Manchester United star Scott McTominay hails specialist physio 'Binners' who has got him ready
Manchester United star Scott McTominay hails specialist physio ‘Binners’ who has got him ready
[ad_1]
‘He has been an absolute blessing’: Manchester United star Scott McTominay hails specialist physio ‘Binners’ who has put midfielder in contention for huge Chelsea clash
Scott McTominay has thanked physiotherapist David Binningsley for his support
The Manchester United midfielder has not played for his side since Boxing Day
McTominay is in Marbella with his United team-mates during their…
Davin Boutang, The Binners’ Project: I'm pretty surprised how many non-profit groups down here are actually trying to save the neighbourhood and generally care because this is their neighbourhood.
Big cities produce a lot of waste. Big cities are hard on the most vulnerable people in our society. The Binners’ Project is a novel way to work toward a solution to both problems.
The goal of the project is to divert waste from landfills while providing income and a sense of purpose to the binners who do the work. If you’re unfamiliar with “binning”, the term refers to those who search refuse bins for returnables and other useful items in order to make a living. Davin Boutang is one such binner, along with a few dozen others in the program, working to expand their efforts and share what they’ve learned about waste, the environment, and the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver.
On Binners’ Hooks: It's so funny, it's just so simple and so obvious. Then once they actually put it out there, I was amazed how successful it was. How people picked up on it, the media, people buying it, I was very surprised. If one or two people in the neighbourhood had these hooks in the alley and everybody in that block put refundables on it, then the binner could just go grab the bottles and keep moving. It would save us time, and even for the residents it would prevent us from going through all your garbage. Less noise too, because I go binning usually at night time.
On joining the project: In my past I made some wrong decisions, I was down here [in the Downtown Eastside], no job, then someone told me about United We Can. I worked for them for about five years. Finally we went our separate ways. I was jobless. Then the guy who actually started United We Can, Ken Lyotier, came up with the idea for The Binners’ Project. I went to a couple of meetings just to see. My experience before with non-profits or people that help, they always sound good but it never really happens. Then I started going to more and I said, "oh, I got nothing else to do," so I got more involved. They were genuinely trying to help us. I find that really rare to see nowadays. They're genuinely here to help the binners, help the project, and they're just overall good people.
On side projects: Another thing that we do is, I guess we could call it waste management education. Who else knows more about waste than us, especially now that we are a trained properly on that? The PNE was of course our biggest event, but this year we also did Car Free Day and other festivals. We're by the bins we direct people where to properly put their garbage. Most people just take whatever they have, even if there is a whole bunch of options there, they just throw everything in the garbage. We're trying to educate people that garbage should be your last option.
On the future: I'm getting way more involved with the project. I think it's wonderful. I'm still surprised at how successful it is. So, hopefully, I'll just start playing more roles and just see what happens.
On environmentalism: To me it's always just been common sense, but I guess it isn't for everyone. It's our environment. We should be helping it, we should be taking care of it. That's just something that I did my whole life, even before I was binning. I think Vancouver is progressing very well towards being more environmentally conscious at least. It still blows me away that some people still just don't care. They just throw everything away. Food, refundables, batteries, whatever, they just throw it all in one bag and then just throw it out.
On waste: Recycling is great but what's better than recycling is reusing. Everything I have, all my clothes, my whole place is furnished with stuff I bin. I go binning for the bottles, but also for merchandise because binning, a lot of times I find great stuff. What blows me away is just finding brand new stuff, still in the box not even opened. It could be work boots or a cell phone. My place is fully furnished all from back alleys. I have a normal place. I have a wicked stereo system, flat screen TV, I've got a tablet, laptop.
On the Downtown Eastside: I'm pretty surprised how many non-profit groups down here are actually trying to save the neighbourhood and generally care because this is their neighbourhood. Most people think that the Downtown Eastside, they see the scene on Hastings, is just drug addicts and that's it, but it's not. There's an actual community of people that live down here.
On gentrification: There has to be a balance. That's the problem. A lot of times richer companies will overpower and move all the poor out, but you can find balance. If a high-end restaurant comes into the neighbourhood, that's okay as long they hire people who live in the neighbourhood or help the community out and put something back into it. I haven't seen it yet but this has just started happening so we'll see.
On Coffee Cup Revolution: It started two years ago - we're trying to put a refund on coffee cups. This is one of the main things in mainstream litter. If we can start recycling them and put a refund on them, then it will help recycle them much better and create an income for people. We go out to neighbourhoods and collect coffee cups. Last year we were there for four hours at Victory Square and we were paying five cents a coffee cup. People were allowed to bring up to four hundred. I forget the exact number but I think it was between 24,000 and 26,000 coffee cups we collected. We're having it again, the city's been watching us and is interested. They gave us a grant and support for ten pop-up depots per year.
On learning: One thing I like about The Binners’ Project is that I've been learning so much about how everything works. Of course, you always think something should be simple, but there's no such thing as simplicity really. Everything is just so complicated. For example, refunds have to be on a provincial level because if you have a refund at the city level what would happen is other municipalities would bring in their stuff to get the refunds and now the city's losing.
You can get involved with The Binners’ Project or buy a hook to hang in your alley. The next pop-up coffee cup depot is October 24. The Binners’ Project is a project on the Tides Canada Initiatives shared platform.
