#anyways not to get all eco friendly on the hydration blog but this is definitely an important thing to talk about!

[reminders-to-drink-water]

Liquid Death is a brand that carries regular water, and flavored water. Plus it is in metal cans so no plastic.

That's pretty cool! Definitely a good alternative to plastic.

[itsawildlife-blog1]

Blog 2: Part 2

a. Outdoor Winter Activity

I could not participate in the Jack Frost Challenge, but this Reading Week I visited Hecla Grindstone Provincial Park with my family, and we went all-out with the winter activities. The activities I participated in were snow-shoeing, ice fishing, and a winter bonfire! These activities had the effect of making me more relaxed and allowing me to take some time away from studying. My family and I had some much-needed bonding time in between my study sessions, and it brought all of us closer and made us all more happy. The only thing that could have made the experience better would have been those hot-packs that you put in your boots and gloves. Although I dressed very warmly, my hands and feet ended up getting cold quite quickly, even in front of a fire. Other winter activities that I would be interested in participating in, either on campus or elsewhere, would be bird-watching or wildlife tracking. It is very cool to watch the animals that are so well-adapted to the winter weather, and identifying wildlife tracks is easy and fun in the snow. Anyway, here are pictures of my ice fishing adventures. We didn’t catch anything, but it was still a great time!

b. Chemicals in Personal Care Products

I’ve picked three of my personal care products to research via EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Database: Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste, Nivea Creme, and TRESemme shampoo.

I use Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste for sensitive teeth, and it has an EWG rating of 3. Overall, the ingredient hazards are low to moderate. The most concerning were the “use restrictions” on some of the ingredients such as stannous fluoride and glycerine. As well, there is a concern about allergies and immunotoxicity in this product due to the ingredient cocamidopropyl bentaine. In addition to allergies and immunotoxicity concerns, there is also a concern about contamination of the ingredient and ecotoxicological effects on the environment. Organ-system toxicity shows up as a concern for many ingredients such as PEG-8 and titanium dioxide. As well, persistence and bioaccumulation is a concern in the ingredient hydrated silica. Although most of these concerns are low, and there is no evidence of carcinogens or endocrine disruptors, I find it shocking to see the possible concerns that surround the ingredients of toothpaste. In particular, it is concerning to me that there are ecotoxicological effects, especially since toothpaste is going down the drain and possibly into waterways.

I have used Nivea Creme for basically everything, including on my hands, feet, and face as a whole-body moisturizer since I was a baby. It is shocking to me that the EWG rating is 4, and that some of the ingredients have very high ratings signifying highly hazardous chemicals. Overall, there is a low risk of carcinogens, but there still is a risk. For both allergies/immunotoxicity and use restrictions, there is a moderate to high hazard concern. The fragrance ingredient has a very high hazard of 8, and its main concerns are allergies/immunotoxicity, skin/eye/lung irritation, organ system toxicity, and ecotoxicology. The ingredient methylisothiazolinone also has a high hazard rating of 7, with concerns that include neurotoxicity. Another hazardous ingredient is methylchloroisothiazolinone, which is concerning due to its capability of causing cancer, among other concerns. An interesting ingredient in Nivea with a moderate hazard rating is petrolatum. This ingredient is hazardous in part because there are contamination concerns with PAHs. I know that these are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and that they persist in the environment and inside organisms from our discussions in class about them. The EWG website states that there is a concern about PAHs as carcinogens and endocrine disruptors due to bioaccumulation in wildlife and humans. This is especially concerning because the EWG website states that PAHs are prohibited and restricted in Canada, and yet there is a possibility of contamination in the ingredients of Nivea Creme. I don’t know if this will stop me from using Nivea Creme, but it definitely makes me more cautious about what products I buy in the future.

Well, it seems as though my personal care products keep getting worse and worse. TRESemme shampoo has a EWG hazard rating of 5. This means that it is of medium concern, approaching high concern. There is once again very high hazards surrounding the fragrance ingredient, where there are concerns about allergies/immunotoxicity, skin/eye/lung irritation, organ system toxicity, and ecotoxicology. Methylisothiazolinone and methylchloroisothiazolinone are again found in this shampoo just as in Nivea Creme, introducing concerns about neurotoxicity and cancer. Other ingredients of concern are DMDM hydantoin and imidazolidinyl urea, which are both termed “formaldehyde releasers.” This creates medium-high concerns that there is formaldehyde as a contaminant because of these ingredients. The EWG website states that formaldehyde is used as an anti-microbial, but exposure can cause severe allergies towards this substance.

The information that I have read about the hazards in my personal care products is shocking, but not completely surprising considering all the chemicals we read in ingredients list that are almost impossible to recognize unless you are a chemist. I’m glad that the EWG website exists, because now I can check my other personal care products and see where I can make changes to healthier products.

c. One-week Purchase Analysis

For the week of Feb. 26 to March 4, I made four different purchases: two food items and two non-food items. These are: a Tim Horton’s mug, a shirt from Columbia Sportswear, a Starbucks green tea Frappuccino, and a bubble milk tea from Panda Tea.

To place my purchases into the categories of “Good,” “Bad,” and “Ugly,” I will use the screening criteria of where the product was made or where the ingredients were made (to see environmental and social impacts), and how mush waste is made to produce each product, including the waste produced by using the product.

First, I want to go over where the various items were made. My Tim’s mug was made in China, so even though Tim’s is seen as a very Canadian brand, it’s definitely not locally sourced. As well, it is almost impossible to tell what the social impacts are: for example, if the workers making the mugs are being paid fairly or not is unknown. For my Starbucks Frappuccino, it has been difficult to find the origins of every single ingredient, but the major ingredient would be the Matcha Green Tea Powder, which Starbucks lists as coming from Japan on their website. Although this is obviously not a locally made product, Starbucks is part of the Ethical Tea Partnership and so 65% of their tea products are ethically sourced, with the goal of having them 100% ethically sourced by 2020. Therefore, Starbucks seems to have a positive social impact. My Columbia shirt was made in Sri Lanka, and despite the social problems that often come from large clothing companies having their apparel made in sweatshops, Columbia is listed as an exporter on the Sri Lanka Export Development Board website. The SLEDB website claims that fair wages are being paid and even that many businesses are involved in LEED, which is a green building standard that we talked about in class. So, for now, I’ll give Columbia the benefit of the doubt because I could not find any evidence for poor conditions in Columbia clothing factories. As for my bubble tea, it has been extremely difficult finding out where Panda Tea gets its ingredients and materials. My main interest is in the bobas (bubbles) in the tea which are made from tapioca. According to the website http://garden.lovetoknow.com, tapioca comes from the cassava root, which is mainly grown now in Brazil, Nigeria, and Thailand. It states that the cassava plant is very hardy and drought resistant, and provides a reliable source of food as well as income to those who grow it due to the rising popularity of tapioca. So, although the ingredients have to travel long distances, some of them may have positive social impacts.

Now I’d like to discuss the waste produced by each product and the resources used to make them. For my Tim Horton’s mug, although ceramic is a great alternative to using paper cups, the website Green Lifestyle states that ceramic mugs take a lot of energy to make because kilns needed to be super-heated. So even though ceramic mugs reduce waste from disposable cups, they need to be used many times to offset the resource requirements for making ceramics. Now shifting to Starbucks, I use a reusable cold cup for my Frappuccinos so I have eliminated plastic waste on my end. Further research on the Starbucks website shows that they are working on initiatives for recycling, water conservation, energy conservation, building greener stores, and lowering their Ecological Footprint. As for Columbia Sportswear, I took a look at the clothing tag, and my shirt is made from cotton and polyester. According to the website Green Living, since cotton is a natural fiber, it can be environmentally friendly since it is a renewable resource. However, if the cotton is not certified organic, there can be many pesticides going into its growth. Since Columbia is not certified eco-friendly in any way, I’m assuming that its cotton is not organic. As well, polyester is a petroleum by-product of processing oil, so it is definitely not environmentally friendly. Lastly, for my bubble tea from Panda Tea, my main concern is how much plastic comes from the consumption of bubble teas. All of the cups, straws, and lids are plastic and end up in the garbage, and Panda Tea doesn’t offer any reusable alternatives.

Based on the information I’ve gathered above, I’m placing my Starbucks Frappuccino in the “Good” category because of their environmental and socially ethical initiatives. My Tim Horton’s mug is being placed into the “Ugly” category for being made so far away in China, and for ceramic being resource-intensive. I am placing both my Columbia shirt and Bubble Tea in the “Bad” category because Columbia uses environmentally unfriendly clothing fibers and Panda Tea produces much plastic waste. Although there may be some truth about Columbia having fair wages in Sri Lanka and the positives of growing cassava root for tapioca, there is limited information available for the environmental and impacts of these companies. Dollar values spent in each category: $5 in “Good,” $30 in “Bad,” and $8 in “Ugly.”

This result was not what I expected. I thought that my shirt and my mug would be the most eco-friendly, because Columbia is an outdoor-wear company, and Tim’s is Canadian. However, seeing this information, there are definitely changes that I’d like to make. First, I would like to email and inquire to Panda Tea where they get their ingredients from and if they would consider selling reusable cups. Second, I’d like to try and stop buying clothing that uses environmentally unfriendly fibers, and look for something like hemp or even alpaca fleece, as suggested by the Green Living website. Third, I would like to buy my products more locally. Something that all the products I bought have in common is that none are even made in Canada. The distance that they have to travel and the emissions that are produced are large factors in the impacts they create. Overall, I hope to make the change of being more aware of what I am purchasing.

d. E-waste

I feel as though the problem of Electronic Waste is a fairly modern issue arising as people more frequently buy new versions of cellphones, laptops, and tablets. I am currently on my third cellphone, which is my second iPhone. My family is big on using the electronics that still work and not throwing them away, so my very first flip-phone now belongs to my mom, and soon she is going to switch to using my older iPhone. In terms of planning our future purchases, we do not buy new electronics often. I buy a new phone about very 5 years, my parents have shared their iPad for about 8 years, and we’ve had our desktop Mac for upwards of 10 years. We essentially plan to only buy new electronics when our current ones die completely.

Before researching E-waste recycling, I would have answered this question by saying that our electronics will end up in a landfill just like regular waste. However, after researching, I have found out that Winnipeg has electronic waste recycling initiatives and even specific programs for recycling cellphones! The website http://www.winnipeg.ca/waterandwaste/garbage/electronics.stm has a comprehensive list of electronic items that can be recycled by dropping them off at a 4R Winnipeg depot or an EPRA drop-off location in the city. As well, the City of Winnipeg outlines the reason why electronics should be recycling in a responsible manner: heavy metals. The presence of cadmium, lead, and mercury in many electronics makes leaving them in a landfill dangerous for the environment.

In addition, the City of Winnipeg provides a link to Canada’s Recycle My Cell program, found at https://www.recyclemycell.ca. After searching for drop-off locations around Winnipeg, I’ve found that the majority of electronics stores and cell service providers around Winnipeg will take cellphones to be recycled. Recycle My Cell and Recycle My Electronics (https://www.recyclemyelectronics.ca/) have even provided a step-by-step guide to wiping electronics in order to protect your own personal information. Recycle My Electronics goes through the entire “Journey of End-of-Life Electronics” to show what happens, and the resources that can be saved and extracted, when electronics such as cellphones are recycled.

Researching these options for my E-waste has given me the ability to know the proper way of electronic disposal, and plan how my family can deal with old electronics in the future. Now I can be sure that my E-waste is not damaging the environment!

Sources:

Blackburn, Rebecca. “Disposable Coffee Cups vs Ceramic Mugs.” Green Lifestyle: Simple Sustainable Living, Green Lifestyle, 9 Apr. 2009, www.greenlifestylemag.com.au/features/1017/disposable-coffee-cups-vs-ceramic-mugs.

“Environmental Stewardship.” Starbucks' Social Responsibility and Sustainability, Starbucks Coffee Company, 2018, www.starbucks.ca/responsibility/environment.

“Nivea Creme.” Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, EWG, July 2013, http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/523506/Nivea_Creme_%28old_formulation%29/#.WqCxM4JG3Vo.

Patterson, Susan. “Tapioca Plants.” Home and Garden, LoveToKnow, 2018, garden.lovetoknow.com/tapioca-plants.

“Recycle My Cell.” Recycle My Cell, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, 2018, www.recyclemycell.ca/.

“Recycle My Electronics Manitoba.” Recycle My Electronics, Electronic Products Recycling Association, 2017, www.recyclemyelectronics.ca/mb/.

Stapley-Ponikowski, Marissa. “A Guide to Natural and Eco-Friendly Fabrics.” Green Living, Green Living Enterprises , 2018, www.greenlivingonline.com/article/guide-natural-and-eco-friendly-fabrics.

“Sensodyne ProNamel.” Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, EWG, July 2016, http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/465972/Sensodyne_ProNamel_Gentle_Whitening_Toothpaste_for_Sensitive_Teeth/#.WqCyuIJG3Vo.

“Sustainability and Ethical Practices.” Sri Lanka Export Development Board, Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade, 2018, www.srilankabusiness.com/apparel/sustainability-and-ethical-practices.html.

“TRESemme Shampoo.” Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, EWG, July 2016, http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/691447/TRESemme_Color_Revitalize_Shampoo/#.WqCzyIJG3Vo.

Water and Waste Department of Winnipeg. “Electronic Waste (e-Waste).” Electronic Waste - Garbage That Needs Special Handling, City of Winnipeg, 15 Dec. 2016, www.winnipeg.ca/waterandwaste/garbage/electronics.stm.