It is no secret that we humans are slowly killing the planet. We consume too much, recycle too little, create too much waste, and produce way too many carbon emissions. Science and common sense both tell us that unless something drastic is done, we may soon reach a point of no return.

But is it possible to save the planet and enjoy life? There are clever people who think that it is. As global consumption continues to spiral out of control, there exists a group of extraordinary humans who have taken up the mantle to try and save us all. Motivated by the wish to heal our planet, they have applied their brains and creativity to figure out a way we can maintain our quality of life and our daily routines cheaply, easily and without much disruption. Thanks to their efforts, environmental consciousness is now at an all-time high.

In 2014, nearly 4,000 school children from Los Angeles, USA participated in a beach cleanup at Dockweiler State Beach, during the Kids Ocean Day. Not only did they clean up the sand beach, but they also participated in a human-lettered sign on the sand that read “Clean Me Up”, to raise awareness about the need to protect our oceans and beaches.

These days, every aspect of our lives is scrutinised. Our food is measured not only nutritionally but judged based on its carbon footprint and food miles, while the mantra “Eat local” rings in our ears. Companies are producing an ever-widening range of daily care products that take care of you, and the environment too. Local authorities are implementing recycling schemes; nationally, governments are imposing environmentally-related taxes. And all the while, technology is being invented to help clean up the mess we have made.

So you know how you used to tease your grandmother for saving shopping bags to reuse over and over again? Or how you would give her a little side-eye because she washed out ice-cream containers and biscuit tins to reuse for storing food? Well, it turns out grandma had the right message all along because being green is the new in. Below are just some of the multitude of ways people are trying to help us live healthier, better and more environmentally-friendly lives. In Buddhism, we talk about reducing the harm we cause to others through the three doors: our body, speech and mind. I hope that reading about these initiatives, it will inspire you to think of new and varied ways to live your lives with less harm to the world around you. And can you think of anything else that people around the world are doing to save our planet? Share your ideas and news in the comments section below!

Pastor Jean Ai

Drifting float system (sea booms)

The drifting float system in action

What is better than cleaning up the ocean? The ocean cleaning up itself! This invention was thought up by probably the youngest person on our list – a Dutch teenager, Boyan Slat, was 16 years old when he was holidaying in Greece and came across more plastic than fish while he was diving. Disturbed by what he observed, he became determined to resolve the problem and at the age of 18, he established The Ocean Cleanup, a foundation dedicated to cleaning up debris from the world’s oceans.

Boyan Slat’s idea centres around the creation of a passive system that utilises circulating ocean currents to drive plastic debris into a floatation system. One to two kilometres long, these floatation systems are composed of a floating pipe which traps debris on the surface, as well as a solid screen underneath to catch and concentrate debris not directly on the surface.

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/OceanCleanup.mp4

Because the system relies on the ocean currents, it does not require an external energy source to drive rubbish into the boom, nor does it require additional energy to move the floatation devices to areas with the highest concentration of debris. Working off of the ocean current, these U-shaped systems will naturally drift into areas where the world’s ocean currents congregate (known as gyres). This also happens to be the places where plastic naturally accumulates; the booms will concentrate the plastic debris before it can be extracted by support vessels for transportation back to shore, for proper disposal.

The Seabin

The Seabin is a rubbish bin that can be submerged in the water in harbours and marinas to trap debris and rubbish.

The Seabin was invented by two Australian surfers who, as frequent beachgoers, noticed that the beaches and marinas were degenerating. Putting their knowledge of the ocean into good use, they created the Seabin which is a floating rubbish bin that collects rubbish, plastic and oil from the sea.

The device can be dropped at any harbour, port, marina or yacht club and thanks to a land-based pump which creates a flow of water, rubbish and debris are drawn into the bin. The rubbish is collected in a natural fibre catch bag and when it is full, the bag is lifted out of the ocean. The rubbish is then discarded properly, for example by recycling what can be recycled. The emptied Seabin is then returned into the ocean, to continue its cleaning duties.

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/SeabinProject.mp4

Mr. Trash Wheel

Click on image to enlarge

Officially known as the Inner Harbor Water Wheel, this large machine has been dropped into the Baltimore Harbor (in the USA) where water power and solar power are used to run a water wheel. This, in turns, powers a conveyor belt. Rotating forks that dip into and out of the water pick up the trash and place it onto a conveyor belt, and everything is collected in a dumpster.

Mr. Trash Wheel was invented by John Kellett and since its launch in 2008, its initial design has been improved to incorporate a bigger dumpster and the ability to pick up larger matter. It has also been joined by two more similarly-powered trash wheels in an effort to clean up the harbour.

Reusable straws

Reusable straws come in many shapes, colours and materials. They aim to end the world’s reliance on single-use straws.

If you did not see the 2015 video of a turtle crying and bleeding profusely as a plastic straw is pulled out of its nostril, you must have been one of a very small handful of people. Three years later, in 2018, the turtle video was followed by that of a pilot whale which was found barely alive in a Thai canal. Despite numerous attempts to rescue and nurse the whale back to health, it died. During its autopsy, it was found to have ingested piles of plastic bags and trash. Marine biologists concluded that not only had the whale choked to death but it had also starved, eating up to 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of indigestible, poisonous and nutritionally-void plastic thinking it was jellyfish.

Some of the 80 plastic bags found in the pilot whale’s stomach. During the unsuccessful rescue attempts, the whale vomited up five bags before it finally died.

Videos like these took the Internet by storm and the footage was met with near-universal revulsion for our plastic dependence. Although the videos made for difficult viewing, it is thanks to videos like this that more and more people are giving up single-use plastic items. Shops in Malaysia for example, now charge 20sen (about US$0.05) for a plastic bag, hoping to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable ones.

In more recent times, there has been a movement to get rid of one of the biggest single-use culprits: plastic straws. Many people are now replacing these with alternatives made from stainless steel, vulcanized rubber, pasta and even the ubiquitous water spinach a.k.a. kang kong! The growing consciousness around the evils of single-use plastic has even motivated big corporations to get in on the action. In 2018, in a widely-celebrated move, Starbucks announced that by 2020, they would no longer be providing plastic straws in any of their outlets globally.

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/SeaTurtle.mp4

It truly is a sign of the times for this move would not have been possible just a few years ago, when Starbucks would have been wary about losing customers and upsetting investors. There is a lot of hope that with Starbucks proving it is possible to get rid of straws, that more and more global companies will follow suit. McDonald’s UK, American Airlines and Marriott Hotels have already taken similar steps…Burger King, Subway and Wendy’s, we are lookin’ at you!

Compostable crockery and cutlery

While bamboo crockery and cutlery have been on the market for years, a few innovative products have stood out in more recent times. Nowadays, some very interesting alternative-to-plastic crockery and cutlery are popping up in the stores, making it easier than ever for us to ditch our plastic habit.

About two years ago, news about an innovative Indian company called Bakeys began to make its rounds on the Internet. It featured a man by the name of Narayana Peesapaty who was producing millet forks and spoons in India, to simultaneously combat poor nutrition and plastic pollution.

Every year, 120 billion plastic utensils are discarded in India alone, creating a huge problem in terms of pollution. Peesapaty’s millet cutlery is intended to be a nutritionally-dense replacement for single-use plastic cutlery that is also environmentally-friendly because the user can consume the cutlery once they are done with it. Not only is millet a crop native to India (meaning it will not invade its ecosystem and overtake native plants), but the main advantage of millet is that it is a water-conservative crop compared to, for example, rice which is a water-intensive crop that requires 60 times more water than millet to cultivate. In many areas of India where clean running water is a luxury, this is particularly significant.

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/EdibleSpoonBakeys.mp4

Bakeys has also been praised for buying millet crop directly from the farmers, thereby providing them with a more sustainable income, as well as hiring women from lower income groups.

The millet cutlery has been swiftly followed by wheat bran and wheat straw crockery ranging from dinner plates to soup bowls and cups, produced by companies like World Centric, BioTrem and Eco-Products. They have become so common, they can even be found in places like Bentong, the rural town near Kechara Forest Retreat. These wheat plates feel and look just like plastic, but they are durable, compostable and in some cases, even microwaveable. What is more, companies like World Centric are making use of byproduct from wheat production to make these plates. Wheat straw is ordinarily treated as agricultural waste and in some countries, farmers get rid of it by burning, thereby creating further air pollution. By making use of an agricultural byproduct for the plates, it means there is no further significant water consumption required in the production of these plates.

Meat-free alternatives

A range of meat-free alternatives have hit the supermarket shelves in recent years, including the wildly-popular Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat burger.

The last few years has seen a recent boom in this industry. Companies like Impossible Food and Beyond Meat have taken to the laboratories, using science to produce an ever-growing range of tasty meat-free alternatives so that we can eat a more environmentally-friendly diet, but not at the cost of our tastebuds.

The idea is to make meat-free alternatives as delicious, familiar and easily-accessible to consumers as possible. They want to make it easy for people to give up meat because in addition to being cruel to animals, the production of meat has a very negative impact on the environment. It produces industrial runoffs which pollute our waterways, and a comparatively large volume of water is used to produce the crops required to feed the animals. The animals themselves also produce large amounts of methane gas, which adds to the deterioration of our ozone.

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/ImpossibleBurger.mp4

Science has also confirmed that meat consumption in excess is harmful to our health, and many doctors in the United States are starting to recommend a vegetarian diet to their patients, having seen the health benefits of going meat-free. So not only does meat harm the environment, and harm the animals, but it also harms the people who consume it. With so many disbenefits to meat consumption, it is no wonder people are beginning to explore meat-free alternatives. Products in Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat have been well-received, garnering positive reviews even from avowed carnivores.

With vegetarianism and veganism growing, the race is on to produce these meat-free alternatives more cheaply and efficiently so that the products can hit the mass market.

Beeswax wraps

The brainchild of Sarah Kaeck, a resident of Vermont, USA, beeswax wraps are intended to be a natural alternative to clingwrap, also known as clingfilm or Saran Wrap, which do not decompose. Instead, they end up in our rivers and oceans, where unsuspecting marine life try to consume it.

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/BeeswaxWraps.mp4

The beeswax wraps are all-natural cotton soaked in beeswax and using the heat of your hands, they can be moulded to fit the shape of your containers to provide a tight seal. They have no smell so they will not transfer or soak up food odors and being washable, they are therefore reusable. Given proper care, these beeswax wraps have a lifespan of up to one year. They are popularly used to pack lunches, cheese, fruit…you name it, you can think of it, the beeswax wraps will wrap it!

While the original product, Bee’s Wrap, was invented in Vermont, a whole slew of companies offering similar products have sprung up and these are now easily available on the Internet.

Bamboo toothbrushes

Choose green, choose bamboo!

Biodegradable and basically indistinguishable from regular toothbrushes, bamboo toothbrushes have become a popular alternative and easy way to help the environment. Every day, thousands of plastic toothbrushes are thrown out and they end up in our landfills and in our rivers and lakes, and in the ocean. With bamboo toothbrushes however, this is no longer the case.

Once the toothbrush has outlived its lifespan, the user only needs to yank out the bristles before discarding the toothbrush which, being wood, will naturally decompose. Since dentists recommend that we change our toothbrushes every three months to maintain their effectiveness, these bamboo toothbrushes are an easy solution to the unnecessary trash we create every few months.

Castile soap

The best product is one that has multiple uses, and few are as multifunctional as Castile soap. Castile soap can be used as shampoo, as soap, as face wash, as laundry detergent, as a vegetable wash, as a window cleaner, to wash your pets with. If you can think of something that needs cleaning, Castile soap can clean it!

Traditional Castile soap is made only from vegetable oils, including olive oil, coconut oil or palm oil. It is a favourite amongst the environmentally-conscious not only because it is gentle on the body, but because it is gentle on the environment too. Regular soaps and shampoos are produced from chemicals which, when washed down our showers and drains, end up in waterways and waterbodies, poisoning them. With traditional Castile soap however, which contains only olive oil, lye and distilled water, this environmental impact is dramatically reduced. And because it uses vegetable oils (rather than animal fat), Castile soap is an appropriate choice for vegetarians and vegans.

Traditional Castile soap only contains three ingredients so it can easily be made at home but for the less domestically-inclined, there are commercially-produced soaps available. One of the most popular and readily-available brands out there includes Dr Bronner’s.

For more interesting information:

• The Animals, Vegetarianism & Environment category on my blog
• Earthlings
• If slaughterhouses had glass walls…
• 10 Superstar Athletes Who Don’t Eat Meat
• Guess What Paul Tried?
• Where Does Leather Come From?
• California Says Pet Stores Can Only Sell Rescued Animals
• Do you know what Gucci did?
• Rabbis Urge Jews to Go Vegan in Global Campaign
• What to Order on the Menu? | 今日菜单
• 66 Million!
• The Vegan Prince and Clean Energy
• US Health Experts Call on Hospitals to Serve Vegan Food
• You Cannot Believe What This Man Gave Away!
• Do you know what is killing us slowly?
• Books That Are A Must-Read!

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