in the Arctic. So the biggest challenges were about logistics and accessibility. So many dumpsites could only be reached with very specialized vehicles and often using multiple vehicles that you would, drive somewhere with a dump truck and then go further to the spot where the unauthorized waste dumping site with a boat. But you could also be clever and, you know, make use of the seasons. When rivers and lakes froze over in the winter you could use that to more easily access the more remote areas. So that's what the volunteers often did.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Still, there’s no challenge that can’t be met as long as you have a solid team and a community that is engaged in the effort.
We asked Julius – what were the keys to success with the Kola Waste project?
Julius Mihkkal Lindi: I would say the strong collaboration between our member organization in Murmansk and, the Sámi communities there and the Sámi Council and ACAP. And also involving community members in a way that they felt they were a part of the project. So they were involved in a way that they felt they had ownership and long-term commitment in maintaining proper waste management in the future.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: In total, 96 tons of waste and eight tons of scrap metal were removed and disposed from the dumpsites. A huge environmental and health improvement for the community.
Julius Mihkkal Lindi: Saami Council also worked closely with the local authorities to improve the waste infrastructure itself and in the Murmansk region and installing collection bins in more key areas in the region and planning for better transport of waste to proper facilities because, yeah, when these things are not there, that is the reason for why these dump sites arose in the first place.
We concluded the Kola Waste project and we would say we are very proud of it. We learned a lot of lessons from it that we would be using in the future.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: One concern about modern waste management is how small Arctic communities have had to transition to using non-organic materials that were introduced in the 20th century.
The system of dumping or burning waste used to not be of major concern when communities had strictly subsistence economies and most waste came from natural or organic materials. However, cash societies came with plastic packaging, oil containers, tires, batteries and more – all of which interfere with nature’s absorption capacity. The same way these products originate from an artificial production cycle, they require artificial treatment when throwing them away.
Julius shares how reindeer herders in Sápmi – the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Kola Peninsula in Russia - are now having to grapple with plastic pollution.
Julius Mihkkal Lindi: I would also like to highlight a very key issue that's particularly within reindeer herding and a very modern issue at that, which is the issue of plastics from hay silage that is stemmed from the increased reliance on using hay bales to feed and as a fodder for the Sámi reindeers, and within Sámi reindeer herding. And this is a result of climate change. So, it's a very modern problem.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Julius explains how climate change has led to new challenges and needs for adaptation in reindeer husbandry – the traditional livelihood practiced by some Sámi.
Basically, the Sápmi region is experiencing higher temperatures and more precipitation in the form of rain. When it rains on top of snow, it turns into an ice layer that prevents the reindeer from being able to graze on the land because they aren’t able to kick through the snow to get their food. These catastrophic winter and spring grazing conditions – referred to as ‘goavvi’ in northern Sámi – are witnessed in Sápmi more often now. As reindeer starve, reindeer herders need to come up with solutions to keep reindeer herds alive, often with supplementary feeding. One solution is for herders to transport large hay bales wrapped in plastic to where the reindeer graze on the tundra, often far away from communities and waste facilities. Not only do reindeer herders need to take this expensive climate adaptation measure, they also need to take into consideration plastic pollution and transporting this waste to proper facilities.
Julius also shares examples of how Sámi traditional materials have been replaced by plastic ones.
Julius Mihkkal Lindi: There were many items that were traditionally made from natural materials, and often by hand, that were replaced by the mass produced, plastic alternatives. So, examples, for instance, lasso rings. They were made out of bone before, but today they're often made out of plastics. Food storage was also made of cloth and leather. And often bark containersn were used for food storage.
That was a very eco friendly approach. And the it wouldn't be an issue to leave you clothes or other crafting in nature because that would just decompose naturally. With the introduction of plastics, you can't do that. And it is becoming a major environmental concern in regards to microplastics. So it is in our interest to move away from plastics and start learn the old traditions of on how to craft durable items. Those skills have to be relearned in a way to become more plastic free. So it has impacted our cultural practices.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: While there might be new challenges like what we just discussed about plastics, there are more and more solutions. And pilot projects like the Kola Waste Project and RecycleNU help show what is possible.
Importantly, both projects highlight how much of an impact a person can make on a community when they are motivated to make a change. And it is the people living in the communities that often have the best solutions. As we’ll hear from Patrick Huber, the inclusion of Indigenous and local knowledge when implementing projects is crucial.
Patrick Huber: It's very important to the communities that have existed in these spaces for so many generations. They know their land, they know their water, they know the the impacts that pollution can have on their people.
They have seen it firsthand, they live it every day. I can't imagine designing projects in the Arctic that don't include or don't that aren't, that don't have as an essential element Indigenous Knowledge at its core. When you're designing a project, I think that has to be your first step is, is meeting with the communities that are, that, are going to be doing this and and making sure that this is what they want to do
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Patrick has been involved in ACAP through several iterations of the Solid Waste Management project. This is why he thinks others should be passionate about waste too.
Patrick Huber: I mean, it's it's an issue everywhere, this is not unique to the Arctic. So I think that solid waste management and you know, trying to develop more circular economy type approaches is something that we should be doing across the world to keep things in useful condition for as long as possible, building for durability, designing for a long life, utilizing products to the to their fullest potential.
You know, you see trash gyres in oceans, you see these huge pileups and it seems insurmountable, but if you just start addressing sources and stemming that from becoming a longer term issue, you'll have a really tremendous impact. And I think we think of the Arctic as a pristine place. It is a beautiful space that needs to be, that needs to be protected and preserved. And it deserves all the attention to make that happen.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: Just as we began, we’ll end it with Michele giving her advice on how we can make more people passionate about garbage.
Michele LeBlanc-Havard: I talked to a lot of people and sometimes people walk away, but, I think you just have to have to say, you know what? What we can do with that waste stream is this, like cardboard boxes and fire logs. That's awesome. Or turning, you know, drinking water bottles, plastic bottles into 3D printer filament. That's amazing.
There's so much opportunity and we can look at our own behaviors, too. I mean, I'm sort of getting to a point in my life where I'm like, I can reuse that, I can fix that, I can, and that little bit gives me so much satisfaction.
I think that and that's probably why I love living in Nunavut so much. Like, Inuit culture are very resourceful. They can, you know, like the cultural ability they have to, to reuse, repurpose, see the potential in something that's really inspirational.
I think I just I just want everybody to feel satisfied with every action they could possibly do to make a difference.
And, recognizing that we don't have to have it all figured out. But just a very intent to make change. That's what's important. And I think that, you know, as long as your heart's in the right place, good things will come.
Rosa-Máren Magga, podcast host: Like in many of our episodes, I’m fascinated to hear about stories and experiences in the Arctic and learn how some examples and community efforts have inspired models elsewhere.
Another thing that got me thinking is what Julius mentioned on the Sámi traditional materials that are more and more replaced with plastic. Still, there are some traditional products that are hard to replace, like the Sámi traditional winter shoes made from reindeer fur – goikehat or nuvttohat in northern Sámi – which are the warmest shoes in the cold. That’s also part of the circular economy that is deeply part of, for example, traditional Sámi reindeer husbandry. We utilize all parts of the animal, not only meat, when they are slaughtered. That follows the agreement between the reindeer and humans, according to our legends on how Sámi reindeer herding came to be.
Jessica Cook, podcast host: This circular economy approach is so important, and it’s good that more efforts are being done in this area. Because, you know, thinking about these big issues like massive trash piles floating in the ocean or open landfills next to a community. It’s easy to just despair and feel small, thinking it’s too big of an issue. But a big message I’m taking away from this episode is that one person can make a difference. You don’t have to be perfect or have it all figured out. Even if you have nothing but an idea or just simple motivation, that’s enough to get out there and tell a friend or community member. That can be the start of something that makes a real change.
Rosa-Máren Magga, podcast host: Thanks for listening to This Way Up from the Arctic Council Secretariat and Indigenous Peoples Secretariat. This episode was hosted by Jessica Cook and Rosa-Máren Magga. It was produced and written by Jessica Cook and Rosa-Máren Magga with editing by Anja Salo, Minetta Westerlund and Linda Lyberth Kristiansen. The music in this episode is by Emil Kárlsen, used with permission. Sound design by Både Og studios.
Thanks so much to our guests Michele LeBlanc-Havard of the Government of Nunavut, Patrick Huber of the Arctic Contaminants Action Program and Julius Mihkkal Lindi of the Saami Council.
We also would like to thank Shankell Mack of Aleut International Association. Her insights helped inform this episode.
The views expressed in this episode do not reflect those of the Arctic States and Permanent Participants.
A full list of sources and references can be found on our website: arctic – dash – council - dot – org.