Shave waste free and save the environment

 There are many ways plastic can sneak into our lives, and a disposable plastic razor is one of them.

According to the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) approximately two billion disposable razors enter landfills every year in the United States of America. Men and women spend a small fortune on these plastic items which are designed to be discarded and replaced frequently. These items are used for approximately two weeks to three months before the entire razor or razor head is replaced.

Most disposable razors are made from a plastic that never truly breaks down. Limited recycling programs make it difficult for people to dispose of their razors responsibly, with most ending up in landfill. The plastic can last in the environment for over 1,000 years and then eventually break down into smaller fragments.

You can still have an incredibly close and comfortable shave while reducing your impact on the environment – simply swap a plastic disposable razor for a reusable safety razor. Every part of a reusable safety razor is truly zero waste. Parker safety razors, made from brass with a chrome plating, are 100 per cent plastic free and designed to last a lifetime. The replaceable razor blades can be recycled at the end of their use, unlike disposable razors, which cannot be easily recycled as they are fixed inside the plastic razor head.

Investing in a reusable razor will not only reduce the impact on the environment, but will potentially save individuals hundreds of dollars every year.

Related: Your war on waste; Battling Australia’s bottled water crisis; The state of Australia’s waste    

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Park Lake State School recycles over 14,700 empty beauty products

Park Lake State School in the Gold Coast, Queensland, has won Australia’s first playground made from recycled beauty products in the national Garnier Recycled Playground Competition, in which schools around the country recycled over 145,000 empty beauty care products otherwise destined for landfill.

Technically, beauty product waste – such as empty shampoo bottles, used lipstick and body wash dispensers – is recyclable in Australia, however due to the high cost of recycling mixed-plastic items like these, most beauty product waste ends up in landfill. TerraCycle is an international recycling and upcycling company that takes hard-to-recycle packaging and turns it into affordable, innovative products.

From 9 October to 8 December 2017, Garnier and global recycling pioneers TerraCycle ran the Garnier Recycled Playground Competition to encourage preschools and primary schools nationwide to collect and recycle empty beauty products of all brands, and raise awareness about waste and recycling. Park Lake State School was the competition’s top collector for 2017. The school won a $45,000 recycled playground made from beauty product waste, which all schools collected during the competition period.

The empty beauty products collected by schools will be cleaned, shredded and melted down into hard plastic, which will be remoulded to make the playground. In its operations, TerraCycle’s goal is to create materials that can be used as a sustainable alternative to virgin materials and plastics, which require more crude oil in their production.

The Garnier Recycled Playground Competition was open to all pre- and primary schools and together, all participating schools collected an outstanding 145,000 units of empty beauty products. The competition runners-up up were Colyton Public School in Mt Druitt, NSW, and Main Arm Upper Primary School in Main Arm, NSW, who won $4,500 worth of prizes between them.

“We’ve been really inspired by Australian schools’ commitment to recycling in this program, and by their hard work in raising awareness about waste and sustainability,” said Jean Bailliard, General Manager of TerraCycle Australia & New Zealand. “The level of community support for local schools has been phenomenal.”

The 2017 Garnier & TerraCycle Recycled Playground Competition is part of the broader Beauty Products Recycling Program sponsored by the L’Oréal Australia Group, which includes brands such as Garnier, Maybelline, L’Oréal Paris and La Roche-Posay. The program allows all Australians to divert empty skin care, hair care and cosmetic products from landfill free-of-charge. Additionally, for each approved unit of beauty product waste received, collectors earn AU$0.02 per item for funding towards their school or nominated charity.

It’s free and easy to recycle beauty product waste with the Beauty Products Recycling Program – everyone can join and collect! The Beauty Products Recycling Program is ongoing, so schools and the community can continue to collect, recycle and raise funds in 2018. For more information about the Beauty Products Recycling Program, visit garnier.com.au/green.

TerraCycle program at Biome:

Biome Eco Stores currently offer a complimentary in store 'end of life' recycling program to all Biome customers. They accept all used product packaging and beauty and cleaning containers, which will then be responsibly recycled through the TerraCycle program.

Related: The environmental impact of plastic straws; The true environmental costs of disposable coffee cups; The environmental problem with palm oil

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The environmental problem with palm oil

The world is currently bordering on witnessing the utter consequences of a significant environmental disaster. The global consumption of palm oil intensified by recent decades of commercial demand has dramatically increased production, causing catastrophic and widespread environmental destruction. Found in a vast range of commercial products, palm oil is directly linked to several environmental issues including mass deforestation, animal cruelty, habitat degradation and fragmentation, climate change, exploitation of indigenous rights, and impending extinction of certain endangered species. Without consumer awareness and objection, the effects of unsustainable palm oil will likely join the ranks of the world’s worst environmental disasters facilitated by humans. 

Over 60 million tons of palm oil is produced each year with estimations of it doubling over the next decade. With the highest rate of deforestation in the world, Indonesia is also the highest producer of palm oil, supplying over 61 percent to global markets with Malaysia following close behind. These two countries combined produce almost 90 percent of the world’s palm oil on three islands, Borneo, Sumatra and Papua. Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of the African oil palm which grows rapidly in monoculture plantations in peatlands pressing at the boundaries of the last protected areas of these forests. Around 300 football fields of the world’s most biologically diverse rainforests are felled every hour for palm oil plantations, killing around 6000 orangutans, plus Sumatran tigers and many other species every year.

Australians unknowingly consume on average 10 kilograms of palm oil each year and unclear food labelling makes it hard for people to exercise their consumer choice. Palm oil is a high yield and low cost versatile ingredient used extensively in most manufactured foods, cleaning products, body care, make up and bio fuels. Currently, there is a significant ‘glossing over’ occurring in the industry where most brands are choosing to not disclose the use of palm oil on their packaging. Inadequate government labelling regulations allow brands to hide palm oil behind more than 200 alternate names such as vegetable oil, Glycerine, Plant Surfactant and Caprylic Triglyceride, making it extremely confusing for consumers to identify. While some brands claim to be cruelty free and promote everything they do not contain, palm oil is used and hidden in their formulations. 

To further complicate the issue, there is substantial greenwashing around the term ‘sustainable palm oil’ which makes 99 percent of ‘sustainable palm oil’ claims unreliable. The industry’s self-regulating body the RSPO has developed a complex certification scheme that allows non-certified oil use such as GreenPalm to be labelled ‘sustainable’. The only 100 percent certain way to know if the palm oil used in a product is sustainable is to trace it back to plantation where it was grown, and this is almost impossible. The complex supply chain, hidden nature of palm oil use, and the fuzzy certification scheme have allowed manufacturers to get away with the guise of ‘sustainable palm oil’ for too long. For this reason, it is not possible to rely on a brand's assurances that they use ‘sustainable palm oil’ because they generally have not obtained thorough and legally binding commitments from their suppliers. 

Biome is 100% free from palm oil, and no longer stocks products with palm oil derived ingredients.

What can you do?

There are five ways you can avoid products containing palm oil and help reduce the destruction caused by palm oil cultivation.

1. Avoid all products containing palm oil, including processed and packaged foods;
2. Don’t trust claims including cruelty free, organic, vegan and sustainable palm oil;
3. Check ingredients lists for Glycerine, Plant Surfactant and Caprylic Triglyceride;
4. Adopt an orangutan or donate money to BOS Australia to help purchase a large block of rainforest on Borneo; and
5. Shop for palm oil free products at Biome.

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How to improve gut health naturally

Supporting healthy gut microbiome is important for overall body health and digestion. Many studies have found links between gut microbiota imbalances and numerous health illnesses including depression, anxiety, obesity, fatigue, irregular blood sugar levels and inflammatory bowel disease.

You can improve your gut health by consuming foods that contain the right prebiotics for gut bacteria health including almonds, asparagus, cereal grains, garlic, greens, kiwi, leeks, legumes, mushrooms, oats, onions and bananas. These are also known as prebiotics which are indigestible carbohydrates that reach the intestines and provide nutrients to various strains of beneficial bacteria in that area.

Resistance starch is a beneficial prebiotic that supports gut bacteria and can be found in a variety of foods including raw potatoes and green bananas. Green bananas produce the world’s best quality resistant starch high in minerals that feed healthy gut bacteria.

Green banana nutritional supplements can improve your health by providing multi-fibre nutrition that nourishes gut bacteria and supports general wellbeing. Natural Evolution produce a range of baking products made from green bananas including resistance starch, baking flour and smoothie mixes which provide excellent gluten-free, vegan and paleo alternatives. The Green Banana baking flour and resistance starch can be added to a range of meals including soups, cakes, bliss and protein balls, smoothies and cereals.

Green banana products aren’t just good for your health, they also help to reduce the amount of unsaleable food waste. They are packed full of nutrients but since they cannot be sold for consumption due to specific supermarket guidelines, they would otherwise go to waste.

Natural Evolution support Australian farmers by purchasing their green unwanted bananas and turn them into various products to improve beneficial gut bacteria.

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