Sustainability for All

[anielskaaniela]

All about recycling and pants 😎

check my before and after photos

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Cities need to be redesigned for the climate crisis. Can they make us happy, too?

It’s tempting to draw lines on a map, but we can’t forget that cities should be designed for the people who live there

(Full collection in link)

[copperbadge]

Scientists created the world's whitest paint. It could eliminate the need for air conditioning.

The world's whitest paint has been created in a lab at Purdue, a paint so white that it could eventually reduce the need for air conditionin

Wake up kids, new extreme paint dropped

[elkian]

“The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared heat. Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power.“

holy shit this could be a game changer

[des-pa-neato]

“Using this new paint formulation to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet could result in a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. … That’s more powerful than the air conditioners used by most houses.” (statement, paper)

[wastelesscrafts]

Sustainable gift wrapping ideas

Introduction:

Everyone likes unwrapping a gift, but why buy new wrapping paper when there are more fun ways to wrap a gift that don't require buying and throwing away new paper?

Two ways to avoid waste when gift-wrapping:

Reusing something you already have

Wrapping your gift in a second gift.

Here's a few ideas:

Reusing materials:

Reuse wrapping paper

Newspapers

Fabric scraps

Reuse a cardboard box

Reuse a bag

Glass jars

Old maps

Old posters

Anything made of paper or cardboard can be drawn on to customise your gift's look.

A gift as a wrap:

Totebag

Thrifted scarf

Cloth napkins

Cloth handkerchief

Towels

T-shirt

Pillow case

Furoshiki

Dishcloth

Drawstring bag

Thrifted casserole or cooking pot with lid

Thrifted lunch box

(Image source) [ID: a graphic showing 14 ways to wrap an item using furoshiki: otsukai tsutsumi, yotsu musubi, suika tsutsumi, katakake fukuro, entou tutsumi, hira tsutsumi, tesage bukuro, kousa tsutsumi, hon tsutsumi, futatsu tsutsumi, kakushi tsutsumi, bin tsutsumi 1, bin tsutsumi 2, sao tsutsumi.]

(Image source) [ID: a gift wrapped in a newspaper page with cartoons printed on it. Beige yarn is tied around the gift.]

Who's the present for?

If you don't know where to start, think about the person you're wrapping a gift for. Do they like fashion? Maybe get a second-hand scarf they'll like and wrap your gift in it. Do they like cooking? There's plenty of cool casseroles or Tupperware to be found at second-hand stores. Maybe your giftee just started living on their own and still need to buy their own bath linen: why not wrap their gift in a towel?

(Image source) [ID: a gift wrapped in a red dishcloth with white lines and fringes. Twigs of holly and ivy have been tucked in one of the cloth's folds.]

Conclusion:

Unconventional wrapping methods are fine, and so is not wrapping a gift at all. People are happy they're getting a gift! So what if it's not wrapped in fancy paper?

There's plenty of ways to wrap a gift in a sustainable way without taking away the fun of unwrapping. Want some more ideas? Check out these zero waste gift wrapping guides by Trash Is For Tossers, Greenpeace, and Sustainably Chic.

(And while we're on the topic: it's totally fine to give someone a handmade or second-hand gift, too. The perfect gift isn't new or store-bought, but thoughtful.)

[captaindibbzy]

As far as ethical materials go you can't really get better than wool.

The sheep need the hair cut.

Nothing dies for it.

Sheep live pretty much wild for most the year.

Placed correctly they maintain a landscape and help the wildlife that live there to thrive.

Doesn't use Vast Quantities of land for little product.

Not draining inland fresh water oceans.

Been spending thousands of years perfecting the genetics for this purpose.

Comes in many different kinds of uses.

And the animal it comes off is fully edible.

My main issue with it is it has fallen so out of fashion that it pays the farmers who make it more to transport it than they get per fleece, and people have really fucking weird hang ups about the ethics of giving a sheep a hair cut.

[unexpectedyarns]

Sheep can get infested with wool maggots if they are not shorn.

Also an unshorn sheep can drown if it falls into water, just by the sheer weight of the water its wool can absorb, dragging it down.

A Tunis sheep can live in a large doghouse, and staked in a different place every day, will mow your lawn (buy they get lonely. Buy two).

Light shearing nicks heal fast because the sheep’s waxy lanolin coats their skin. Though most sheep farmers won’t Nick the sheep bc it gets blood on the wool.

Sheep farmers MUST treat their sheep with care, because any little thing that upsets sheep affects the quality of their wool.

Even “natural” fibers like bamboo take TONS of water to process and alkaline dyes to color them. You can dye wool with unsweetened koolaid.

[environmentalact]

More sustainable/ethical alternatives for Amazon.com

Online shopping alternatives that focus more on sustainable products (e.g. less plastics, questionable chemicals, toxic manufacturing) and has more ethical sourcing/employment practices (e.g. made in USA products, fair trade). *please reblog and add to this!*

https://www.grove.co/

https://donegood.co

www.lifewithoutplastic.com

www.packagefreeshop.com

www.azurestandard.com

[greenhacks-deactivated20241111]

https://www.inkforest.net/

[allthebiscuitsingeorgia]

Y’all, listen to this. Red Solo cup is out. It’s done. You use it one time and toss it in the landfill for 10,000 years. The new thing is the Ball Aluminum Cup . You drink out of it once and wash it out and then drink out of it again. Or you can drink out of it once, toss it in the recycle bin and they’ll turn it into Honda parts, or Jon boats, or softball bats, or more Ball aluminum cups. Infinitely recyclable. Says so right on the cup. And the cups are made in Shannon, Georgia.

By the way, they didn’t pay us to say this. It’s just the truth.

[lovely-low-waster]

The key to a greener future is building a sustainable infrastructure and implementing changes in policy. If that’s something you’re interested in forming jobs like these will be necessary to insight change!

photo source from chicksforclimate on instagram

[peppypanda-com]

[intelligentliving]

Award-Winning Vegan Rainboots Made From Coffee Ground Waste

Our coffee habits are starting to have a significant impact on the environment. For example, humans generate more than 250K tonnes of waste coffee grounds per year! With this in mind, award-winning footwear company CCILU is turning coffee grounds into a vegan alternative to materials like leather and yarn to…

[lovely-low-waster]

There’s not only one way to be environmentally friendly. Not everyone does low waste the same so respect others in their pursuit in being more environmentally conscious!

photo from zero.waste.collective on Instagram

[sustainabisexual]

A New Approach to Green Building Could Reverse Climate Change

New research suggests that a new type of green building could become a carbon sink, effectively reversing climate change.

The building sector is one of the biggest contributors to climate change - contributing nearly 39% of global energy use and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Embodied carbon is responsible for 11% of total greenhouse gas emissions. But using materials that store carbon, like straw, wood, linoleum, and cedar, can actually soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the building's walls. It may seem counterintuitive, but just through careful selection of materials, the building sector could transform from a major carbon emitter to a carbon sink.

Building with carbon-intensive materials increases the upfront embodied carbon footprint. Magwood says that the ability to store carbon makes up for the less "energy efficient" structure. In his paper, he even calls for stricter regulations and policies enforcing caps on up-front embodied carbon.

[lovely-low-waster]

Decoding labels is difficult with so many buzzwords and false labels as eco friendly practices become more popular. Many companies slap fake labels onto products. This chart will let you understand some of the labels. If you can recognize these symbols you’ll be able to know if these brands have more legitimacy. Third party certifications do better at holding companies accountable as someone else is actually verifying the standards of practice. 

[chasing-rabbits]

When I got invited to work with The Cheeky Panda I was super excited as I’d already been buying their toilet roll & face wipes plus I am a massive panda fan in fact it was their name that first caught my eye when I saw their wipes in my local boots. The cheeky panda is all about sustainability, their products are made from bamboo, bio degradable & vegan. To find out more about their commitment to sustainability click the link below:

The Cheeky Panda

[shrekshrekshrekshrekshrek]

“all vegan leather is plastic” well i just found a tiktok

[shrekshrekshrekshrekshrek]

the brand is called desserto!! if you’re interested in some ethical vegan leather products i’d definitely recommend them from what i’ve seen. Their instagram is here and their facebook page is here Here’s a little more about it:

Thanks to its strong molecular bonding in which cactus plays an important role, Desserto® offers high resistance to abrasion, rubbing, tearing, tensile and a great durability, this organic, sustainable material is a great alternative to animal leather and other synthetic materials that are not environmentally friendly.

also it may be better than animal leather durability/performance wise, as well as being vegan and environmentally friendly;

Although animal leather is very resistant it is permeable and can even rot or crack if not dried quickly after it gets wet. Desserto® has competitive features handling humidity and liquids very well, it’s fully customizable and breathable.

Here is a link to their bags/purses and here is a few more purses

i haven’t personally tried out there brand but if any of you have please let us know how it is!

[pinklovehearts]

@sunshine-wlw

[abpoli]

Federal government will pay up to $5,000 if you make your home more energy efficient | CBC News

The government of Canada is launching a new program today that offers Canadians grants of up to $5,000 to pay for energy-saving home upgrade

The government of Canada is launching a new program today that offers Canadians grants of up to $5,000 to pay for energy-saving home upgrades.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan rolled out the Canada Greener Homes Grants program today — worth about $2.6 billion over seven years — to help homeowners upgrade heaters, install solar panels and replace windows and doors.

Homeowners will be able to receive grants of up to $5,000 to make energy efficient retrofits to their primary residences, and up to $600 to help with the cost of home energy evaluations.

Continue reading

[practicalsolarpunk]

This is a very spesific question, so if you don't have an answer I understand! But I have an office chair made of plastic and fabric. It needs replaced, but I don't want to give it away. Its design is awful and causes backpain if you use it. But because of the materials, I'd feel bad throwing it away... Is there a way to reuse this peice of junk, or is it a case of something that *actualy* must be thrown away.

That’s definitely a difficult one, but here are a few suggestions:

If the upholstry is part of the problem, here’s step-by-step instructions to reupholster it. You can also try adding more padding to change the shape and make it more comfortable. Putting several layers of something squishy, like craft foam or old blankets, underneath some new upholstry could turn it into a whole new chair

If you’re confident in your DIY skills, you could try adjusting the design so it’s not so awful. Depending on what the problem is (shape, the angle of the backrest, a pointy plastic bit poking you, etc.), you could try altering it to be more usable as a chair. Since you’re already considering trashing it, if it doesn’t work and you screw it up beyond repair, you haven’t lost anything. Here’s some information about fixing office chairs that may or may not be helpful.

If you have cats or know someone who does, you can turn it into a cat bed.

Personally, if I ever had an office chair that wasn’t any good as an office chair, I would make myself a knock-off Soul Seat, which turns the chair part into a platform that you can sit on like you’d sit on the floor and still reach your desk/table/whatever. Instructions for that here.

And I know you said you didn’t want to give it away, but if that’s something you would consider and you’re in the US, you could list it on Freecycle + Trash Nothing and see if anyone wants it even with its shortcomings. A lot of people in my area go through that app to get broken things to disassemble and reuse for other DIY projects, so you might be surprised to find someone who can use it. Google Play link here, Apple App Store link here. They also have a website.

If worst comes to worst, you can disassemble it into its components (metal, plastic, fabric/padding) and find places to recycle it - according to the first part of this article, most of the components of an office chair are recyclable (assuming you have a local recycling center that will deal with them).

Good luck! And if any of these suggestions help you, we love hearing success stories too!

- Mod J