Fairlight environmental campaigner Keelah Lam on her sustainable life
Keelah Lam is an 80-year-old environmental campaigner on a mission. She has solar panels, keeps chooks, grows her own veggies, has a water tank and dry composting toilets. She doesn’t have a car either.
It all began when she was a child growing up in Castlecrag. “My mum was ahead of her time,” she recalls. “We used to walk a mile and a half (two kilometres) to school. We’d play in the bush – life was pretty simple.”
Keelah has continued this ‘simple’ philosophy, working to keep her life as sustainable as possible – and lamenting our ‘throw-away’ society. “When plastic came in, it was valuable. Nothing in those days was made to be thrown away before plastic. Everything was made for repair, for long-life reuse. Even clothing was handed down from generation to generation.
“As soon as the consumerism mentality was embraced, making everything convenient, everybody forgot that things actually have a value,” says Keelah.” Now they’re making clothes out of plastic. I only buy natural fibres – in op shops, of course – because I know if I can’t repair it anymore, I can put it in my compost, and it’ll feed the worms.”
Keelah put this philosophy into action when she established the Manly Food Co-Operative on Whistler Street in 1997. It offers an organic, bulk, waste-free shopping alternative for the community.
“The co-op is community-owned and not-for-profit,” explains Keelah. “Any profits we make go back into the co-op.”
Keelah says that for a reasonable annual membership fee, members get a 10 per cent discount, and regular volunteers get 25 per cent off.
“The food is charged by the 100 grams,” she says. “I think a lot of people look at the price per 100 grams and they think it’s really expensive, but it isn’t, and we try and source as much as we can locally.”
Keelah says most people initially joined the co-op in the 1990s because of the waste crisis, but then it was the organic food that drew people.
“Certified organic became the flavour of the day,” says Keelah. “People were not quite so concerned about waste, but now, with the plastic crisis, people are concerned again about shopping waste-free.”
Keelah advises people to shop regularly at the co-op. After a while, they will know exactly what quantities they need.
“It takes longer than walking mindlessly through a supermarket and just throwing things into a trolley without thinking about how much you need,” Keelah says.
Over the years, Keelah has been involved with the Manly Environment Centre, Manly Waste Action Group, and many other local groups.
Keelah believes Industry is causing a ‘plastic problem’ and manufacturers need to take responsibility. “My theory is we need to pay deposits on everything that cannot go back into the earth.
“I keep saying, ‘It’s not our waste, it’s industry’s waste’,” insists Keelah. “I say there should be zero waste legislation, and the tool would be a meaningful deposit, meaning that it makes us think that the product we have actually has a value. Clothing has a value. Shoes have a value. Our toaster has value.
It’s not just something that can be chucked out – if we pay a deposit and can get that money back.”
