Little Choices That Matter

Tracey Saxby Co-Founder/Director, Greener Footprints

greenerfootprints.com, traceysaxby.com

photo by Jaime Kowal

The town of Rossland has proved that moving mountains is possible. The ski hill is still there, of course, but mountains of plastic bags will no longer be heading to the municipal dump, thanks largely to the efforts of resident Tracey Saxby.

In 2005, Saxby kick-started a campaign for Rossland to become the first plastic-bag-free town in Canada. The campaign gathered the momentum of a small tsunami, earning a thumbs-up from city council and most of the town’s 3,557 residents.

“What was wild is that it got put on the wire straight away,” says Saxby, who is originally from Australia and now divides her time between Rossland and Squamish. “I was tired of being a couch environmentalist and wanted to start making a difference. The news went out and suddenly people were watching to see how quickly we could do this.”

Rossland lost out to Leaf Rapids, Man., who said goodbye to plastic bags last spring. But as the hoopla subsided, Saxby, who has since founded Greener Footprints with business partner Anna Young, realized she had achieved huge success: 78 per cent support from citizens, 13 sponsors for the purchase of reusable bags for the community, a design contest for the bag, an educational program for students, a retailer retraining program, and a new Earth Day event in Rossland. If that weren’t enough, she was also contacted by Squamish and Whistler to do the same—just in time for the Big O.
—Larissa Buijs