Forget Fast Fashion

Fast fashion creates fast paced damage to so many aspects of society. Quickly made and distributed clothing has lead to the expansion of four seasons of fashion to an average of 52 "micro-seasons" in the industry. Designers and companies like Forever 21 push out new collections as quickly as possible at extremely low prices. As a result masses of consumers cycle through the cheap clothing quickly and ditch their old apparel for the newest styles. So, is the quick turn over worth the rippling effects it causes? No, not really. Here's why.
The most immediate reason that will affect the consumer themselves, is the low prices, at an even lower quality. As a result of the rushed production there is a significantly less intensive look over for quality control of the products. Merchandise is sent out that are missing buttons, don't tie correctly, or tear after one wear.
Outside of the consumer's personal experience, there is the person who is making the products life to consider. The manufacturing process is a  modern example of a blatant human rights violation. Long hours and harmful exposure to chemicals, paired with a lack of quality pay all add up to a low quality of life for workers creating various garments.
The common factor between consumer and manufacturer is simple: Earth. We all live on it, and all of us partaking in the consumption of fast fashion are participants in speeding up the Earth's death as fast as fashion is made. Since so much of the clothing purchased through fast fashion suppliers is cheaply made and goes out of style so quickly, the majority of it is thrown away. In fact, in the U.S. alone throws away 11 million pounds of clothing a year. Clothing that is made up out of countless toxic chemicals which are released into the environment as they break down. The fast fashion industry alone accounts for 10% of all of humanity's carbon emissions, along with the fact that it is the world's second-largest water supply consumer. The damage that is caused is extensive and vast, yet most don't see beyond the "cute" trends that turn over every week.
There is hope for the clothing industry though, as a move toward slow fashion is progressing. As more people become aware of the fast fashion epidemic, consumers are beginning to follow a "Quality, not quantity" mindset. Slow fashion encompasses a focus on mindful manufacturing, fair labor, and natural, lasting materials. Items like pineapple leather purses and jackets to recycled plastic threads are all better and sustainable options for those looking to avoid the fast fashion industry.
All in all, sustainability is soon to be the newest and longest lasting trend.

Dr. Toew's Wart Ointment Wholesale

Plastic bags float through every part of the world, in every person's life. They float into streets, beaches, and oceans. Recently, one plastic bag was even found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The deepest accessible part of the world, closest to the Earth's core, was afflicted by a man-made plastic bag that will not biodegrade for at least 500 years, if not significantly longer. The damage that plastic bags bring to the environment as a whole is extensive, and unfortunately, many people still choose to carry 15 plastic bags of groceries into the house rather than 1 large reusable bag to replace all 15 of the plastic ones.
Unlike the United States, many countries around the world are making an effort to change this though. Canada is one of those countries, and the owner of the East West Market has taken an...interesting approach to discouraging the use of plastic bags in his store. To start, any customer who would like to use plastic bags instead of reusable bags is charged $0.05 per bag, an increasingly common practice around the world. This was not enough though. A more creative approach to the deterrence of plastic bag use was necessary. Something that would simultaneously spark a conversation would be even better.
Ah ha!

Dr. Toews' Wart Ointment Wholesale

Into the Weird Adult Video Emporium

The Colon Care Co-Op

Yes, that'll surely get the job done. 

The owner of the Vancouver Market decided to print these slogans on their plastic bags in an effort to slightly embarrass their customers into using reusable bags, or at the very least not a plastic bag for fear of walking down the street with a produce filled bag emblazoned "Into the Weird Adult Video Emporium". That may turn a few more heads than expected. As silly as the slogans are, they do serve a real purpose. In a smaller font underneath the slogan are the words "Avoid the shame. Bring a reusable bag." Unfortunately, the cheeky idea backfired, and people began to come in just to purchase the bags for their funny slogans. Although the original plan may not have worked out, the conversation was still started and the owner plans to print the same slogans on reusable bags to encourage their use just as much.  

This creative approach has the ability to make a big splash, especially as Canada has announced their goal to ban single-use plastics by 2021. At the very least, these bags are a great proponent of the conversation as they are not nearly as easily forgotten plastic is thrown out. 

Are the Red Cups Really Green?

Coffee is easily the most popular beverage on Earth; over 400 billion cups are consumed per year around the world. As someone who contributes to that massive number just about everyday, I'm very aware of how many plastic Starbucks lids are thrown into the landfill as a result of this. Starbucks alone sells 4 billion cups of coffee (not including tea and other drinks) annually. A large portion of these sales are a result of the holiday drinks and kick off of the famous red cups. November 7th marks the start of the holiday drink season, and with the purchase of any holiday drink you also receive a free reusable holiday cup. I myself succumbed to the marketing and convincing argument of my coffee-addicted friend and hurried to Starbucks on the 7th to make it before the last of the reusable cups were gone. While waiting in line I watched the cashier hand each customer an empty reusable cup with each purchase, and thought how ironic it was to give a reusable cup yet put the actual drinks in a single use cup to be thrown away later.
This lead me to the question: is the incentive of the free reusable cup in hopes it is used at the next purchase (for $0.50 off) worth all of the extra cups and plastic that will be sold in the same day? Historically, the only debate over the Starbucks holiday design cups is over whether they are deemed to Christmas-y or if the patterns are stylish enough. However, more attention should be given to the fact that the simple designs on the cup causes a dramatic increase in the number of drinks purchased, leading to the increase in plastic deposited into landfills. In my opinion, the debates should take more of a focus on whether the reusable red cups are worth the extra paper cup purchases.
All things being considered, Starbucks has set goals to become significantly more eco-friendly through reduce, recycle, and reuse-ability by 2022 and has had a focus on sustainability since the beginning of the company according to their website. The famous cups were the first in the United States food sector to be made of 10% post consumer recycled fiber, and have additionally made efforts toward a more recyclable plastic lid. Straws are planning to be completely phased out and replaced with a recyclable plastic lid by 2020, but the benefit of that versus the straw is still disputed.
So the question remains, is the one-day offer of a free reusable cup worth the extra sales and waste produced in exchange? There are countless factors to consider when deciding the answer to this, but regardless there is a significant need to find better methods of reducing material waste, and reusable cups are the best solution to this.

Keep the Planet Clean While You Clean Yourself

Every year 300 million tons of plastic is created. 10% of that plastic is recycled, while the rest is left in landfills, streets, oceans, and nature to biodegrade on its own over the course of the next 500 years. I'm sure you can picture the warning of Wall-E becoming reality as 300 million tons of plastic are created, and it takes 500 years for just one to biodegrade completely.
Unfortunately, plastic has become an unavoidable part of life. Or has it? Well, Jonna Breitenhuber is challenging this concept. Breitenhuber, based out of Berlin, has designed a line of shower and soap products that are entirely plastic free. She began the design process in 2017, and has ultimately succeeded in creating the most innovative soap I have seen. This product is even more plastic free than Lush's product line, as every product is plastic free where Lush's are not. The bottle itself is made of a slow dissolving soap, and the inside is filled with the gel or shampoo which can be poured out and recovered after use.
Each product has a hole in the center so it can be hung if so desired, so the lack of stabilizing plastic is  not a problem. The products are completely made out of natural ingredients so they are 100% biodegradable. On top of that, the entirety of the product is usable, even the small leftover slivers or the whole bottle can be used as hand soap so nothing is wasted. The Soapbottles have a variety of smells and appearances to choose from as well! One of the most interesting aspects of the Soapbottles is that their appearance changes as you continue to use the soap. To top it all off, each bottle also comes in different sizes.
You may be thinking, "That's great, but I don't actually use that much plastic in my toiletries". In reality, the average person uses about 11 bottles of shower gel and 10 bottles of shampoo a year. And that's just one person! Imagine how many additional bottles are used by the hair salon in every strip mall. So, the bottle problem is much larger than you may imagine. Any small step that we can make a big difference to the Earth; this one, only a small difference to your life. As far as I can tell, the Green Product Award winning Soapbottle is not yet available for worldwide purchase, but innovative ideas like these are what pave the way for a cleaner future.

Let's Go Lego!

In keeping with last week's blog, "The Building Blocks of Education: Plastic?", which discussed the use of eco-bricks, this week's focus is also on eco-friendly bricks, on a smaller scale. Additionally, the title of this blog "What You're Missing Missing About the Climate Crisis" is fitting as this news was released in 2018 and I missed it myself, just as you may have! So, if you haven't guessed by the title yet, the topic of the week is Lego's new line: Plants from Plants.
Lego released their line of Plants from Plants Legos in 2018 as the first of many steps for the company to reach a completely sustainable status for core products and packaging by 2030. The plastic used to create the Legos has been verified as 98% plant-based by using sugar cane plants as the base. Wait, it gets better! The sugar cane plants are sustainable as they grow at the same rates, or faster, than they produce the plastics for the Legos. Lego has also partnered with the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) for guidance on how to best source the sugar cane plants.
The plastic does not taste or smell like sugar, and is not any visually or textually different than other Legos. So that means kids can pair their old Lego bricks with the new plant based ones for seamless creations. Even the most loved of plant Legos will not be damaged as they are not biodegradable (I suppose you can't have it all...yet), so they are just as durable as the previous plastic ones.
There must be a catch, right? Wrong. The price of these Legos will not be affected by the fact they are sustainable and plant-based. If you still aren't convinced to reach for these over the old Legos because of their sustainability, and fair price, they're also perfect for boys and girls, so you can't go wrong! There are kits available including complex tree houses and countless creatures. Even though a kid may not understand the value that these eco-friendly toys pose, they'll sure understand how cute the botanical characters Shy Marvin and Woody Wheel are.
For the parents or purchasers who do understand this value, there are very few reasons to reach for any other toys. Lego is setting a great example for every other toy company on the market by proving sustainable products at equal prices are possible. 60 years ago, the first plastic Lego brick was created, and in less than 20 years the classic plastic will hopefully be completely replaced by modern and sustainable materials. Lego has already made other great strides toward sustainability and encouraging kids to help rather than harm the Earth with toys like the model wind turbine, and are continuing this with their plants from plants line. Changes like these coming from large companies make big differences and encourage many other companies to do the same. They are heading in the right direction and hopefully many others will follow their path.
Find Plant From Plant Legos Here:
https://www.lego.com/en-us/campaigns/plantsfromplants

The Building Block of Education: Plastic?

In various regions of Latin America, schools and classrooms made out of used plastic bottles are continuously popping up as a result of Hug It Forward. Hug It Forward is a non-profit organization which defines itself as a "multicultural organization operating at the grassroots level in the region of Latin America, with an emphasis in Guatemala". The organization works to construct classrooms by using plastic bottles filled with inorganic waste, or "eco-bricks" as walls. First, they stuff the bottles and stack them, (filling gaps with plastic bags), and then surround them with chicken wire to keep the frame in place. Finally, the chicken wire is coated with cement and painted. The finished product looks just like a regular school and shows no signs of the plastic frame.

To make all of this construction possible, Hug It Forward focuses on community effort, so as much of the construction is as local as possible. In addition to this, they also focus on education and consciousness regarding proper disposal of waste in the future. By doing so while building the classroom, they are physically showing their volunteers how much damage is caused when it is not properly recycled, as plastic is sometimes retrieved from nearby rivers and countrysides.  The sense of pride that the volunteers are left with after not only cleaning up their area, but taking part in building something leaves the community with a sense of pride which is carried on into other aspects of life. 

Between the community efforts, and use of simple materials, the cost of each bottle school only reaches about $7,000. However, the reward that each bottle school brings to its community such as a sense of empowerment and resilience, but most importantly access to education are priceless. In just 3-4 months a full school is built and changes the lives of so many young kids permanently, as each bottle school is estimated to last roughly 100 years. 
So, these bottle schools are a great way to reuse plastic, reduce building costs, and give children the opportunity to receive an education, but what does it have to do with the climate crisis? Well, since 1950 humankind has created roughly 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic. In addition, a whopping 91% of that plastic has not been recycled, both according to a recent article in Science Advances. Plastic is detrimental to the Earth in so many ways; its production generates greenhouse gases and uses fossil fuels, damages ecosystems and harms wild/marine life, biodegrade to micro plastics, and so much more. The best solution is to stop creating more plastic at all. However, the plastic that is still presently degrading at a rate incredibly slow cannot all be incinerated, as that emits massive amounts of CO2. Additionally, not all plastics can be recycled quickly or easily. Reuse of plastic on the other hand, has a less damaging effect. The bottle schools are able to set an example and be an inspiration to future construction problems outside of just schools. This building method has the potential to take massive amounts of plastic waste out of communities and landfills to be put to use rather than incinerated or left to biodegrade. 
The innovative thinking behind bottle schools has potential to go much farther than just school buildings and aid the massive problem of excess single use plastic products. 

Really, Google?

No one could’ve seen this one coming. Now Google, beloved Google, has joined the growing list of companies who are not making enough effort to aid the climate crisis, despite their previous claims to want to aid the problem. News broke this morning that Google has reportedly made “substantial contributions” a multitude of other companies that have made their disbelief of climate change incredibly well known. This leaves many wondering the question, if Google has historically been concerned with the climate crisis and attempting to help those fighting against it, why are they supporting deniers? Perhaps the company thought that the addition of these companies would go unnoticed amidst the expansive list of other companies they contribute to, but it did not.
When the United States left the Paris Agreement, we set a terrible example for other nations and allowed ourselves to continue killing our Earth. One company which played a large role in swaying this decision was Competitive Enterprise Institute. CEI has been a known conservative company, who aided the anti environmental climate change policies of the Bush administration years ago. Again, CEI has played yet another part in the Trump administration’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement. The question still remains, why would Google support such an open climate change denying company? Who knows. CEI is not the only beneficiary of Google’s new contributions though.
Other companies such as the Heartland Institute who have infamously criticized Greta Thunberg’s efforts to stop the climate crisis. It’s interesting that one company that is not afraid to blantantly criticize an intelligent teenage girl, but at the same time that teenage girl is absolutely fearless in the face of insult (as her famous death glare shows). The list goes on for about a dozen other companies supporting the removal of climate saving regulations and laws.
Google’s response to the public outcry? Weak. They say that despite their contributions, they do not endorse their agendas, rather agreeing with their technology policies. Google’s spokesperson has also said that the company wants to be open with their users regarding their polictical involvement, yet decline to answer how much they actually contributed to each company.
To say that you agree to disagree on a debate with a friend or coworker, but to do so on an international platform as one of the world’s most well known companies is an entirely different thing. Something that never should and never should have happened. Although Google is not the first to do so, it does not excuse their actions. If anything, it makes the entire situation significantly worse because they argue what they are doing is ok because other companies are too. This thinking is what helped lead the climate crisis to the point where it is at now: next to irreparable.