The black garbage bags were piling up at the Jaffari Community Centre in Thornhill.

The mosque’s Iftar meals breaking fast during the month of Ramadan welcomed more than 3,000 people. But each night ended in mountains of Styrofoam cups and plates, plastic spoons and food waste.

“One day we were like, ‘this is wrong, this is just wrong,’” recalled Shelina Jessa.

“After that we kind of put our heads together, and said, ‘we’ve got to do something.’”

From that moment in 2013 came the spark for the Ladies Eco Team, a group of about half a dozen women, including Jessa, who eventually took on the mission of greening dinners at the centre, a part of Islamic Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat of Toronto (ISIJ). Six years later they now use a mix of compostable and reusable cutlery and plates, despite a higher cost, organizing volunteer dishwashers, and eco stations at events to separate waste.

It’s a grassroots effort that’s successfully cutting down the mosque’s carbon footprint and having a huge impact. Reducing garbage might not seem like the most obvious way to do that but decomposing municipal waste releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas that causes climate change.

The ladies are just one of hundreds of grassroots groups across the country tackling climate change in the own communities.

Experts agree that historic mobilization from governments and corporations is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before it’s too late. With the Amazon burning, the Arctic melting and government’s dithering, it can be easy to give in to fatalism, and feel like one person, or a small dedicated group, can’t possibly have an impact. But groups such as the Ladies Eco Team also play a part in not only reducing emissions in their own communities but inspiring others to do the same.

At the Jaffari Community Centre, a few determined women managed to cut bags of garbage after events from 20 to 30 bags down to two to three bags, Jessa said, and food waste is being composted instead of just thrown out. There was some confusion at first, and they had to put up signs for the community, but now “everybody knows exactly what to do.”

They now use the same system for other events throughout the year, including weddings. And people even tell her they’ve done the same thing for larger dinners in their own homes.

“There’s a huge, huge awareness that’s spread,” Jessa said. “I think it actually has snowballed.”

Jessica Green, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto who specializes in climate change, said it’s key to remember that grassroots efforts need to be in addition to government action, and not instead of it.

But these kinds of groups can “build communities of like-minded people who are willing to take action and support each other and that’s going to be increasingly important.” They can also pressure governments to act.

It’s also important to broaden the conversation and bring in people who might not traditionally be considered environmentalists, who can take the lead in “spreading the message.” Especially in Canada where it’s become a polarized issue.

“The bottom line is that social movements and grassroots efforts are really important because climate change is a political problem and not a technical problem,” she added.

“So, it all starts at the very bottom with each individual person.”

Climate strikes, like the global ones planned for the week of Sept. 20 to 27, are one way to do this.

Inspired by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg and her “Fridays for Future” school walkouts, the call has been taken up by labour, faith and Indigenous communities and it could become the largest climate mobilization in history. But there’s also work that can be done in our own backyards.

Like what grassroots group Environment Hamilton is doing.

The non-profit started in 2001 in response to pollution in a local watershed. But a few years ago shifted toward climate change, lobbying local government for policy changes such as expanded transit, and on the ground work like the pollinators Paradise project. It’s an effort to build a corridor of natural habitat across the city by planting milkweed and wildflowers so that insects such as monarch butterflies and bees, vital species needed for food production threatened by climate change, can thrive.

“Folks would come to us and say, ‘what’s happening with the monarchs? When I was a kid the screen door would be covered in moths, where are they and what can we do about it?’” said project manager Juby Lee.

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“Really as a small organization we focus on small short-term goals as well as long-term goals knowing that it will take a while to sometimes shift perspectives, and for us we really want to provide things that are tangible,” Lee added.

“Waiting for government to make changes, we would be waiting forever. Communities are known to lead the change and pressure our governments to follow.”

Other organizations are working not just to mitigate climate change but to help communities adapt to its impacts.

Andrew Knox is head of Transition Toronto, “one of hundreds of transition groups, transition towns around the world” that are fighting climate change while also helping communities adapt to a post-carbon future.

“It’s not necessarily a nightmare, it’s not going to be bad scenario even, if we set our communities up in the right way,” he said.

That includes sustainable local food production so that meals can get to the table without as big of a carbon footprint (think apples from Ontario not oranges from Florida).

One of their biggest projects is the “Treemobile,” a program where people can order food-bearing trees and have them delivered. Trees are a way to provide local food as well as absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

Not many people are thinking past reducing emissions, to look at what the new climate reality will look like, Knox said.

“I would argue too that if you show people that thriving is possible, you will see more action on climate change.”

It’s something the Ladies Eco Team sees every day, teaching satellite centres in Mississauga and Brampton, and synagogues and temples, how to do environmentally friendly events and setting an example on the centre’s social media accounts.

“Word spreads and you start creating impact,” Jessa said.

“If you look at the bigger picture and get overwhelmed, just think, you can be that one person to change,” she added.

Her own extended family members know: no Styrofoam. Recently some cousins were visiting from out of the country and wanted to pick up the cheapest supplies.

But they were told. “Shelina’s going to be there and she’s going to kill you,” she said with a laugh.

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