Sustainability

[jay6]

Hello! I'm wondering how the BIC limits their plastic consumption. For example: saying no to the bag/tissue, buying from environmentally conscious brands, etc. What do you do different?

[yuline]

Plastic waste takes forever to decompose more than our lifetime.  It’s about saving the planet for future generations and wild life. I love seafood but sadly some of my faves are no longer available for consumption due to nearing extinction from pollution and global warming.  Plastics exposure that accumulates in the body also raises cancer risk significantly. I see many people routinely in healthcare with newly diagnosed cancers many in later stages or terminal.  I was never environmentally conscious for most of my life but in the past few years, I switched to reusable cloth bags (FYI a lot of supermarkets like Trader Joe’s sells really affordable good reusable bags). I am astonished at how much plastic that has saved. Mountains and mountains. With beauty products, my pet peeve is tamper proof seal so that you know no one has broken into it but yeah that’s plastic so it’s difficult to avoid (maybe a paper seal can do the trick). That being said, I still do use plastic bags for trash and carrying some things but much much less than before. It’s hard to completely go cold turkey.  I switched to stainless steel and glass water bottles too. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the thought maybe these efforts are futile and not really making a difference.

[itscarin]

I don’t do anything differently I just feel bad about the packaging. My biggest source of guilt is oat McGrath. I wish she would use more minimalistic packaging for mail orders and the actual products. I have bags of her stuff filled with sequins I’ve never opened because it’s too messy and feels overwhelming. 

[greeneyedgirl107]

@jay6 I try to do many of the things already listed.  One additional thing that I have started doing, though, is e-mailing companies when I think their packaging is inappropriate.  I just got a Versed lippie and was horrified to see it came in a plastic bag - so unnecessary!  And this from a company that bills itself as cruelty-free which IMHO doesn't just mean refraining from animal testing.

[CC3616]

@jay6 Thanks for bringing this up! Such a very important topic and something we think about a good bit in our home.

At home we have made lots of changes the last couple years. We replaced our plastic tupperware and cups/eatery with glass as they died. Stopped using the keurig and went to pour over coffee with biodegradable filters. Invested in more dinner/serveware so we didn't have to use single use for parties/holidays. Take our own bags and if we forget, reuse the little ones for trash, dog poo, etc. Trying to not use single use ziploc bags as much (re-usable storage bags, taking snacks in glass containers). Shop bulk bins at stores to reduce packaging. No put our produce in plastic baggies. Not purchase pre-packed produce when able. Using washcloths for cleaning rags instead of paper towels. Keeping spray bottles to reuse. Using re-usable pads on the swiffer instead of single use. Getting aluminum water bottles instead of re-usable plastic (I always keep one in my car when I'm out and about). Re-usable metal straws for guests who want to use them. Clustering amazon deliveries to our "amazon delivery day" unless absolutely needed. Donating lightly used goods and buying/selling on FB marketplace or apps instead of buying new. 

Beauty wise, I have been going towards a lot more natural products with recycled/recyclable packaging. Purchasing no package things from lush. Re-using containers for travel/storage and candle jars for storage. I have a lot of cotton balls to use up then I would like to switch to washable/re-usable rounds. I still use them, but have cut back majorly on sheet mask usage because of the waste generated and gone to mostly wash off, multi use masks. Donating/gifting things I won't use instead of tossing them. 

[WinglessOne]

@jay6  I’ve taken my own reusable bags to stores (all stores, not just beauty retailers) for many years. So when Chicago’s 7¢ bag tax went into effect in 2017, I wasn’t impacted. 😄 I usually decline tissue paper, but I also like to reuse it to pack gift bags/boxes and packages—though I realize it’s not recyclable in some places. I do recycle as much stuff as I can, taking note of which things we can’t drop in our blue bins here in Chicago and which items need to be taken to a drop-off instead. There are stores and online programs that’ll accept cosmetics empty containers/casing from various brands, including things folks may not realize are recyclable, like lipstick bullet cases. And Wands for Wildlife still gets my old washed mascara wands; I keep forgetting to see if any other wildlife refuge centers can use them. 

I reuse/upcycle lots of things. Some of us on BIC have talked about what we do with our Pat McGrath sequins, and now I need to think up ways to repurpose the black plastic tinsel PMG uses to pad their packages. (I miss the old black shredded paper padding, though that also couldn’t be recycled here.) I wish companies would stop putting their boxed products inside plastic boxes and shrink wrap. Sephora does this with some of their own branded accessories and it drives me a little nuts. Huda Beauty’s demi-matte liquid lipsticks come in very unnecessary plastic boxes. When a company’s plastic box/wrap for a product doesn’t have a recycle triangle + number, or doesn’t state the box/wrap is compostable, I get annoyed. 

Let’s see, what else... I haven’t owned a car in 20 years. I walk a lot and take public transit. I grew up in Michigan where you pretty much need a car to get around. Before moving to Chicago, I never imagined life without a car. But I had my car here for just a couple years before selling it. 😄 A car is completely unnecessary for me here, and I no longer have to deal with moving my car from one side of the street to the other in the winter (snow plows), buying a city sticker (um, “wheel tax”) and neighborhood parking sticker, paying too much for parking, the inevitable tickets, getting booted and towed, let alone insurance and gas and everything else. Good grief. 

I don’t completely limit my shopping to environmentally conscious companies/brands, but I do generally appreciate them. Though just because a brand cares about the environment, doesn’t mean their products are worth buying, of course. 

[treestar86]

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@WinglessOne wrote:
Let’s see, what else... I haven’t owned a car in 20 years. I walk a lot and take public transit. I grew up in Michigan where you pretty much need a car to get around. Before moving to Chicago, I never imagined life without a car. But I had my car here for just a couple years before selling it. 😄 A car is completely unnecessary for me here, and I no longer have to deal with moving my car from one side of the street to the other in the winter (snow plows), buying a city sticker (um, “wheel tax”) and neighborhood parking sticker, paying too much for parking, the inevitable tickets, getting booted and towed, let alone insurance and gas and everything else. Good grief. 

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not to rant again, but ugh, I'm so sick of this car-centric society.  It's especially depressing living in such a supposedly "bike-friendly" town, where still 99% of people drive everywhere and I'm surrounded by cars and don't even want to go outside anymore. 😞 

I think this is the #1 thing that ppl can do to improve the environment and society, by reducing pollution of course, but also the noise and stress caused by cars, among other things...but no one wants to talk about it bc this society's been brainwashed to think it's normal or cool or successful.