Category: Non-toxic

Non-toxic

What does sustainability mean to me ??

Hello everyone, welcome back to the blog!! Today I am going to talk about what sustainability means to me. This is a subject I have been so passionate about, enough that I am actually finishing up my bachelors degree in this field!! I really want to make a difference in the world by educating people and companies on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle and how it will not only benefit the earth itself but benefit our way of life.

A small little tid bit of information that I have learned this semester in school is that we are not just focusing on how it could benefit the earth but also how living a more sustainable life will also benefit our well being. I thought that was interesting, of course my actual degree will be a business degree so I am focused on how sustainability can be used to improve businesses, with any business the goal is to convince the consumer that their product will better your life. I am here to tell you that living a more zero waste lifestyle will for sure benefit your well being. And here is why …

You have to slow down in order to live this sort of lifestyle. There are so many ways you can cut back on things you are doing to be more eco friendly, maybe walk to work, make a lot of things at home, constantly be in a state of reflection, you name it. All of these things help with your quality of life. It also forces you to slow down.

A simpler life, I say that because that is the step I have been pondering a lot lately. I want a simpler life, in the sense of I do not have so many things to keep track of, I have one load of laundry I have to worry about. I do not have to do more than a couple dishes because I am forced to use only a couple since that is all I have. Only go to the store for a couple ingredients because the meals I cook are simple. Being zero waste means you only have what you need. You try not to waste anything. That really cuts back on the things you have.

All of these things matter to me, and the last thing I will mention that is just icing on the cake. How well the staff is paid and taken care of. We live in a world of convenience and want things fast and cheap, but we expect the things we buy to be excellent and luxurious. Unfortunately everything comes with a price, or a consequence. The price we pay for that item means that workers that are being treated unfairly and paid next to nothing. We may not see this first hand because this typically happens in another country, but just because you do not see it does not mean it is not happening. I am thankful that this issue is becoming more well known and more people are doing something about it. I will highlight at some point brands that are taking action because they deserve all the support!! They are doing good things, but in order for this issue to go away we need to speak up more about it and fight for their rights.

These are all things I reflect on in my life with the things I use and how I want to live my life. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post about what sustainability means to me, but I do not what you to miss that this is my thoughts after thinking for awhile about this topic and doing my research this is the conclusion I got. It is not the same for everyone, if this is something that interests you feel free to reach out and ask more questions. But do not forget to do what is best for you and your lifestyle. Thank you so much for reading and supporting Caleb and I on this journey called life. Hope to see you back here next week!!!

Non-toxic

Earth Friendly

We are going to switch gears here for a little bit, hope that is okay. We are going to start talking about another passion of mine. And that is sustainability, this post is going to be about how I was introduced to it, and the next one will be about what being sustainable means to me. So stay tuned for that, but without further explanation we are going to jump right in.

I was introduced to it when I lived in Washington State, they are overall more conscious about waste in general and protecting the earth. I really liked that and started to reflect on the things I buy and use and how much waste I produce. It was really disappointing to see that I waste a lot of stuff and buy things I do not need. Which not only hurts the environment but also hurts the bank account. It was very overwhelming when I started to look at how long this journey was going to take. The first instinct for me was to just throw everything away and start fresh. Start with some clean products that are packaged sustainably and also ethically made. Now that sounds good but doing something that impulsive could hurt the environment even more. The best course of action would be to use up EVERYTHING you have and slowly purchase things that are more sustainable/ethically made/clean. That is currently what I am doing. I have not changed my routines when it comes to hair products or skincare because that was another thing I thought about doing. Just using excessive amounts or doing things more often so I could get rid of things a lot faster, however, that is also not a great idea because that is wasting product. This also gives me plenty of time to look into other products and go in depth about where things are sourced, mission statement, if they are treating their staff well and things of the like. I will go into more depth about that in the next post.

I love research, it has always been something I enjoyed doing growing up. When I met my now fiancé Caleb, something he had told me was how his acne prone skin really bothered him. I was blessed with skin that did not really breakout all that much, I have definitely had my moments but it was very minor compared to other people. So I never really had to deal with research on skin because my skin was not that bad. However, when Caleb came into the picture I wanted to help him get the skin he felt comfortable in. So I dived into research, a lot of it had to do with what he was eating (he ate mostly chicken, rice and a vegetable every night for dinner), it was not that he had an unhealthy diet it was that it was not doing anything for him. He just cared about the calories (he wanted to eat as many calories as possible), but having a well balanced diet really does help improve skin. That is not the only thing I found though, I realized that a lot of skincare products have really harsh chemicals that can actually do more harm than good. It might help with the specific thing it says it will help with, but not in a safe way, and it could possibly create even more problems down the road. This scared me a little bit, I have always desired to live a healthy life and did not want to eat or do anything that could cause possible complications in the future. I wanted to get rid of everything I own and start fresh, but again I did not want to waste what I already had so decided that if it was to harm me it is already in my system so it would not harm me any more than it already has so should finish it up.

I will say this is not an easy lifestyle, it requires a lot of patience and A LOT of reflection. It has been a very long journey and can be quite challenging because so many brands say one thing but it is not necessarily true. That is why it is important to know where you draw the line, and what is most important to you and do not budge on that. You need to know your why (which I will discuss next time), and know that just because it is not easy does not mean it is not worth it. Living sustainably is becoming more and more popular, which is awesome because the more people that get involved the better chances we have at helping the earth thrive. However, there is a flip side, brands know this is becoming more popular and see it as a “trend” so they will promote their products and basically “greenwash” their stuff. If you know anything about living eco friendly then you have definitely seen that term before. There are brands out there that are really trying their best to create things as sustainably as possible but maybe the technology has not come out yet to really and truly be zero waste or they have figured out a way to be as eco friendly as possible but it is crazy expensive. I want to support them because they are trying to do things the right way, even if it is more convenient to go with the Walmart brand.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post and stay tuned to read more about what sustainability means to me. It is something I have been passionate about and will share more about our journey into becoming more zero waste in the coming months. I love you guys and am so thankful you took the time to read!!