Maybe blondes really do have more fun, and more fun composting too.
It’s easier to get Israelis excited about blondes than about composting, but if you get their eco-attention using a blonde? That’s a different story. Atar Friedman, a beautiful young Israeli blonde with a mission, has been trying to get Israelis more conscious about waste and composting. Now the face of a new garbage sorting campaign, Friedman says that she’s “very proud to be the dumb blonde who models garbage.” Blending glamour with garbage, maybe Friedman has got what it takes to improve the country’s increasing trash problem.This is not the first time that Friedman has been in the public’s green eye. A couple years ago she participated in a documentary television program called “Tzomet Drachim” (Hebrew for “Crossroads”) that showed how three people (Friedman included) reached a crossroads in their lives in terms of green living.
During “Tzomet Drachim”, Friedman participated in a composting course given by Tammy Zori at Tel Aviv’s City Tree, a green housing project that teaches urban sustainability methods.
She said that the composting course was a turning point for her. “As part of the course, we were asked to bring in garbage from our home, and so it happened that in one moment I understood what bothered me about everything I had done until that point, including the effort focused on biology. It was the moment when I realized how alienated and superficial the way we live and work is. The proximity to the compost made me look inward, not just deep into the waste, but also deep into my lifestyle.”
Friedman added that “the moment I understood compost I understood everything, mostly how crazy it is to ignore the terrible damage we are creating. Suddenly everything fell into place like a giant puzzle, because I also saw myself, my health, within this great system. How? Whoever deals with compost and looks at it no longer wants to bring packaging into his home and understands why food whose leftovers cannot be thrown into the composter is also food that no one wants to and should not place in his body.”
Read more about waste and composting in Israel::
From Capitalistic Pig to Living in a City Tree
Going on a Picnic to Tel Aviv’s Garbage Mountain
Organic Waste Collection and Composting in the Works for Israeli Municipalities
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
