Drama at Hawaii People's Fund Annual Dinner

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Drama at Hawaii People's Fund Annual Dinner

EIP, as a Hawaii People's Fund grantee, was invited to show our wares and join in at their Annual Dinner this past Saturday. A table display was readied for the pre-dinner showed and tell. During the dinner I also collected beverage empties as attendees finished them - done both as a performance of uncanny labor as well as a way to pragmatically channeling the remains of the $5/$6 beers to the needy just outside the building.

Toward the end of the night, one of the caterer's bartenders made me to stop collecting bottles. I told her the collecting is a part of a HPF supported project. She said it doesn't matter because the bottles belong to her boss. I said I thought that when we purchase a beer for $5/6 we got the bottle with it. She said, "No, just the liquid inside." That they recycle and the money redeemed belongs to her boss. They even took all the ones I collected back.

The redemption price of all the bottles I collected couldn't have been more than $5. Even me alone tipped them more than that last night.

There you have it. The middle man once again shows her face. Ever ready to defend the big man.

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about the Anarchist Recycling System

It all started one day in 2004 when the city dropped off a blue recycling bin at our place. We were so happy. "FINALLY!" we thought. Nerdily we put all our recyclables in and waited for the pick up. We waited, and waited, and waited for two sad years. They never came. Frustrated, we took matters into our own hands. We made a simple wire mesh bin and attached a sign with a tongue-in-cheek anarchist message, "HI-5 / Take, Leave, Whatevas..." We added our redeemables and set it up at our front yard. Viola they were picked up. Soon unknown people dropped off their own redeemables, and these too were picked up without ceremony!!! If it worked so well at our front yard, we thought why not put them everywhere.

The idea caught on very quickly. People invited us to do workshops. We collaborated with community groups. A few people sent money for materials. We even received a small grant from the Hawaii People's Fund. By our unscientific estimate, over 1,000 bins have placed on O'ahu along with a few on Maui.

In 2011 the unexpected happened. The coordinator of Honolulu City and County's Environmental Services (ENV) called us. Instead of freaking out or being defensive she told us she liked the HI-5 bins, the simplicity of its concept, its design, and its community-building potential. To make a long (and painfully bureaucratic) story short ENV officially adopted the HI-5 project in 2013.

Like we did before, ENV will work with anyone, particularly groups, to make and set up bins, providing instructions and all needed supplies. Most miracously ENV kept the language of our [TAKE, LEAVE, WHATEVAS...] signs AND our DIY instructions that explicitly say to [Trust Without Apology]. To prove that they meant it, they do not provide pickups. A major triump over the irrational fear of strangers! Anarchists are everywhere.

So go ahead...
- Request a bin-making kit or a workshop from C+C Environmental Services
- Or better yet, downloadable step-by-step instructions and take matters into your own hands

Lastly, we must acknowledge that recycling, no matter how comprehensive, do nothing in dealing with gluttonous First World consumption patterns and the excessive packaging around all the sad shit we buy. The larger purpose of the HI-5 bin project is to create a consciousness of our interdependency through actual practice and real relationships, not based on abstract notions of groups or communities.