I wanted to share an invite to Zero Waste Fest on Saturday, October 11 at Burroughs Community School in Minneapolis. It’s a free, all-day community event with panels, food, music, kid’s activities, and lots of hands-on ways to get involved in building a future without waste. Zero Waste Fest — MN Zero Waste Coalition
The day runs from 10am to 4pm and includes:
Inspiring panels on:
Building a Zero Waste Future in Minnesota
Plastic is a Justice Issue: Fighting Pollution from Production to Disposal
From Throwaway to Reuse: Reclaiming Culture, Creating Systems
Tabling from organizations around MN supporting zero waste
Clothing swaps and mending
Food, art, and music!
It’s free and open to everyone. I’d love for you to join us and help spread the word!
The last half of July is here. Remember it is Plastic Free July.
Beyond Plastic has a calendar of ideas to work on your Plastic free journey. I strongly suggest you visit a food coop where you can fill your own containers, day 16.
Reduce, reuse and refill are the only real solutions to the growing plastic pollution crisis outside of policy change so find and visit a refill store near you, and get to it!
Invite friends, family and neighbors over for a sewing party to create produce or shopping bags to donate to a co-op or food pantry, or to give customers outside of a larger grocery store before they enter.
Summer is a great time to host a postcard party and postcards are a great way to deliver a short note to your elected officials about a particular bill and how you’d like them to support it.
This summer, while the grill and air are hot, host a plastic-free BBQ or other event. Download our guide on Hosting a Plastic-Free, Low Waste Event to help you prepare.
Give out this one-page handout on reducing plastic to your favorite restaurants, cafes, and bars. If you want extra credit, you can offer to conduct a plastic audit for the establishment using the template from our guide, “Hold the Plastic Please, A Restaurant’s Guide to Reducing Plastic”.
Are you part of a faith community? Download the Beyond Plastics Toolkit for Houses of Worship, share it with the leadership, and offer to help them take the practical steps it lays out.
We hope you’ve made some progress toward your plastic-free goals and would love for you to share them with us. Follow Beyond Plastics on your favorite social media platforms, post a photo of your action and tag us!
Join the growing grassroots movement of people working to reduce plastic pollution in their own towns and cities! Check out our map to see if there is a Beyond Plastics Local Group or Affiliate near you. If not, find 2-3 people who want to start one.
Take today to assemble your plastic bag monster from the bags or single-use items you collected all month long. Snap a photo, post on social media and tag both @beyondplastics and @plasticfreejuly.
I was surprised to hear about No Buy July. Surprised, but also pleased. As a zero-waste person, I worry about the harm consumerism does to our planet. Our air and water suffer from production, transportation and the disposal of so many purchases that are not necessary. We are passing a way of life of consumerism on to our children when we already have a planet that can’t support our American lifestyles.
We all need clean air and water. Less consumerism and less trash make a difference in protecting our planet.
Michelle Singletary has good suggestions to participate in No Buy July
Shopping shouldn’t be thought of as entertainment.
Don’t define yourself as a consumer.
Stop spemding to save
Start saving by having a plan and a purpose for how you spend your money. Read her column here:
In honor of Plastic-free July, buy yourself a wooden cutting board.
Plastic cutting boards (made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels) are a staple in many of our kitchens. But did you know that they have actually been found to be a significant source of microplastics in our food? This study estimated that a person, on average, consumes between 7.4g-50.7g of microplastics from a polyethylene cutting board each year, and 49.5g from a polypropylene one. These microplastics have many potential health risks such as increased risk of disease, artery blockage and inflammation.
In this NBC News article, Victoria Fulfer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Rhode Island, gives a demonstration to show how easily microplastics can end up in food and water. After cutting two slices of a white onion and rinsing the slices, she filtered the water used in the rinse. When the filter was placed under a microscope it revealed small pieces of plastic that had transferred from the cutting board to the onion.
All cutting boards, including plastic ones, should be replaced when there is evidence of excessive wear and tear, such as deep grooves in the surface. These grooves can make it harder to properly clean the board, and it makes it easier for microplastics to transfer from plastic cutting boards. This article talks about how damage to the surface of plastics further increases the release of microplastics, and goes more in depth on possible health risks associated with them.
Maybe replacing your plastic cutting boards with wooden or bamboo ones could be your first step to reducing plastic use in your daily life, or maybe you have already started the process and this is another step in your journey. Above is from The Carbon Almanac
For the health of your family, switch to a wooden cutting board
How can you use less plastic? #BeatPlasticPollution
June 5th is World Environment Day Today is World Environment Day, an international observance that began in 1973 and held annually ever since.This year’s theme continues to focus on plastic and the goal is to #BeatPlasticPollution. Did you know that:Less than 10% of plastic is recycled? The rest end up in landfills or waterways.There are more microplastics (plastic less than 5mm in diameter) in our waterways than there are stars in our galaxy?We ingest microplastics from the food we eat and the air we breathe?A global treaty to end plastic pollution is currently being negotiated, with the second round of discussions happening in August. Consider taking a count of the number of single use plastic items you use in a day or a week. And then consider what alternatives exist to help reduce that number or eliminate your single plastic use altogether. We can all take action. Together.
Reducing your use of single-use plastic makes a big difference!
Small acts adding up to more Below is from the Carbon Almanac! “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” – Howard Zinn Consider what you buy. Everything we purchase has made an impact on the environment through carbon emissions. Some more than others. Is your item available second-hand?Our actions matter. We can make a difference before it’s too late. Small actions when coordinated with others can lead to systemic change.What are things you can do?Get engaged in your local government. Listen to a meeting, reach out to your representative, sign a petition. Local environmental policies have a direct impact on our lives and our voices can make a difference.Involve your community. Bring people together to enjoy conversations and spark ideas on what actions to take. Consider what your buy. Everything we purchase has made an impact on the environment through carbon emissions. Some more than others. Is your item available second-hand?Our actions matter. We can make a difference before it’s too late.
Plant your yard for pollinators, and please DO NOT use chemicals!
From The Carbon Almanac:
As you savor the taste of honey, remember that the production of one pound of honey needs 2,000,000 flowers and on average, a bee visits 50-100 flowers on each flight. The average bee makes just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
Did you know that there are over 20,000 species of bees who, along with other pollinators such as butterflies and hummingbirds, support the production of 75% of our food crops? Not only is their contribution to food security essential, the bees also play an important role in preserving biodiversity.
Bee populations are becoming increasingly at risk due to habitat loss, temperature changes due to climate change, pollution and agricultural practices.
The United Nations has designated today, May 20th, as World Bee Day
What can we do to help protect the bees?
All of us can share information about bees to help raise awareness on their important role. It’s as easy as forwarding this email.
If you have a garden, you can avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides. You can also plant diverse native plants that flower at different times of the year.
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James
Refuse to consume so much junk. Avoid Target and The Dollar Store.
What is the single best thing I can do for the planet? Maybe the best two things I can do? The New York Times put this question to some experts. It was actually the most click on article on Earth Day.
They have sone good suggestions, but we all have such different lifestyles and ways we are all harmful to the planet in the way we live. We all need to take inventory of the ways we are harmful to clean air and clean water. Everyone can buy less stuff. Do we really need all the Easter eggs and decorations everywhere the past two months? Do you really need that extra shirt or pair of shoes? What can you purchase second hand or reuse?
Cutting meat consumption and driving less are huge, but so is not wasting so much food, and reducing our single-use plastic
The New York Times asked their experts how to be the best planetary citizens?
I think their ideas are thoughtful and interesting. It is worth a read
“The thing
First, it’s important to understand that climate change is a symptom of a larger issue: ecological overshoot, or the fact that humans are consuming resources faster than they can regenerate and producing more waste and pollution than nature can absorb, said William Rees, a human and ecological economist and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. The most effective solutions, then, address not just greenhouse gas emissions but overall consumption and pollution.
One of the most effective ways to avoid consumption in the first place, Dr. Rees said, is to have a smaller family. But that might not be a realistic option for many people, for all kinds of personal, cultural and other reasons.
As The New York Times’s ethics columnist has pointed out, it might also be realistic to think that children who are raised with a sense of responsibility could — in personal and collective ways — be part of the solution, ensuring human survival on a livable planet by promoting adaptation, resilience and mitigation.
A less complicated recommendation is to cut back on meat. “On all these different metrics, eating a plant-based diet broadly improves sustainability,” said Seth Wynes, a scientist specializing in climate change mitigation at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
Health4earth 