Today is World Vegan Day, a day that has been celebrated for 27 years, as 1994 marked the 50th anniversary of the Vegan Society created in November 1944.

Veganism is defined by the Vegan Society as “a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment.”

World Vegan Day is a day of celebration but also the first day of World Vegan Month. 

This month:

We can focus on educating others of the ethical, environmental and health benefits of living a vegan lifestyle!

We can inspire others to try eating plant based this month by showcasing our meals online.

We can support vegan businesses financially or by sharing their posts on social media!

We can host vegan dinners for non-vegan friends and family to showcase how amazing vegan meals are!

We can volunteer at our local animal shelter. I’ll be attending this years @tearsanimalrescue sleepathon in order to raise awareness of all the dogs and cats in need of homes! #adoptdontshop

We can write reviews on @abillion in order to raise funds for our favourite non profits. You can use my referral code ‘TheGreenVeganChick’ #paidpartnership

I’m sure there a tons of other ways we can make a difference this Month. If you have some suggestions please let me know in the comments of this post on Facebook or Instagram.

HAPPY WORLD VEGAN DAY!

I hope you have found this blog post interesting and useful. I’ll be adding more similar posts soon! If you would like some info about my green vegan lifestyle and the vegan products I use, please take some time and browse through my blog. I have a section where I post recipes I’ve created, or you could browse through the food and drinks section. Alternatively, you could head on over to the body & beauty OR home & garden section to see what products I personally use on myself and at home.

Let’s get social!

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date with my posts! If you end up trying this product, after reading about it for the first time here, please tag me and let me know what you think. Remember to hashtag it  #thegreenveganchick

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I am so disappointed by the new Yaga & Foschini collaboration that was announced this week, and I’d like to explain why.

Foschini & Fast Fashion

Foschini is a fast fashion brand owned by The Foschini Group, who own 20+ other companies, most of which are also fast fashion brands. A fast fashion brand is a clothing brand that continuously releases new collections of trendy/fashionable clothes, sometimes weekly, to encourage consumers to constantly buy new clothes. The clothes are most often made quickly and cheaply in faraway countries by garment workers. These garment workers get paid very little, are treated unfairly and work excessive hours in horrible conditions.

The fast in fast fashion refers to how quickly once out of fashion the clothing ends up as waste. The fast fashion business model is built on the notion that your clothes are disposable, and this is just one reason why the entire fast fashion industry is inherently unsustainable. I’ll be doing a blog post about the lifecycle of fast fashion soon, but I would like to note that the fast fashion industry is responsible for 10% of the worlds carbon emissions, and is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply.

Yaga & Second Hand

Yaga is an online platform and app where people from across South Africa can sell clothes and items they no longer want, instead of throwing it away. I’m sure many people who shop on Yaga like I do, no longer want to support the fast fashion industry and instead buy less and shop second hand.

I know that I am privileged to be able to boycott fast fashion and that many can’t. I started buying second hand at charity shops and second hand shops not because I couldn’t afford new clothes, but because I no longer wanted to support an industry with so little ethics that is doing so much environmental damage. Yaga is a place where i could look for specific items I needed, instead of hoping to find what I need at a charity shop. I’ll be honest I’m really disappointed that Yaga has decided to collaborate with Foschini and I can’t help but wonder what financial motivations there might be for Yaga.

The Yaga & Foschini Collaboration:

Yaga & Foschini are collaborating to promote circular fashion. “For every item sold on Yaga the Seller will receive a unique voucher from Foschini as a reward for extending the life cycle of their garments.”

Before I tell you more about this collab I’d like to explain what circular fashion is and why I feel this collaboration is a form of greenwashing very similarly to Zara’s in store recycling bin initiative.

Circular fashion similarly to a circular system is a sustainable system that not only eliminates waste but also makes every step of a products lifecycle more environmentally friendly.

Circular fashion aims to look at designing pieces that are timeless, then sourcing materials that are sustainable (recycled, etc.), and then producing garments ethically and sustainably (chemical and water management). Once used for a long time, the items can be repaired when needed, and when the item reaches the end of it’s lifespan it is redesigned into a new garment, and so the cycle continues.

If Foschini really cared about circular fashion, they would look at themselves first, instead of putting all the responsibility on the consumer. This collaboration seems to be a performative action, and Foschini is misleading consumers, and is pretending to be more sustainable than they actually are (greenwashing).

I don’t think that they are taking any responsibility for the environmentally destructive fast fashion culture they are a part of, and profit from. Instead they are encouraging South Africans to buy more instead of buying less and reusing and repairing what they already have.

The Foschini vouchers you get on Yaga are only valid to use for 30 days and only 1 can only be used at a time. In order to use a R150 voucher your minimum spend needs to be at least R600. Overconsumption is not the answer, buying less is. The reality is that we don’t truly value what we buy, and we live in a world where it’s cheaper to replace a damaged item than it is to repair it.

When you need new clothing items, please consider to buy them second hand instead of new.

Let’s get social!

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date with my posts and the upcoming DIY’s! 

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According to Consol, South Africa consumes more than 3.1 million tonnes of glass a year, 66% of which is reusable. The Glass Recycling Company (TGRC) states that we recycle 44% of the glass we use.

I admit, I used to think recycling was one of the most powerful, planet-friendly actions I was doing as an eco-conscious consumer! Before going #zerowaste I would buy items that were recyclable, and justify the purchases based on the fact that the items are recyclable. I would then recycle the items after a single use.

Then I discovered that to truly make a difference recycling should not be the first step after purchase, but a last resort! This goes for all types of recyclables, but for this post I’m focussing on glass.

Reuse, reduce then recycle

We currently have over 4000 glass banks in South Africa, which is amazing because it does make recycling more accessible. But recycling is just another way, albeit a more environmentally friendly way, of throwing out your waste. We really need to shift our focus from recycling to reducing in order to truly make a positive impact on the environment! And we need to reuse what we have reduced in order to prolong the lifespan of the items already made, which reduces the items carbon and ecological footprint.

To understand why this approach is better, we need to look at how glass is made and how it is recycled. With any product, to truly understand it’s environmental impact we need to look at it’s entire lifespan from extracting the materials needed to make the product, all the way to what happens to the product after use ie. recycling.

The ingredients of glass

Glass is made by melting minerals together at incredibly high temperatures. But first Silica, a type of sand and other materials like limestone and soda ash, all of which are natural materials, are extracted from the earth. To make coloured glass different types of oxides are added.

I have to note that these materials are finite aka non-renewable, yet we are using up earths resources as if it is infinite. The mining of these materials lead to land degradation, pollution, loss of biodiversity but also causes further environmental damage.

Once the materials are extracted, they are then processed which requires an immense amount of water and energy. Then the materials are transported from various countries to the glass making facility. Transportation in itself causes environmental damage.

Manufacturing Glass

Once at the glass manufacturing facility, giant furnaces are used to melt the materials, at incredibly high temperatures (around 1,500°C), most often using fossil fuels as energy. These furnaces run 24/7, and are never switched off during their approximate 15 year lifetime. Water is using extensively throughout the process, specifically for cleaning, cooling and glass finishing processes.

According to Consol, when molten glass comes out the furnace it is cooled to 1200°C. and is then cut into gobs which are then fed into to moulds and using various methods, shapes like bottles or jars are created. Then the new shape is coated with tin oxide, which strengthens it, before being transferred to another oven, this one slowly cools the glass from 600°C to 100°C.

Once cooled the external surface of the glass item is coated in polyethylene wax which protects the surface of the glass and prevents scuffing between bottles.

During the glass manufacturing process there are a few key areas of environmental damage to note: emissions to air, waste water and solid waste.

Once the glass products are made, they are transported to various suppliers. In South Africa, there are many imported glass products not just locally made ones. Because glass is a heavy material, less is transported than would be for a lighter material. Buying locally made items will have a smaller transport carbon footprint than imported items.

Reusing glass

When I consider the negative environmental impact a single glass item like a jar already has made even before purchase, then I’m encouraged to try reuse that jar for the rest of my life, if possible. I have a house full of jars, that was once filled with food, that is now being used in the garage, craft room, medicine cabinet and in the kitchen pantry, to store my packaging free dry goods. And the ones I don’t use I try to donate to others who can use it. And if that’s not possible, only then do I recycle it.

Because glass can be reused, many companies have glass take back programs so they can reuse the item multiple times before ultimately, hopefully sending it for recycling instead of it ending up in landfill. I want to urge all companies that sell products in glass packaging to implement take back programs for their glass packaging. After all, consumers should not be solely responsible for what happens to packaging after purchase.

Recycling glass

Most glass is infinitely recyclable so it can be recycled over and over without losing quality.

Once you have added your glass to a recycling bin or collection point, it will most likely be transported to a sorting facility before being transported to a recycling centre, where it will be turned into cullet, (crushed glass) The cullet is then transported to glass manufacturers.

There was a study done in 2019, that found using at least 30% cullet together with raw virgin materials to make new glass products, results in a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions, waste, energy and costs.

Once the glass is transformed into a new glass product, the cycle mentioned above can continue indefinitely.

My thoughts

Even with all the things I have learned about the negative environmental impact throughout the lifecycle of glass, I still believe that the glass recycling process has the potential to become a leading example of a closed loop sustainable practice as part of a circular economy.

There is though, still a lot that needs to be done to make the glass recycling and glass manufacturing process using cullet, more sustainable with the goal of reusing and restoring natural resources.

I hope you have found this blog post interesting and useful. I’ll be adding more similar posts soon! If you would like some info about my green vegan lifestyle and the vegan products I use, please take some time and browse through my blog. I have a section where I post recipes I’ve created, or you could browse through the food and drinks section. Alternatively, you could head on over to the body & beauty OR home & garden section to see what products I personally use on myself and at home.

Let’s get social!

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date with my posts and the upcoming DIY’s! 

© the green vegan chick. All images & content are copyright protected. Please follow my Sharing Policy if you would like to use or share any part of this post.