2022
Hello everyone!
Did you know that April is Earth Month? And tomorrow, Saturday, is Earth Day: a day we can use to raise awareness of the state of our planet and what actions we can take to care for it.
Most of us were raised doing things a certain way because it’s just the way our culture does it, or it’s just the way certain aspects of our world have been made easy, but a big thing that environmentalism promotes is doing things consciously. Meaning, doing things like eating, buying, and taking care of our needs in a way that we find ethical, good, things that don’t have a negative impact on the environment.
And of course, we can find places to eat, buy, and more, that just do things right.
Right on Maps!
In this post I bring you some ideas of places you can look for to commemorate the special date, so you can make some time this weekend or what’s left of the month (or whenever you want!) to try these kinds of services and products that reduce our carbon footprint, and then introduce them to your life.
First I want to briefly introduce an important environmental concept that I also shared in my Love Bottles post last year, that is on the title of this post:
“The three Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - is a rule of three steps we can take to take care of the environment by changing our habits, reducing our consumption of unnecessary materials or products, reusing what we own, and as a last option, recycling what we can't use anymore.” - written by me in the mentioned post, I don’t think I can explain it better.
(Yes, I'm reusing this image too 😁)
And now, knowing what each word represents, let’s get right to it!
🛍️ Places like Cero Market are a great way of reducing your use of single-use materials, and and reusing recipients like jars and bottles:
Cero Market has been on my favorites list ever since I discovered it years ago. It is allegedly the first market that works with a zero waste experience in Argentina, eliminating completely plastics on their store.
It uses a very simple system:
- You bring your own recipients, and weigh them there, writing it's empty weight on a paper tape on each one.
- You use them to grab whatever you want from the store like ingredients, food, or even cleaning products. In Cero Market, we also have to write the code of each product on the recipient’s paper tape.
- When you are done, the cashier just weighs the recipients again and calculates how much of each product you have, based on the starting weight.
- And that’s it! You put the recipients back in your pantry, and do it all again when they are empty.
Being able to buy things using zero no plastic or single-use materials just feels amazing, it honestly feels like it’s the only way products should be sold.
👕 Another way of reducing your consumption and reusing existing products is buying used clothes.
Here in Buenos Aires we have many thrift shops, with lots of cool vintage clothing to choose from. I put the most popular ones in this list:♻️ Reusar: ropa
If it’s hard for you to find things in those kinds of shops, you can consider investigating on Google about the ethics of places you want to buy from. Unfortunately there are businesses that continue doing things like throwing waste in nature, just because it’s the cheaper way.
🥬Did you know that the production of food is responsible for a third of the gases emitted by humans that heat the earth? And guess what, food based on animals causes twice the pollution of producing food based on plants!
Imagine how much we can help combat and reduce global warming, and the direct pollution it causes, taking meat and all animal products from our diet. Even eating less animal-based products would make an impact, by diminishing the demand they have.
I know that it is a big change and you might not want to because of habits and such, but it does bring lots of benefits to our bodies, regardless of the great effect this diet has on the environment.
Of course, you know you can look for vegetarian and vegan spots on Maps, and even use lists like these ones I made to keep them organized: Plant Based en BA 🌱
🫙What about other kinds of products you need? Try to buy reusable products, to reduce your consumption!
Well, if you haven’t got one already I’m sure you can easily find places to buy reusable bottles in your area. I know it’s tempting to have more as they are so cute, but a part of reducing it is minimizing the things we buy, and thinking if we can reuse something else to avoid the purchase.
I find that in my city the best places to buy sustainable products, that don’t come in single-use materials and also are plant based, are vegan shops. You can get toothbrushes made of bamboo, and even reusable hygiene products there.
📦As much as you can buy reusable products from places you find on Maps, a big part of reusing is giving things a new use that was not its primary intent. For example, if I buy a product in a glass bottle or jar, I keep it for any other use I might have in the future, like putting flowers, painting it and turning it into decoration, or taking it to a zero-waste market.
One post I love about reusing is @SilvyC ’s #LetsRecycle post: where she writes about transforming boxes in many creative ways, reusing them for her cats.
♻️So, what about recycling?
I know that in some countries supermarkets and other businesses are prepared for you to drop off glass bottles or other recyclable or even reusable recipients.
Some countries, or cities like mine have places just for you to take things you want recycled. I bet many of them are already on the map and even in lists by fellow Local Guides or by the organization that created them. If not, it’s your opportunity to do it! Besides creating lists, you can add that information on your review maybe, and of course upload photos of it.
If you are looking for ways to contribute on Maps that also help, I think @DeniGu’s post sums various ways perfectly!: 5 easy ways to help the environment on Maps
🫂Lastly this way might not be on Maps itself, but it is related to it: create and participate in environmental meet-ups.
You can try all of these things together, or just eat plant-based food as eating seems to be what all of us mostly enjoy 😁, or just talk about the ways to care about the environment with others.
You can join or host an @ErmesT ’s Clean The World meet-up. If you prefer, you can just join an organization that already has encounters to clean areas and ask them if Local Guides can join, like we are doing tomorrow! @Cecilita arranged this kind of CTW tomorrow, and to finish this sustainability-focused month off, next week I am hosting a special meet-up to invite the Buenos Aires community to do experience some of the kind of places I mentioned on this post, so look out for the recap once the month is over 🙂
To finish this off, you might notice from my Love Bottles post or this one that reducing is what I find best as it takes care of things right from the start, but one thing I will always emphasize is that any action counts: like on Maps, every contribution matters.
So of course it would be ideal to reduce our consumptions and live a zero waste life, but that life is very hard, or impossible to achieve for most of us. So if for whatever reason you find it hard to reduce what you consume or are overwhelmed to do everything that is considered better for the Earth (which is a lot!), just try to do what you can.
For most of us, sustainable life definitely is too much to take up at once. A sustainable life is a long term process in which you make small changes in your life one at a time, and keep going once you are comfortable. Just like it works with any other habit, it’s better to just attempt it one at a time or at a small pace and don’t try it all at once.
And you can put your own limits to what is right for you too, if you start actively changing your habits to lower your carbon footprint, it’s not mandatory that you end up performing all the best actions for the planet all the time. You won’t be judged by people that also care for the environment, that empathize with humans and the different situations we can be in, and people that know how hard it can be to take the most sustainable route in some situations.
Here are some questions for you to answer if you’d like, I’d love to know:
- Do you know any places similar to the ones I described, near you?
- Do you know any other kinds of sustainable places? Please recommend them to us!
- What are some things you do to lower your carbon footprint?
- Have you ever tried vegan food? How was it?
Thank you for reading! I hope you choose more places that do what’s right for our world, they are right on Maps 😉
Jesi
Hola @Maximilianozalazar! Gracias!
Admito que la primera vez que probé comida vegana no me gustó, justo tuve la mala suerte que fui a un lugar que hacían tofu (que sí me gusta) pero con un marinado de condimentos que en lo personal no me gustaba para nada. Pero después y cocinandome encontré muchos lugares y platos que sí! Espero que puedas seguir probando y encuentres lo que sí te guste. El próximo sábado vamos a ir a un lugar que me encanta y conozco a gente no vegana que también le gustó, así que espero que puedas venir 😁
Me parece perfecto como te movés! me gustaría animarme a andar en bici también pero en la ciudad por ahora no jajaja
Buenísimo lo del compost también, y todo lo que les enseñaron los embajadores verdes. Espero que me cuentes más de eso en algún meet y/o leerlo en un post!
Me parece genial tu lema sobre la ropa también! Yo prefiero donar algunas cuando veo que no las uso o disfruto usarlas, pero es verdad que si le pasa algo a mis prendas favoritas les pondría parches o lo que sea para seguir usándolas jajajaja
Gracias por comentar con tanta información interesante!!
@Jesi ,
Me gustó mucho tu post! Tiene muchas cosas que me gustaron mucho, cómo el súper sin plásticos. Lo voy a probar.
Acá cerca de casa hace poco abrieron un local que vende ropa de segunda mano. Me sorprendió mucho porque es un negocio muy bien puesto. Parece uno de esos negocios de primera marca. Tengo pendiente ir a conocerlo por dentro y ver que tienen, pero ya lo que se ve de afuera parece muy bueno.
¡Nos vemos mañana en mi meet y la semana que viene en el tuyo!
Ceci
Buenos Aires, Argentina | 
Gran post @Jesi
Cero Market funciona perfecto y se ahorra bastante basura al no dar bolsas, me recuerda a que antes de la pandemia el gobierno prohibió los envases plásticos de un solo uso acá y los los restaurantes comenzaron a pedir que la gente llevara sus tuppers, era gracioso ver como al inicio se confundían de tuppers y todos los clientes gritando ¡Ese es mío! 😂 ... y luego llegó el COVID y tuvieron que regresar a los plásticos de un solo uso 😐, poco a poco la gente lo ha estado retomando pero no es tan común como antes.
Yo también preparé un post para hoy, pero faltan unos detalles, por lo pronto ¡Feliz día de la Tierra!
Hola @Cecilita! Me alegra mucho que te haya gustado!
Tardé unos días en contestar, pero puede que te hayas dado cuenta por mi recomendación de que lleven frascos en la invitación al meet-up de este finde, que uno de los lugares que vamos a ir es Cero Market! No creo llevarme tanto como me llevo siempre, pero igual seguro agarre algunas cosas que necesite. Igual si no llevás frascos venden ahí, o tienen también bolsas de papel para llevar poco peso.
Cuando puedas pasame el link de Google Maps de ese lugar de ropa de segunda mano! Sigo a varios por Instagram también pero las cosas que publican y me gustan se venden muy rápido 😅
Nos vemos pronto!
Gracias @LaloPadilla! Ya me dí cuenta que podría haber mencionado otras cosas importantes también pero quedaran para el futuro jajaja
Veo que en México hubieron muchos cambios por la pandemia! Me acuerdo que también en un post de accesibilidad habías dicho que habían tapado los botones y dejado solo pedales en el piso, veo que esos cuidados tuvieron sus cosas buenas y malas , pero al menos volvieron los botones en los ascensores y me alegra que digas que la gente esté retomando lo de usar tuppers. La escena de los tuppers también suena muy graciosa jajajaj, acá por mala suerte los lugares que conozco nunca cambiaron lo de los plásticos de un solo uso. Pero algún día espero animarme e ir con mis propios tuppers igual, como una chica "influencer" de la sustentabilidad y zero waste, que hace eso y se hace llamar "la loca de los tuppers" en redes 😁
Ya voy a ver tu post!! Feliz día de la Tierra atrasado!
