Jentli

Certain types of consumption behaviors are far more worse off for the environment than others...

Just three types of our household activity areas - Food, Household Operations, and Transportation account for the majority of environmental impacts.

So what are the main contributors to environmental harm in each of these areas?

1. Transportation

Household use of Transportation, ranging from recreational boating to cars to passenger air travel, is responsible for 28% to 51% of greenhouse gases and air pollution and also 23% of toxic water pollution. Our use of Transportation even poses a significant threat to wildlife through the use of land for roads and highways.

2. Household Operations

A. Heating, hotwater, & air conditioning: For heating, most consumers rely on either electricity, natural gas, oil, or wood... surprisingly wood is the most polluting due to very high emissions of particulate matter, which has a strong evidence of causing serious health problems.

B. Water, Sewage & Solid waste disposal: Ordinary municipal sewage remains a major source of water pollution and accounts for about 11% of total water pollution. Solid waste disposal contributes to environmental problems mainly through air pollution generated by trash incinerators.

C. Products: Cleaning products and their packaging turn out to be the leading source of toxic air pollution, and is responsible for about 9% all emissions linked to this category.

3. Food

Meat and poultry consumption has a large environmental impact... About 860 million acres of land (40% of U.S land) is used for grazing livestock and growing grains for feeding livestock (most of which I used for household consumption) which often greatly diminishes its ability to support natural wildlife. Then there are the effects of fertilizers, pesticides, animal wastes, erosion on water quality, methane emissions, air pollution and not to mention greenhouse gas emissions from energy usage.

We are aware that single use plastics account for a small amount of total waste generated, however, we encourage you to look at other individual consumption habits & determine how you can lessen your impact on the environment!

The impact of producing plastic and plastic in general go far beyond its production and its resources to make it.

On average a person uses single use plastic for about 12 minutes before discarding it, yet it stays on our planet forever.

8300 million metric tons of Virgin plastic have been produced since mass production started 70 years ago. & Only 9% of which have been recycled. 12% have been incinerated and 79% are still accumulating in landfills.

Plastic can only be recycled between 2-3 times and some plastic types can't be recycled at all.

The harsh truth? Recycling isn't working because of quantity... overconsumption makes recycling facilities unable to keep up with demand, and these recycling practices vary depending on where you live in the world.

To reach the desired or ideal level of sustainablility we cannot rely on recycling alone. Although recycling is a good place to start, its a bad place to stop!

It's estimated that 1 truck load of plastic ends up in our landfills and/or oceans every single minute!!! Like what?! That is definitely not okay with me.

Here Is why refill shops and closed loop systems will always be more sustainable: They eliminate the amount of or reduce the toxicity of items being sent to landfills and out oceans.

By keeping plastic and other toxic waste out of our landfills we can eliminate the use of a process called fracking, a process which emits co2 and Methane (a gas that is 20x more potent than co2)! Fracking also pollutes ground water and destroys natural habitats.

Refilling and using a reusable product is always more sustainable then using a single use disposabple product... and it helps keep out planet greener & less toxic for even longer!

Check out our website for more refillable options and never send a single item to landfill again! Www.jentlizerowaste.com.

Refill is the New Recycle!!
-free

Overconsumption is not sustainable, even if you are buying from 'sustainable' brands!

Every Holiday season you'll come to find hundreds & thousands of brands pushing and marketing their products to you... They might even lead you to believe that you NEED, or even worse, that you cannot live without their products.

Businesses use a simple, yet capitalistic approach to marketing... "If you buy our products, you'll be saving the planet"... (which is completely foolish)

I'm here to tell you that you cannot buy your way out of Climate Change, Air Pollution, Deforestation or even Water Pollution. The continuation of this overconsumption leads to environmental degradation, and ultimately loss of our earth's natural resources.

So You don't have to buy new products as gifts to prove to someone that you love them. However... making gifts, thrifting gifts or giving the gift of new experiences are somethings that can show the person, "Hey, I love you, but I also love the planet"

As a consumer, In this instance, buying less means so much more!!

Check out our blog .jentlizerowaste.com/blog to see our guides on sustainable gift giving and how you can become a more eco-conscious consumer!

-toxic -free