Dianna Cohen: Tough truths about plastic pollution / verdades sobre la contaminación del plástico

I insist a lot into the plastic pollution and it effects. I am happy to share with you this Ted Talk of Diana Cohen talking about plastic pollution, what to do to avoid using of plastics and consequences of it.

Suelo insistir en la contaminación de los plásticos y sus efectos. Me alegra compartir este Ted Talk de Diana Cohen hablando de la contaminación plástica, como evitar el uso de plástico y de sus consecuencias.
Para ver con subtítulos en español pulsar aquí

Solar light with a plastic bottle / Luz solar con una botella de plástico

I got up this morning and I connected to facebook. One of my good friends, Gisela, posted an awesome video on her wall. In the video, a Filipino explains how he brought light to a poor neighborhood in Manila. Only using a plastic bottle, water and a bit of bleach. Definitely he changed the life of more than 600 hundreds people, and he is still doing it. If you have a dark place and you want to make it clear, you should consider these invent to do it in a sustainable way. Sun is full of energy for us!

Me he levantado esta mañana y me he contectado a facebook. Una de mis buenas amigas, Gisela, ha posteado un hermoso video en su muro. En el vídeo un filipino explica como ha llevado luz a un barrio pobre de Manila. Solamente usando una botella de plástico, agua y un poco de cloro. Definitivamente ha cambiado la vida de más de 600 personas y aún continúa haciéndolo. Si tenéis un lugar oscuro que queréis iluminar, deberíais considerar este invento y hacerlo de una manera sostenible. El sol está lleno de energía para nosotros!

Van Jones: The economic injustice of plastic / La injusticia económica del plástico

First of all I would like to thank all the people visiting the blog yesterday. More than 100 people were visiting the post of my first lecture! It gives me the power to go ahead on this mission.
Today I am sharing with you a very interesting video talking about the serious effects that plastic does not only in animals and plants but in humans too. Mr. Jones gives a full explanation about it

En primer lugar me gustaría dar gracias a toda la gente que visitó ayer el blog. Más de 100 personas visitaron el post de mi primera conferencia y es lo que da fuerzas para seguir adelante con esta misión!
Para hoy voy a compartir un vídeo muy interesante que habla de los efectos que tiene el plástico, no sólo en los animales y plantas, sino en los humanos también. El Sr. Jones nos da una completa explicación sobre ello.

Para ver el vídeo con subtítulos en español pinchar aquí, ir a subtítulos y seleccionar spanish.

Christmas tree made of plastic bottles / Árbol de Navidad hecho de botellas de plástico

Dear friends. Today I have prepared and edited a video that show us how kids between 12 and 16 years old can make an eco-friendly Chirstmas tree. Enjoy it!

Queridos amigos. Hoy he preparado y editado un video que nos muestra como niños de entre 12 y 16 años hacen un árbol de Navidad ecológico. Disfrutadlo!

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Plants made of plastic bottles / Plantas hechas de botellas de plástico

In one of my trips around The Philippines I went to Moalboal. Moalboal is a small village 2 hours from Cebu that have a lot of famous diving spots. I went to have some beers one of the days and I found plastic plants made from plastic bottles. It is not the most fancy plant, but definetly is a good way to reuse a plastic bottle in an environmental friendly establishment.

En uno de mis viajes alrededor de Filipinas fui a Moalboal. Moalboal es un pequeño pueblo a unas dos horas de Cebu, y es conocido mundialmente por el submarinismo. Uno de los días fui a tomarme una cerveza a uno de los bares del pueblo y encontré las siguientes plantas hechas con botellas de plástico. No es la manera más a la moda, pero sin duda es una manera inteligente de decorar un eco-establecimiento.

Raining day in Shanghai

Yesterday I could not post because blogger was not working well. Maybe because of the censure in China... Today I should post yesterday post, but it can wait till tomorrow. Today is raining in Shanghai and it is more important to condemn a stupid habit that Chinese have when it rains. I will explain you as best as I can.

Shanghai, has many offices buildings. It is the city with more skyscrapers in the world. All of these buildings were built with fancy materials and designed to be the most fancy ever. But nobody thought that it could be a problem when it rains... and in Shanghai, it rains a lot. Every floor is made of slippery materials when water is on them. So coming inside to the buildings when it rains is a dangerous task and an added risk for going to work

This is even funny when you see people slipping... but what I will tell you now will probably make you cry. To avoid slipping people, brilliant Chinese minded person thought: why do not we release a plastic bag for umbrellas when they get into the building? Bingo! they found a cheap solution for this little problem and they can keep their fancy buildings. Here you have the machine... (pic on the right side)
Instead of using carpets, that are reusable and you can keep them for a pretty long time, they deliver plastic bags. Do you know how many people is living in Shanghai? 20 million. Maybe 5 to 7 million of them are going everyday to these kind of buildings and they are receiving a plastic "condom" bag for their umbrellas when it rains.

Each rainy day in Shanghai, uncountable plastic bags are being delivered within any control and making our planet more dirty.
(Here you have a happy Chinese with his plastic bag)

And here on the right side you have the result of an umbrella with it "condom"
I do not know if you can see the damage that it represents to our planet. And I am pretty sure that it is not something that it is only being done in Shanghai. Other cities in China are doing as well. And I am pretty sure that many other countries in the world have the same stupid habit. Tomorrow post will make you think deeper about it. It is a video about our daily actions...

By the way, I was inspired to post it today because I refused to use the plastic bag for my umbrella and someone in the door tried to force me to use it. I did not know that water is worse than a plastic bag...

PS. Of course I did  not use it and I use my hand to drain the water from my umbrella.

Think what you buy!

I was going to work this morning when I saw a woman who was around 55 years old having a juice. This juice was packed in a kind of plastic bag as the one in the left side.

At these moment, ideas come to my mind and I thought that it had to be the post of the day.
If we think about it, that woman who was drinking her juice, never thought about the material of the package, process and consequences of chose this juice instead of a tetra pack or glass one.
Why did she chose it then? We may think because of the flavor! but certainly probably because of the design, brand, or even the picture that the pack has printed in.
Whatever the reason is, the fact is that she never thought about if buying this is going to be harmful for the environment or not.
This post is to propose people thinking before buying:


1. Am I sure that I need this?
2. Am I sure that I am choosing what cover my needs?
3. Am I sure that choosing this one I will not do something harmful?


Everyone has the right to drink a juice, but it does not mean that we have the right to do it at any price. Find the way to reduce the damages. Be responsible, be happy.

Small actions, turn into world effect! remember previous post!

Have you ever heard about bioplastic?

It is glad to find news on the Internet where you can read that important companies are taking care of sustainability.on
An important food and beverage company is using bioplastic taps for 4 lines of products in Brazil. This pleasant new made me read more about bioplastics.


"Bioplastics are a form of plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, pea starch, or microbiota, rather than fossil-fuel plastics which are derived from petroleum. Some, but not all, bioplastics are designed to biodegrade." Wikipedia.


Nowadays the industry is not highly developed. But it is improving day by day and production of this materials reduces greenhouses gases emission and the energy needed for the production.
We have as well some disadvantages as deforestation and degradation. That has to be under controlled conditions of industrial composting units.


We hope that more important brands care about sustainability and invest to find new ways of packaging that care our planet.
Long way for find the perfect material, but correct way though.

Daily actions turn into a world effect

This post is for those people that are willing to change our world but they do not know to do it.


Everyone that is worried about something, try to find a solution. Depending on the size of the problem we are able to find a solution in a faster way or slower way. However, for global problems as pollution on earth, animal extinction, war, famine, people usually think that they cannot do anything and they give it up... They consider that the problem is on hands of others and they cannot do anything for help.


This is the first, and most common mistake that human makes.


It is true that we cannot eradicate the famine in one night, or that we cannot remove all pollutant gases from our sky in one week... but our daily actions turn into a world effect.


Think about it. Imagine that you are in the beach, and you see a plastic bottle in the sand. You have two options: 
- Not pick it up: You did not throw the bottle, and it is not your work. Why should you pick it up?
- Pick it up: Someone  unconsciously threw it, but this is your planet, your house and you know that this bottle should not be there.


The action you choose has an immediate effect in the world. You probably never thought about it. Look :
- If you do not pick it up, the bottle will be there, probably it will go to the sea and it will take around 50 years for degradation. In this process, there is a high percentage of probability that fishes, birds and other animals (even humans) were affected for it.


- On the other hand, if you choose the second option the effect is completely different. This bottle will be probably recycle and reused after a long process. No animals will be affected, the ocean will be a little bit cleaner and the most important thing: If only one person, only one... see what you did and realize that it is the correct choice, next time will not be only one bottle but two. You implement an idea in someone else, this is what makes our daily actions turn into a world effect.


The power is inside us, everyone can help. Do not forget it.

Alternative containers for plastic containers

Last night I was having dinner with two very good friends. We were talking about plastic bottles topic, and we were thinking about an alternative for them.

I was thinking about glass. Why? Because when I was a kid, I remember that my grandmother was giving me empty bottles to go to the shop, leave them there, and get new ones... That means that these glasses were reused (not recycled).

I got up today and I have been searching some information about how the glass is recycle. Nowadays, usually glasses are broken after their use. That means that we need a lot of energy to reuse them again. Anyway, it is still an interesting material because it can be recycled unlimited times and it is not than pollutant as plastic is.

In the following link you can read how the glass is recycled and which targets they have to reuse (not recycle) empty glass containers!

http://www.glassworks.org/product_stewardship/how.html

I am wondering why we changed the correct behaviour we had when I was kid!!

Glass is a good alternative, have it in mind when you go to the supermarket!!