Whether you’re on a limited budget, want to reduce landfill waste – or both – renovating your existing wardrobe instead of buying a new one is easier than you think. A good wardrobe is a must-have for many, and we tend to invest in new clothes without taking stock of what’s already hanging in our closets. You can resist the temptation by giving your wardrobe an economical but fun fashion facelift.
Read MoreWhen we are stressed and we need to calm down, we are often told to breathe in and breathe out. But it is actually the other way around: we first breathe out and then we breathe in. Just like all other aerobic creatures, we need oxygen to break down foods for energy and we produce carbon dioxide as a waste product that we exhale. And it’s important to exhale completely.
Read MoreYou may be surprised to learn that many common, everyday items have hidden plastic in them. Here are 6 to watch out for.
Read MoreMy Green Goodiebag is as much about my journey to a more sustainable lifestyle as it is about me as a mother. After all, I started this website because my second baby, Christopher, had so much problems with eczema and asthma. I wanted to find solutions for him and started researching. I found so much information and learned so much about toxic ingredients, healthy living and sustainability that I decided to share what I had learned. Today I want to talk about something else though.
Read MorePeople have been chewing on substances made from plants, grasses, and resins for a long time. The Ancient Greeks chewed mastic gum, made from the resin of the mastic tree. The Chinese used ginseng plant roots and the Mayans and Aztecs used chicle, a natural tree gum, as a base for making a gum-like substance. But modern-day chewing gum was mainly commercialized in the United States where the American Indians chewed resin made from the sap of spruce trees.
Read MoreNemonte Nenquimo, an indigenous leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon, was one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize of 2020 for her success in protecting 500,000 acres of rainforest from oil extraction. Nenquimo, also winner of of the 2020 United Nations Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth award for Inspiration and Action, is a member of the Waorani indigenous community. She says she is of “warrior blood” and she has shown the world what a warrior like her can achieve. Not by engaging in war, but by fighting a fight on a different level: by filing a lawsuit.
Read MoreIt’s that time of the year that we look back on the past year. We remember the good days with a smile and look at the more difficult days and try to learn from them. I am sure many of us have had a lot of difficult days in 2020. We’ve had to deal with lockdowns, kids at home, sickness, we lost our jobs and some of us even lost a loved one.
Read MoreMaybe the one thing we have learned during COVID times is how much we like to be around other people. Now that we are limited in who we are seeing and how often, or in some cases not seeing our loved ones at all due to travel restrictions, we are realizing we are very much social beings. The other thing we might have learned is how much we depend on a healthy environment, and also how quickly nature can recover if we leave it alone for a while.
Read MoreWe went from fast fashion (high volume, low prices, cheap labor, bad environmental practices) to slow fashion (low volume, lasting pieces, thoughtful materials and production methods). At least that was the idea and in theory it sounds very logical, because don´t we all want beautiful clothes that last a lifetime and that don´t hurt the people who make them and our planet?
Read MoreThere are a lot of ingredients in make up and skincare that you actually don’t want to put on your skin. And don’t think that by buying ´natural´ products you’re in the safe zone. Products that label themselves as natural, organic, or eco don’t actually have to follow any legal or industry rules about their ingredients.
Read MoreSir David Attenborough has made so many documentaries that many will recognize his voice out of thousands. He has brought the natural world into our homes and by doing so he has also inspired many to protect it. For more than 60 years he has been describing wildlife on all continents, but since the turn of the millennium he has also warned us about climate change.
Read MoreMost band-aids are made of plastic. The adhesive sheet of a band-aid is usually made from either PVC, polyethylene, or polyurethane. It is a single-use plastic item, but unlike other single-use plastics, band-aids can’t be replaced by a reusable item. Polyurethane is, like all plastics, petroleum-based and is the same toxic compound found in chemical-laden mattresses.
Read MoreWe have seen on the news and most probably also in real life how single-use plastics pollute our earth. But did you know that cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean pollution? Every year trillions of cigarettes are tossed out in parks, on streets, in oceans and on beaches. The impact on the environment of these filters is not the only impact on the environment though, this impact starts at the production process of cigarettes.
Read MoreCandles go a long way back and different cultures around the world developed them independently. The ancient Roman, Chinese and Japanese made wicked candles by dipping some sort of paper in melted tallow (animal fat), sperm whale fat or wax from tree nuts. These candles were used to light their homes, to help travelers at night, and in religious ceremonies.
Read MoreIn 2011, when he was only 9 years old, Milo Cress started to convince restaurants to stop automatically bringing a straw with every drink. His project, Be Straw Free, not only focuses on restaurants but also motivates consumers to order their drinks without a straw whenever they don’t want or need to use one. Straws are items that in most cases are not needed, so not serving them is not only a cost saver for restaurants, but it also made customers more aware of plastic they use and eventually throw away.
Read MoreFaux leather (also pleather or vegan leather) is often used as an alternative to genuine leather, because of animal welfare issues. But is it also better for the environment? Some people might argue that animal leather is natural and thus more environmentally friendly. But the animal´s skin needs to be treated in a chemical process called tanning to make leather.
Read MoreAs people use more portable power-consuming devices, the demand for batteries increases. Think cell phones, (video) cameras, , laptops, (remote controlled) toys and electric cars. Worldwide billions of batteries are thrown away each year and all of these contain toxic and corrosive materials, like cadmium, mercury, lead and lithium. The production, transportation and distribution of batteries uses up natural resources, contributing to an accelerating depletion of natural resources.
Read MoreThe problem of plastic pollution has been gaining more attention lately and more and more people have come to realize that recycling will just not be enough to stop or even reduce the enormous amounts of plastics entering the environment. The problem of plastic pollution starts long before it reaches our oceans, rivers and beaches. Too many barrels of oil are turned into plastic, and plastic packaging is designed without fully considering what happens to it after it’s used.
Read MoreShawn Heinrichs, born in Durban, South Africa, is an artist and Emmy-award winning cinematographer, photographer and marine conservationist and one of the co-creators of the documentary Racing Extinction. He is also the founder of Blue Sphere Media, a production company specializing in underwater, adventure and conservation films. Art is his passion and he uses his photography skills as a tool to contribute to help protect the oceans most threatened species and habitats.
Read MoreMany of us can remember that we were told as kids that milk was good for us. We had to drink it to get our daily intake of calcium so we would have strong and healthy bones. But several studies have shown that consuming more dairy doesn't result in less osteoporosis. On the contrary, a study conducted in Sweden in 2014 has shown that too much milk (three or more glasses a day) was associated with increased mortality and a higher risk of fracture.
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