The Zero Waste Countdown Podcast

Do you know what's in your makeup, or what to do with the container and packaging once you're finished with it? 

Meet Melodie Reynolds, CEO and founder of Elate Cosmetics from Victoria, British Columbia. Her products are ethical and sustainable with bamboo packaging and only ingredients that are good for your skin and healthy for the environment. 

Discount code: zerowastecountdown at elatecosmetics.ca one per customer. 

In Australia food waste is estimated to cost the Australian economy around $20 billion dollars each year.

Australians throw away about 5.3 billion tonnes of edible food each year.

In the United States it’s estimated that 415 kilograms (or about 915 pounds) of food is wasted per person each year and in Mexico it’s about half that.

In Canada, $31 billion dollars worth of food ends up in landfills or composters each year which weighs about 1.3 billion tonnes, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Yet 850,000 Canadians use food banks every month.

In 1994 the Canadian province of Ontario passed the Donation of Food Act that releases food donors from liability when giving away food. This makes food sharing and food donation possible through redistribution programs like Food Sharing Ottawa who aims to feed the hungry while sending less food to landfills. 

Jay Sinha cowrote the book Life Without Plastic: The Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Avoiding Plastic to Keep Your Family and the Planet Healthy with his partner Chantal Plamondon. They also have their own store Life Without Plastic where we can find healthy alternatives to items typically made from plastic.

Well researched and scientific, Life Without Plastic is a reference guide for different types of plastic in our everyday lives as well as alternatives. Find out the best plastics to avoid and why in this episode of The Zero Waste Countdown.

Jay Sinha cowrote the book Life Without Plastic: The Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Avoiding Plastic to Keep Your Family and the Planet Healthy with his partner Chantal Plamondon. They also have their own store Life Without Plastic where we can find healthy alternatives to items typically made from plastic.

Well researched and scientific, Life Without Plastic is a reference guide for different types of plastic in our everyday lives as well as alternatives. Find out the best plastics to avoid and why in this episode of The Zero Waste Countdown.

Do you ever walk into a supermarket and get that sinking feeling in your stomach, as you look around at all that wasteful plastic and unnecessary packaging? Imagine getting your groceries in a plastic free environment with no plastic bags and no plastic single use containers. A place with fresh fruit and vegge, friendly staff, plenty of vegan options, and a scale to tare your own jars. 

Canada's capital city is home to Valerie LeLoup's zero waste grocery store Nu Grocery. Started in 2017 Valerie has made her vision a reality - a place where we can buy food without destroying the planet with all that packaging. 

Tune in to find out what it takes to run a zero waste grocery store and learn more about co-founder Valerie as Laura stops into her shop for a visit in Ottawa. 

Have you ever heard of collective action? It's basically when a bunch of people make a change in their own lives that, collectively, ends up making a big difference.

The average female will use approximately 11,000 sanitary products in her lifetime. So what if one person switches to reusable period products, but then another woman switches, and another woman... suddenly millions of bags of garbage would be saved from being produced and sent to landfill. Single use sanitary pads and tampons may be small but they pack a nasty environmental punch. Not only are they made with chemicals from the oil and gas industry but they end up in our water systems once used. 

Meghan Adams is an environmental engineer from the American midwest who wrote a paper on sanitary products. She created a survey that received over 1,200 responses all about sanitary product knowledge and use. Her results may surprise you!

In the U.S. alone Meghan's research estimates over 20 billion sanitary period items go to landfill every year. Join Meghan and Laura as we discuss our research we found and also our own experiences with using different period products over the years. 

Further Reading

DeVito & Schecter Dioxins In Tampons

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention: Toxic Shock Syndrome

Girls Missing School Study

Have you ever heard of collective action? It's basically when a bunch of people make a change in their own lives that, collectively, ends up making a big difference.

The average female will use approximately 11,000 sanitary products in her lifetime. So what if one person switches to reusable period products, but then another woman switches, and another woman... suddenly millions of bags of garbage would be saved from being produced and sent to landfill. Single use sanitary pads and tampons may be small but they pack a nasty environmental punch. Not only are they made with chemicals from the oil and gas industry but they end up in our water systems once used. 

Meghan Adams is an environmental engineer from the American midwest who wrote a paper on sanitary products. She created a survey that received over 1,200 responses all about sanitary product knowledge and use. Her results may surprise you!

In the U.S. alone Meghan's research estimates over 20 billion sanitary period items go to landfill every year. Join Meghan and Laura as we discuss our research we found and also our own experiences with using different period products over the years. 

Further Reading

DeVito & Schecter Dioxins In Tampons

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention: Toxic Shock Syndrome

Girls Missing School Study

Meet Joanna Ruda.

Her company Jo Kaminska Ethical Jewelry has been funding the Jo Kaminska Foundation for years, which focuses on educating others about the dangers of single use plastic overconsumption.

Originally from Poland she’s spent many years living in Sri Lanka and she’s spoken to the UN multiple times regarding plastic pollution. But lately she’s been frustrated as the world keeps pumping out single use plastic with disregard for the consequences – and those consequences are adding up. 

Tune in to episode 20 as Joanna tells us of her travels, the sights she’s seen in Sri Lanka, and how she’s put together an action plan to combat unnecessary plastic. 

http://jokaminska.com/

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Canada has entered the world stage when it comes to the environment and plastics recovery and reduction.

Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre and Minister of Environment & Climate Change Catherine McKenna knows what's up when it comes to reducing single use plastics - she's also a diver and a swimmer and has seen first hand that the oceans are filled with plastics.

In June 2018 she attended the G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec, where The Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Seas, and Resilient Coastal Communities was created. 

Find out what Canada is doing on the world stage, who's leading our Canadian government to a healthier world, and what the Charlevoix Blueprint means going forward not only for Canada but for our world's oceans and our entire planet.

The Charlavoix Blueprint

Catherine McKenna swims to celebrate the C3 Ship that sailed Canada from coast to coast to coast

CBC article about the shrimp industry

Meet Josh Walters (front right), one of the men behind the new Feedback App sweeping Toronto’s quick service restaurant scene.

When a restaurant gets close to throwing out leftover food they post a discount on the Feedback App instead. Hungry deal seekers can use the app to find restaurants close by offering discounts in realtime, thus decreasing food waste sent to landfills.

Not only can restaurants make more money by offering quick discounts instead of wasting food, customers can save money too, and get to know more local restaurants and find new favorites. Feedback even donates meals to charity - find out how on this episode of ZWC.

Feedback App 

The Ontario Government’s Donation of Food Act, 1994 

Kupfert & Kim