It’s been a while Tumblr. Did you know I am working on yet another project? Protecting our environment and these vulnerable species is mission close to my heart. Follow along on my IG #OurVulnerableEarth2021

I was searching for a spearmint tea after hearing a tip that spearmint is good for your skin. It was tough to track anything down in my local grocery stores, but this box of Celestial Seasonings tea was one of only a few teas I found with a blend that included spearmint leaves. (Couldn’t even find anything in bulk.)

In the spirit of looking for environmentally-friendly options, I wanted to see if the tea packaging for this brand would be recyclable, but I came across a quote on the back of the box that struck me as odd: “Sustainable Packaging. We use tea bags without strings, tags, or staples, keeping tons of material out of landfills every year.”

Upon first read, that sounds great, right? But it didn’t answer my question: can I recycle the packaging and compost the tea bags? The answer would determine my purchasing the object or not, yet the box made no clear note of it.

That leads me to my ultimate question: Why can’t companies make it more transparent whether or not their products are recyclable? Nowhere on this box could I find out whether or not the packaging or bags could be recycled or composted.

The more I dig into going zero waste, the more I find myself standing in the grocery store study packaging to look for recycling instructions. It’d be nice to see a standardized (and required) line or symbol indicating the recyclability of the packaging and its components — both for my convenience and the sake of the recycling center in town. In my mind, it makes just as much sense as putting the nutrition label on the box.

You’ll see on plastics the number indicating which type of recyclable plastic it is, but often almond milk cartons, produce containers, and box packaging, for example, don’t mention anything and I’m left to guess whether or not the packaging can in fact be recycled.

Shouldn’t companies have an obligation to fully inform their consumers not just what they’re consuming in terms of the food, but the packaging that comes with it?

For the record, I found out later from the company’s website that the box and the tea bags are able to be recycled and composted. But because I couldn’t find it on the box while I was staring at a wall of tea options, I made the in-store decision to go with the box of tea that was more expensive, but was up front about the recyclability of the packaging and tea bags.

Considering the tea I went with and the tea pictured had the same recycling/composting ability, this would’ve been an easy win for the less expensive Celestial Seasonings, if only they’d just included a single line with the information I needed. The same rule applies beyond tea boxes — and man, would it save me so much time in the grocery store.

Do any of you have thoughts on a standardized recyclability index for food packaging? Is there something I’ve missed? My ears (and asks) are open!

There are a lot of reasons to go green and do your part to preserve the environment, but sometimes you don’t have to look far to find them.

We have produced about 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic since its invention. Of that, about 79 percent of plastic waste is not recycled or burned — just left to sit in landfills or our oceans.

This is a massive health risk for humans and a deadly hazard for animals who think plastic waste is food, not to mention the broader environmental impacts. And yet, the solution may not be to ban plastic outright — it’s complicated.

Source: Kurzgesagt

betterworldrebel:

#13 bamboo toothbrushes

Bamboo grows very fast, so it is the perfect material for an item that needs to be replaced every three month. Unlike plastic. A plastic toothbrush is used for a couple of weeks and then stays on this planet for several hundred years, since it will not biodegrade. That makes no sense. Switch to bamboo. Plus: You can just burry the old brushes in the backyard. 

Before I reblog, I always do a little fact-checking and research first to make sure I’m not disseminating inaccurate information.

I found the above post to be a bit misleading. It says you can “just burry (sic) the old brushes in the backyard,” seemingly implying that the entire brush is biodegradable.

This isn’t the case. While it’s certainly a good step to buy a bamboo brush rather than a landfill-destined plastic brush, even a bamboo brush isn’t fully biodegradable.

I found that currently, no one has been able to create toothbrushes that are fully biodegradable because the bristles are typically made of some inorganic material like nylon — unless they use boar bristles. This doesn’t necessarily make boar bristle brushes the go-to option: some people who use these types of brushes complain of an odor, in addition to the fact that these brushes may not be considered vegan since they’re made with a hair harvested from an animal.

Within the realm of bamboo brushes, one of the seemingly best options is made by a company called Brush With Bamboo. According to their website, the bristles of their sustainably-made brushes are made with 62% castor bean oil and 38% nylon, rendering them “biobased, but still not biodegradable,” since nylon doesn’t decompose.

So if you bury your bamboo brush, sure, most of it will decompose. But the bristles won’t. In fact, most bamboo brush companies advise you to tweeze out the bristles before attempting to compost.

Sure, the bristles are small and seemingly insignificant, but you should know what you’re getting into before telling all your friends you’ve got a fully biodegradable toothbrush graveyard buried in your garden.

I’d be remiss not to include that there is one option, and it’s been around for centuries: the neem chew stick. It’s the only truly biodegradable option, since it’s made from a neem plant and is a literal stick. It’s exactly what it sounds like. To use it, you chew on the end of the stick until it frays into bristles, then you brush.

The downside? You have to chew your toothbrush down before you can use it. And when it comes to brushing your teeth, the more inconvenient it is, the less likely you are to do it. And one thing I really want to emphasize on my own blog is making more sustainable choices easier, not harder.

Until someone creates the perfect toothbrush — ergonomic, wallet-friendly, biodegradable, and not made from pig hair — it looks like the best option on the market is a bamboo brush. Just make sure to tweeze out those bristles before you toss them in the dirt.

Have you seen any other notable sustainably-made or biodegradable toothbrushes? My ears (and asks) are open.

Today, I brought a reusable cup to Starbucks instead of using a paper cup. I’ve had this thing for awhile now, but have been lax about using it. It’s the little decisions like this that will add up. I am trying to make a major lifestyle change, and that can be overwhelming when I think of all the things I waste. But if I start with small changes, I’ll get where I want to be in time. Now, this is not to say Starbucks is the most sustainable company to be supporting. I don’t know much about that, but I would like to educate myself, since I think one important part of my journey involves being educated about where my money goes. Small steps.

Follow:@thetreeoflifee

“Let our powers combine! Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!”

“With your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!”

“Water is for everyone. Let’s not eat it all up.”

“Subversive as Hell.”

That’s how Theodor Geisel described his books. He wrote to teach children about literacy but also infused his rhyming couplets with political allegory.

The star-bellied Sneetches and their plain-bellied counterparts learn an expensive lesson about the folly of racism. The tragic consequences of consumerism are witnessed by the Lorax, champion of the trees. When he learns that material wealth does not guarantee love, the Grinch’s heart grows three sizes.

(It’s a wonderful irony that Geisel gained the economic comfort to become an author by designing advertising campaigns–for Standard Oil.)

Geisel’s first best-selling story, And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street, celebrates cultural diversity. Two years later, in 1939, he wrote his biggest commercial fiasco, also a book with a cause: the liberating potential of nudism.

Though illustrated as a children’s book, The Seven Lady Godivas: The true facts, at last, about history’s barest family, was written for an adult audience. Random House lacked enthusiasm for the project but had to publish it–the price paid for persuading Geisel to defect from Vanguard Press was acceptance of the manuscript.

The story, written in prose, begins with the Godiva sisters mourning the death of their father in a riding accident. They vow not to marry until they’ve all completed quests, in the picaresque tradition, warning people about the dangers of horses.

None of the seven ever wears a stitch of clothing because, “They were simply themselves and chose not to disguise it.” From fat to thin, tall to small, each sister has her own form and shape.

Dr. Seuss (an alias derived from Geisel’s middle name and his mother’s maiden name) anticipated the body positive movement — but he was a few decades too early. When the book didn’t sell in stores, Random House tried to move them at cigar stands at a discount of more than 80 per cent.

The setback caused Geisel to take a leave of absence from writing. A fierce opponent of fascism, he became a political cartoonist for a left-learning New York newspaper opposed to isolationism. When America entered the conflict against the Axis forces, Geisel joined the military as a propagandist. He was assigned the rank of captain and made commander of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces. He produced work so effective he earned the Legion of Merit.

(During this period, he supported the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent. Written in 1955, Horton Hears a Who, about an elephant who defends a microscopic world recovering from a disaster, is interpreted by some scholars as an apology.)

Later in life, Geisel lamented The Seven Lady Godivas as his “greatest failure.” The lesson he took from the experience was to quit writing for the unimaginative and prudish audience that had rejected his exhortation to make nudism the cultural norm.

Instead, future books would be just for kids. “Adults are obsolete children, and the hell with them.”

(Perhaps a better title would have helped sales, say: Thing One and Thing Two.)

(Additional source)

Planet Triage is a projection mapping installation made at the Wageningen University artist in residency program in conjunction with the 100 year anniversary celebration. The artist in residency program sought to facilitate an exchange of ideas between artists and scientists in order to spur creative thinking about scientific issues. Planet Triage, both a place and an action, visualizes the results of this collaboration. Using computer generated imagery, projection, and sculpture, Planet Triage creates a space for dialog between the artist and scientists about hypothetical, radical ways to counteract the impacts of climate change. By depicting these fantastic ideas as if they are already reality (via fictional news broadcasts and commercials), Planet Triage encourages the viewer to think beyond traditional answers and instead venture towards the surreal or absurd. 

@prostheticknowledge

Trump administration plans drilling on ancestral tribal territory

The Trump administration is planning to allow oil and gas drilling on ancestral territory in New Mexico despite pledges to seek additional views from tribes.

The lease sale includes federal land near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in the northwestern part of the state. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke had previously said he was going to seek more study before moving forward.

“Expanded fracking in Greater Chaco further threatens irreplaceable cultural resources, as well as the health and safety of nearby communities,“ Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Organizer Miya King-Flaherty said in a press release on Tuesday. "It is unacceptable for Secretary Zinke to pay lip service to the need for cultural review and consultation while still charging ahead with plans to auction off this sacred landscape to the fossil-fuel industry.”

TheAll Pueblo Council of Governors, which represents the 20 Pueblo tribes in New Mexico and Texas, and the Navajo Nation are among the opponents of development near Chaco. They have called for a moratorium on development in order to protect an area where their ancestors built communities, held ceremonies and laid their loved ones to rest. 

"For our people these sacred places are an essential connection to our past, to our culture as Pueblo people and to our ancestors that still reside in this place,” Governor Val Panteah of the Pueblo of Zunisaid last month during a conference call to discuss the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act.