Tires have a huge environmental impact, from production, to use to discarding them. Tires are made from natural rubber and synthetic rubber, produced from the polymers found in crude oil. The other primary ingredient in tire rubber is carbon black. Carbon black is a fine, soft powder created when crude oil or natural gas is burned with a limited amount of oxygen.
Read MoreSince conventional plastics are made from fossil fuels, are not biodegradable and are turning our oceans into huge plastic garbage dumps (plus they are entering our food chain), more and more companies and institutions are developing alternatives that are more environmentally friendly and are cost-competitive at the same time.
Read MoreThe problems with plastic pollution are getting worse by the day. The estimated 8 million tons (yes, really) of plastic that ends up in the ocean every year is expected to double by 2025 and is estimated to rise to 60 tons per minute by 2050 if today's plastic use and lack of adequate waste management continues. These vast amounts of plastic have increasing impact on the environment and marine life.
Read MoreRunning has a bigger environmental impact as one might imagine. As a study has found, a new pair of running shoes typically generates 30lbs of carbon dioxide emissions, 68% of which generated during the manufacturing process. The production of the materials involved, including leather, nylon, synthetic rubber, plastic and viscose, also takes an environmental toll.
Read MoreWith the summer around the corner, I thought it would be a good idea to look at what sunscreens actually are and do. We are supposed to apply it over our whole body and multiple times a day, so the ingredients in sunscreen should not be irritating or cause skin allergies.
First let's look at the two kinds of sun blockers. The first one is the physical kind, like zinc and titanium dioxide, and the second is the chemical kind, like oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate and octinoxate.
Read MoreMany mothers will receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers this coming Sunday. But have you ever considered the journey and the footprint of the flowers you buy for her? Over 80% of the flowers sold at grocery stores, florist shops and online are grown thousands of miles away, mostly in Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, Africa or Israel. So there is a lot of environmental impact on transport from farm to port and then the fuel consumed via refrigerated trucking of flowers from port to florist.
Read MorePeople have been asking me why I started publishing My Green Goodiebag. You can check out the short story in the About section, but I thought you might like to know a little more.
Like so many other mothers I was fairly unaware of what went in my shampoo, day cream or shower gel until I had kids, of which one has eczema.
Read MoreThese are only a few pictures, but they show the huge problem that we are facing with plastic pollution.
Read MoreThe fashion industry is one of the most polluting in the world, so it is obvious why innovation in the textile fiber industry is much needed. Plants that you would normally eat can be used to produce fibers with, like pineapples, coffee, bananas and stinging nettles. When reading about all these alternatives you might wonder why petroleum-based fibers are still used today. Time for a change and choose fabrics made of sustainable fibers! Today part 2 of new sustainable textile fibers, with some very interesting fibers that I had never heard of before.
Read MoreThe fashion industry is one of the most polluting in the world, so it is obvious why innovation in the textile fiber industry is much needed. Plants that you would normally eat can be used to produce fibers with, like pineapples, coffee, bananas and stinging nettles. When reading about all these alternatives you might wonder why petroleum-based fibers are still used today. Time for a change and choose fabrics made of sustainable fibers!
Read MoreThat steak on our plate for dinner has a much bigger impact on our planet than most of us realize. The environmental impact of livestock farming, in particular raising cows, is huge. It contributes to land and water degradation, species extinction, acid rain, ocean dead zones, coral reef degeneration and deforestation.
Read MoreOur clothes are made of either natural fibers or synthetic fibers. Synthetic fibers are made of polymers. The word polymer refers to a chemical substance composed of molecules that form long repeating chains, a characteristic that is useful in synthetic fibers. Synthetic fibers are made of chemicals that are often derived from coal or petroleum.
Read MoreGlyphosate is a non-selective herbicide and is applied to the leaves of plants to kill both broadleaf plants and grasses. Since it is non-selective it will kill most plants by preventing them from making certain proteins that are needed for plant growth. Glyphosate stops a specific enzyme pathway, the shikimic acid pathway. The shikimic acid pathway is necessary for plants and some microorganisms.
Read MoreThere are many websites that provide useful information on sustainable living, toxic ingredients, the environment, protecting the earth etc. These are a few of my favorites. Although many of them are not restricted to one category, I have sorted them so it is a bit easier to oversee.
Read MoreRoland Geyer, lead author of a new study conducting the world’s first count of how much plastic has been produced, discarded, burned or put in landfills, has studied various metals and how they’re used and managed. The rapid acceleration of plastic manufacturing, which so far has doubled roughly every 15 years, has outpaced nearly every other man-made material.
Read MoreMost people believe common sense solutions prevail on important issues, and certainly when the health of our planet is at stake, more than just common sense would be applied. Many problems that are covered in these documentaries are not new problems, so why do they still persist or have even gotten worse?
Read MoreToothbrushes are items used by millions of people every day. This means that billions of toothbrushes are thrown away every year. Yes, billions. That is a lot of toothbrushes. Many of those go to landfills where they sit for hundreds of years, or they end up in oceans and rivers where they cause damage to the environment.
Read MoreIn the eco-friendly fashion world it has become quite a trendy thing to make clothing from recycled PET bottles or ghost nets, fishing net that are floating around in the ocean. This may seem like a noble and very good thing to do, but researchers have found that brands that produce these recycled garments might be doing more harm than good in terms of microplastics in the ocean.
Read MoreMicroplastics pollution in oceans, rivers and lakes are not only made of microbeads and broken down pieces of plastic coming from bags, bottles etc. On the contrary, multiple studies have found that synthetic fibers coming from our clothes make up the biggest share of microplastics in the environment. (for example, according to a study by IUCN nearly 34%).
Read MoreIn an earlier post I wrote about microbeads in consumer care products. Unfortunately, those are not the only petroleum-based ingredients that can be found in the products we use on a daily basis. Petrochemicals, chemical ingredients derived from petroleum, can be found with a variety of names, like paraffin, petrolatum, toluene, phenoxyethanol and mineral oil. But they can also be hidden under the umbrella of perfume or fragrance.
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