Check out these shoulder pads -- the good ole' days!

I’m a sweaty person. It all started back in middle school when I discovered my sweat problem. I would wear baggy shirts so other kids couldn’t see my sweat stains! I remember thinking of inventing sweat pads. Remember the shoulder pads that used to be in women’s jackets and shirts back in the 80′s? Well that was my inspiration. My sweat pad invention would tie somehow under your arm pit and absorb all the sweat. The pads would be washable and reusable. It was a brilliant idea, but I never actually invented that product as a middle schooler because I didn’t have Kickstarter to help with crowdfunding. As I moved into adulthood, I told my doctor about my sweating problem and even researched a surgery that would cut specific nerves that caused sweating specifically under my arms. My doctor wasn’t game to do that, but gave me some medicine that I couldn’t pronounce. I was desperate — now working in an office environment I didn’t want to be that sweaty person (again!). I lucked out because the medicine my doctor gave me worked like a charm.

Our bathroom is now a chemistry lab ….

My personal dilemma — since I’ve produced an environmental documentary it’s opened up my eyes to all our waste and crazy chemicals in my everyday life. Have you ever looked at the ingredients in your everyday deodorant? I can’t even pronounce half the stuff. Not to mention all the plastic used for the product container and most the of them are not recyclable.

So now what? Would it be possible to make my own deodorant from natural ingredients (also eliminating the plastic container) and not be a sweaty person? I had to find out. I work from home as a marketing consultant therefore I had a safe haven to test, experiment, and assess. Not knowing where to start — I Googled “How to make your own deodorant” and discovered several ideas, tips, and recipes. Below is the recipe that I decided to go with and results are in! I’m in complete SHOCK how awesome the homemade deodorant is. I’ve even had some friends test is out and they are asking me for more. So if you are interested in an adventure to eliminate your body order naturally, help out the environment, and stop using crazy chemicals — make this deodorant concoction!

How to Make Natural Deodorant- Beating the “B.O.” With Natural Deodorant by Wellness Mama

http://wellnessmama.com/1523/how-to-make-natural-deodorant-beating-the-b-o-with-natural-deo/

What you Need

• 6 T coconut oil
• 1/4 cup (4 T) baking soda
• 1/4 cup (4 T) arrowroot or cornstarch
• essential oils (optional)

What to Do:

1. Mix baking soda and arrowroot together in a medium sized bowl.
2. Mash in coconut oil with a fork until well mixed.
3. Add oils if desired.
4. Put the finished mixture into an empty deodorant tube or any small jar with a lid.
5. Apply your deodorant by simply rubbing it in to your armpits. The mixture will “melt” into your skin. Use a small amount (about a pea-sized glob) to get the job done all day long.

Look at all this plastic just from buying one container of yogurt (clip from the "Bag It" documentary)

I just watched an incredible documentary called, “Bag It, Is Your Life To Plastic?” It’s not your typical doc film where the world is coming to an end. It’s about an average guy living in Golden, Colorado, that explores the subject: plastic. He comes home one day after purchasing a small yogurt from the grocery store after he enjoys his yogurt, he notices all the plastic that tagged along with his purchase — a plastic spoon, a plastic bag, and a left over plastic yogurt container.

This made him thing about plastic and what we do with it. As a result, he embarks on a journey to find out why we use so much of it, where it comes from, and why the plastic industry spends millions of dollars every year to fight cities that want to ban plastic bags. Once of my favorite quotes, “Just because plastic isn’t disposable doesn’t mean it goes away after all where is away? There is no away. It sticks around for a long time.”

As the documentary goes more into detail about our use of plastic, I started to think about how plastic impacts my personal life on a daily basis. I tried to image a world without plastic and it’s just not possible, but a world with BPA free plastic is possible. What can I do to limit my plastic use and purchases that contain BPA chemical? Well, first step is stop using Ziploc bags (it’s not an easy task but doable), next tell people about the “Bag It” documentary and ask them if they know about BPA and all the other potential crazy chemicals that is used to make plastic stuff. Don’t be shy, spur up a conversation and make sure to listen to how other people feel.  And … finally go check out the “Bag It,” documentary website and see all the helpful tips and ideas under “Take Action!”

Vinegar Tips website breaks shows how you can use vinegar in the garden, cleaning, laundry, health, automotive, pets, and cooking. It’s really impressive and exciting to think how versatile one product can be. I have to admit the smell of vinegar can be really strong, but think of the other store cleaners and how they smell like Pine-Sol — the tag line is The Powerful Scent of Real Clean!

Here is a fun video “5 Favorite Recipes” to show you just how easy it is to make your homemade cleaning supplies!

The question throughout this documentary focuses on, “Is it possible to have a good life without wasting so much?” I agree 100%. The less you have the happier you are. It took me almost 36 years to figure it out because I used to be a manic consumer, but I’ve changed — thanks to working on this documentary project and seeing for myself how much we waste as a society. I now only shop at Goodwill or consignment stores. If I need something, I will keep an eye out on Freecycle or add a post to my Facebook page to borrow it.

Back to the documentary, I realized that there is more I can do to reduce waste such as giving up Ziploc bags. I LOVE Ziploc bags because they are so handy for traveling, hiking, and store food well. But as you may know, the down side is once they are used and can’t be washed any more they go directly into the landfill. As of today, I’m going to stop using Ziploc bags! To help me with my new quest, I did the most naturally thing a social media geek would do — I tweeted and did a google search to look for support and ideas. I found an interesting blog by a mom who said that she just couldn’t do it — give up Ziploc bags. As I read through the comment section I noticed that followers we not supporting her “I can’t do this approach,” but instead were offering comments and suggestions to encourage her to give up the plastic little baggie.  Here is the blog entry, “Realistic Mom: We Simply Cannot Live Without Ziploc Bags,” check out these comments ….. and think about what’s something that you don’t necessary need and can help out the planet by reducing waste.

“No Impact Man” documentary trailer.

Producers of the “Redefining Waste” Documentary, a film series about individuals who live or create using waste, are teaming up with local students and organizations to make an educational booth made completely out of already used materials. It will be constructed using cans and plastic containers, broken furniture, construction scraps, and other items that commonly end up in local landfills. Team members will be on hand to raffle off prizes, discuss the documentary, and encourage passersby to rethink the definition of “waste.”

The booth will be on display on Saturday April 21st from 11a.m. – 6p.m. in Civic Center Park, 201 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado. It will be part of the Sustainable Living Association’s Earth Day Fair alongside food vendors, arts and crafts, speakers and live music, and various other displays and activities. Admission to the fair is free and all community members are encouraged to attend.

Booth materials and construction assistance have been donated by Eco-Thrift, a local reuse store with a mission similar to the documentary: encourage reuse and environmental care. Other partners include Savory Spice Shop, Mugs Coffee Lounge, GreenRide, Cohere and Beach House Grill, all of which have donated goods and gift certificates to be raffled off as prizes to fair attendees who visit the booth.

“Earth Day is a celebration of what we have been able to contribute to the environment and community,” said Green Ride co-founder Deborah Flynn. “However, it is also a reminder that there is so much more we can do.  Earth Day exists as a message to everybody that we must continually improve in order to provide for future generations.”

The goal of the booth is to raise awareness about the growing problem of excess trash and introduce community members to a simple but overlooked remedy – reuse. TEDxCSU, a Colorado State University group organizing the upcoming “Growing Greener Generations” sustainability conference, is partnering with “Redefining Waste” to create and staff the booth. Along with learning about the reuse movement and the importance of recycling, booth visitors can reserve tickets to the April 23rd event.

“When we started this project, we knew it would be interesting – but that’s an understatement. We met people who convert waste water into fuel, people who make musical instruments from scrap metal, and people who build homes out of used tires. There’s a virtual underground of those who are changing the way we use and repurpose our resources,” commented Shantel Hansen, Producer.
For more information about the Redefining Waste Documentary, visit  wastedocumentary.com, facebook.com/redefiningwaste, and twitter.com/redefiningwaste

For more information about TEDxCSU and “Growing Greener Generations”, visit www.tedxcsu.wordpress.com and www.facebook.com/TedxCSU.

We are thrilled to spread the word about Recology and their pure awesomeness. Recology is parent to companies providing all facets of resource recovery including collection, recycling, compost, transfer, and landfill operations. Recology is proud to be 100% employee-owned. Recycling is increasingly important to individuals and cities.

Did you know that — the Artist in Residence Program is central to San Francisco’s success in diverting 75 percent of the City’s waste away from landfill disposal and reaching zero waste by 2020.

More cool stuff about Paul – Tinkerer and kinetic artist extraordinaire, Paul Cesewski recreated an old-fashioned carnival midway at the dump as the artist-in-residence at Recology in 2008. The exhibition had an ambiance of a carnival and featured pedal powered marvels and games of amusement made from found and recycled materials. Cesewski harks back to a simpler and more innocent time. His motto,  “Fun is the universal language”, was obvious in the bicycle powered kinetic sculpture he created while at the dump.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Pinterest the past couple of weeks and shocked how much I love it! If you are new to Pinterest you will soon find out why everyone is jumping on board. When you sign up you have to wait several weeks before you can set up your own account unless you have a friend send you a referral link. For me, Pinterest is more about surfing, discovering similar interests, and sharing ideas. Pinterest makes it very easy to tweet, post on Facebook, embed, and “repin.” When I got the green light to set up my profile, I decided to focus on waste not really knowing what to expect. Next, I created a pinboard titled, “redefining waste” then I started pinning. I discovered several cool ideas of people reusing waste in very creative ways. For example, the photo above of the man sitting by the curb reading the newspaper — yet he is the newspaper. I love this image because in my opinion it’s asking the viewer “why is that person covered in newspaper?” Check out more photos like this on the photographer’s website http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/ and start pinning today!

Are you addicted to Pinterest like me?

Technology was a lot different back in 2009, don’t ya think? But now it’s 2012, and we are kicking off the new year with four NEW waste websidoes that are gonna rock your world. And thanks to social media, we are going to have some fun doing it. I just created this new website today www.wastedocumentary.com with several goals in mind, 1) SEO mojo — by having “waste documentary” as a url we will be able to rank higher in search engines and all that jazz, 2) we desperately needed a friendlier website so folks (like you) can add comments quick and easy. Seriously, we want to hear what you have to say and also tell us what you think about waste, 3) we needed a major facelift. Here is our first website www.whatiswaste.com it’s kinda square and clunky but not to bad. But, we’ve moved up in the world and wanted something flashy and fun so you can surf around, watch stories that interest you, make comments, and also link to your fav social media platforms. And, 4) well to be honest, we needed a new fresh start. We had a lot of success with the first round of websiodes but this time we are aiming high and want to reach over ONE million people!

What do you think? Do you like the new website?