Plastic Punch

The Plastic Punch project is a Ghana-based NGO that is raising awareness about the dangers of plastic for the environment, wildlife, and humans, and provides innovative and income-generating waste management solutions to the local population. Starting in Ghana, Plastic Punch is spreading across the  African continent.

Plastic Punch was created by an international team (co-founded by a dear friend and former colleague of mine) of talented professionals, passionate about protecting the environment, with experience in biodiversity conservation, marine pollution, and international relations.

Local communities, including children, are involved in the beach clean-up, as well as educated about the methodology and benefits of the waste collection.

The Plastic Punch team has also involved and collaborated with the Ghanaian government and the Accra Municipality to bring forth innovative waste management techniques throughout the country in order to create income and employment through sustainable waste collection and management.

Even though local recycling facilities do exist they are often either out of use or not fully equipped to cope with the amount of waste produced by the country in a sustainable way, which results in waste piling up in cities and being dumped on beaches and in the ocean.

Ghana has a rich flora and fauna and is home to marine turtles, highly endangered species, that come to its shores once a year to lay their eggs. As proven by turtle monitoring sessions conducted by the Ghana Wildlife Society and the Plastic Punch team, the amount of waste on the beaches directly harms the turtles, as they nest amid considerable amount of plastic waste, and die by ingesting plastic waste on the beach and floating in the water.

Plastic Punch is a perfect example of the big change that even small initiatives can bring. Check out and support their valuable work here.

HAY! That’s My Straw

Did you know that every day, around the world, we use more than half a billion plastic straws? If we don’t switch ASAP, by 2050, there will probably be more plastic than fish swimming in our oceans … wait no more and #refusethestraw.

Here are 6 reasons why HAY! Straws are one of my favorite solutions to plastic straws.

1. HAY! Straws are made of 100% wheat, which in this case, does not contain gluten and safe for those with gluten intolerance.

2. They are 100 % compostable. Simply throw away the straws in your compost bin after use.

3. By buying their wheat mainly from small scale farmers, HAY! Straws support local, fair economies and sustainable wheat production. The less residual waste, the better. It’s a win-win!

4. Minimal processing. Compared to paper straws which are pulped using chemicals, HAY! Straws are 100% natural. Once harvested, the wheat is cut to length and then rinsed thoroughly three times in sterile water to remove dirt and bacteria. Chemicals are never added.

5. HAY! Straws are packed in eco unbleached kraft boxes that use soy-based inks. All communication materials are printed on sustainably recycled and FSC®-certified paper. And of course, all HAY! Straws come in plastic-free packaging.

6. Whether you are looking for cocktail or milkshake straws – HAY! Straws come in different sizes.

Another bonus is that HAY! Straws offer special discounts and deals for wholesale. Check out this awesome planet-saving product here.

KAFFEEFORM – Nothing Coffee Grounds Can’t Do

Having downed countless cups of espresso, KAFFEEFORM founder, Julian Lechner, wondered whether the leftover coffee grounds couldn’t be used to create new things. The idea to design cups was inspired by his Product Design studies in Bolzano (Italy). And so in 2009, after numerous trials and experimenting, he developed a first prototype espresso cup made from coffee grounds.

Continuing from there and with much help and support from experts, family, and friends the initial idea merged into a finished product. After years of ups and downs and the sheer will to hold onto his vision, Julian Lechner launched Kaffeeform in 2015.

Based in Berlin (Germany) the KAFFEEFORM team daily collects coffee grounds from cafés and caterers in and around the city. The collection, as well as the product processing and logistics of turning coffee grounds into the finished products, are managed locally.

KAFFEEFORM products are super sturdy, dishwasher friendly and fully compostable. Coffee grounds by themselves would not withstand repeated exposure to liquids and heat, so Julian Lechner and his team spent a lot of time exploring possibilities. Finally, the solution they developed is a fully sustainable composite material made from coffee grounds, biopolymers, starch, cellulose, wood, natural resins, wax, and oils. Based on renewable raw materials, this innovative solution is free of oil-based binding agents.

What are biopolymers?
The walls of all plant cells are made of biopolymers, which make them the most common organic compound on Earth. These compounds of long chains of molecules have properties much alike oil-based plastics. Thus, they represent a future-oriented choice and alternative to oil-based plastics.

The KAFFEEFORM cups are designed for long-term use and can be washed regularly in a dishwasher while surviving many a fall on hard surfaces without breaking.

Presently, KAFFEEFORM only ships to countries in the European Union. This also applies to wholesale or franchise opportunities for businesses. However, they are planning to expand so be sure to sign-up for their newsletter for future reference.

Meanwhile, check out KAFFEEFORM’s products here and here.

SIRPLUS – Easier Than Dumpster Diving

Too small, crooked, too fat, too thin or past its due date. In Germany, a truckload of food is wasted and thrown away every minute. Per year this amounts to 18 million tons of food waste in Germany alone. Sounds crazy?

If food waste were a country it would be the third-largest CO2 emitter in the world after China and the USA (Check out: Food Waste – The Dumbest Problem video). This shows how reducing food waste is one of the two major factors we need to focus on in order to help halt climate destruction. 

SIRPLUS is a young Berlin-based Social Impact Startup, which focuses on saving food before it is thrown away.

Founded by Raphael Fellmer and Martin Schott in 2017, SIRPLUS fights food waste by bringing surplus food back into the cycle.

How it works

SIRPLUS buys and collects leftover, and perfectly enjoyable food directly from producers, suppliers, and farmers and sells them in their “Rescue Supermarkets” (German: Rettermarkt) in Berlin as well as through their online shop at a 70 percent discount. In collaboration with laboratories and onsite, they test their products on micro-bacteria and other risk factors previously to placing them on the store shelves. Throughout the EU it is legal to sell products past expiration date if and once they have been tested. 

SIRPLUS also offers weekly, monthly and yearly food box deliveries (free shipping) for busy people and those who live remotely.

One of their core values is to put charity first, making sure that they only rescue food the homeless shelter doesn’t need. And thus, SIRPLUS has donated over half a million food products to Berlin-based charity such as the Berliner Tafel, and in cooperation with the Berlin Recycling GmbH, they are reducing waste from the get-go.

This start-up is growing and multiplying fast. Coming up the beginning of 2020,  SIRPLUS plans to further expand its mission with a newly developed franchising concept. Through an APP they will be able to share their know-how and expertise in order to make it as easy as possible for new food rescue supermarkets to establish swiftly all over Germany and the European Union.  

Alongside opening additional branches,  SIRPLUS wants to enable a growing number of people to save food easily. Large corporations such as METRO and other companies actively involve initiatives like SIRPLUS, as they have set their goal of reducing food waste in their own operations by 50% by 2025.

SIRPLUS has won numerous awards such as the “Next Economy Award” and “Zu gut für die Tonne” from the German Government Ministry of Food and Farming.  You can find out more about heir work in various media, TV-, and Radio shows such as Galileo, PULS, rbb, shopify, Markus Lanz.

Pela Case – The Wold’s First Compostable Phone Case

While on a family vacation in Kauai in 2010, Jeremy Lang, the founder, and CEO of Pela Case saw first hand the damage plastic was doing to our oceans.  Jeremy spent years experimenting with new materials to try and find an alternative to plastic that could be used for everyday products. He came up with a 100% compostable sustainable, eco-friendly material free of BPA, lead, cadmium, and phthalates.

The Pela Phone Case has the potential to replace the more than 1 Billion plastic phone cases sold every year around the globe while returning back to the earth gracefully when you’re done with it.  All you have to do is throw it into a back yard compost and it will biodegrade!

Pela Sunglasses are sustainably made eco-friendly sunglasses.  The frames are biodegradable and you can even send them back to Pela Case when you’re done with them.  Are these sunglasses perfectly zero-waste? No, but they’re better than most and with the PELA 360 offer, you can send back your Pela cases and sunglasses to Pela and they will clean them up and give them to someone in need, turn them into new products, or compost them through the Pela 360 program.

Sophia Hoffmann Makes Food Value Easy

Sophia Hoffmann is a vegan chef and cookbook author from Berlin, Germany. She also describes herself as an activist as she effortlessly branches out to connected topics such as social justice, environmentalism, and conscious consumerism.

Currently, you can enjoy her delicious recipes at Isla Coffee, a Berlin-based Café focused on a Circular Economy.  Sophia also gives and participates in talks aimed at Zero Waste cooking, food value and conscious consumerism at numerous conferences and workshops.

What I like about Sophia’s work is that she touches on topics that are interconnected. Food waste is a major issue and driving force to the climate crisis we are witnessing. Food production is only possible through the use of invaluable resources such as water, land, and biodiversity. Growing food is labor intensive and eliminating food waste is essential in order to reduce global damage to our environment. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations  “Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted”.

We as consumers can be conscious of this and choose carefully what we buy, who we buy from, and make sure that we throw no food away – ever. We can also concentrate on package-free food we find at the market, zero waste grocery stores or if we have space, our own pot plants, and garden veggies.  This can be a win for our budget, a win for the planet and as Sophia makes it so easily accessible, a super fun project.

Sustainability and conscious consumerism are top priorities for Sophia in the kitchen as well as in everyday life. Her newest cookbook, “Zero Waste Küche” was launched in February 2019, following the success of her first cookbook “Sophias Vegane Welt” in 2014,  and her YouTube Channel “Vegan Queens” which was launched in 2015. As if not busy enough, she released her second cookbook in 2016 which features 10 vegan dinner menus while featuring 10 female-run gastronomic businesses. And lastly, Sophia’s Vegan-Queens-Podcast (in English and German) covers inspirational interviews with female entrepreneurs. English translations of her books will be out shortly.

Check out her books here:

Ecosia – Plant Trees While You Search the Web

Ecosia is a search engine that uses its profit from your searches to plant trees where they are most needed. With the free browser extension and the Ecosia APP you automatically plant trees with every search.

Trees make for a happy environment, healthy people, and strong economies and Ecosia is planting trees all around the world. The more we use this search engine, the closer we get to saving our planet.

Ecosia finances and coordinates an ever-growing list of projects which seem like all my dreams are coming true! However, compared to the mass destruction of valuable biodiversity around the globe (National Geographic), it’s more like a race against time and we need to see Ecosia’s work grow more rapidly than ever.

And it is SO EASY, all you need to do is browse.

This is what Ecosia has been working on so far: Restoring Ethiopia’s Watercycle, Reforesting Volcano Slopes in Nicaragua, Supporting Europes Diversity in Spain, Restoring Ghana’s Watershed, Planting Trees in the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania, Coffee for Peace in Colombia, Re-Greening the Sahel in Burkina Faso, Creating Corridors for Chimpanzees in Uganda, Protecting the home of the Orangutan in Indonesia, Empowering Women in Kenya, Food Security Through Tree Planting in Haiti, Trees for Healthier People and Forests in Indonesia, Restoring Watersheds in Brazil, Restoring the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil, Restoring Coastal Forests and natural Corridors in Madagascar, From Cocaine to Cacao in Peru, Development through Re-Forestation in Morocco, Restoring Mountain Slopes in Peru, Trees for Climate Resilient Farming in Senegal and Providing Alternatives to Palm oil in Indonesia.

Other perks of surfing the web with Ecosia are definitely worth mentioning.
Privacy is a big one. They don’t store searches permanently, nor create personal profiles on people based on their search history and actually anonymize each search within a week.
Unlike all other search engines, Ecosia doesn’t sell your data to advertising companies and even encrypts searches so that potential stalkers cannot sneak a peek on your web searches.
Most websites use external tracking tools, like Google Analytics, to optimize their services. Ecosia does not use third-party trackers. Ecosia collects only a small amount of data to be able to improve their services. If you want to opt out of tracking, you can activate “Do Not Track” in your browser’s settings.

Ecosia good to be true? Absolutely not.

Otter Surfboards – Surf On Wood

Otter Surfboards are carefully manufactured in Cornwall, UK, by James Otter and his team of woodworkers and surfers. Wooden surfboards stand separate from the vast majority of petrochemical-derived surfboards as they glide smoothly and gracefully through the water. Otter Surfboards are designed and handcrafted to last. They also look beautiful showing the grains and natural patterns within the sustainably sourced, local timber. These hollow, skin and frame wooden surfboards not only are superior in quality and duress, but they also cause no harm to the planet.

Since the first wave riding tools were constructed, wood has been used as material. Otter Surfboards strive to find the perfect match of best old and new: Traditional materials and techniques with modern refinements and construction methods.

For surfers out there that need a new surfboard yet don’t want to add to the plastic floating around you in the waves,  this is your solution. Buying a wooden surfboard solves your moral dilemma and offers a splendid ride on the waves.

Otter Surfboards also offer other products such as Paddleboards, Bellyboards, as well as Workshops to make your own surfboard. Check these out here.

Tealing from Otter Surfboards on Vimeo.