Firstly a confession, I never make new year’s resolutions, but this year I am because something has turned in me and I need to do something. When I was younger I was proud of my ethics and teenage girl protests, I discussed nagged my parents not to buy goods from South Africa in the apartheid era, poor Dad was never allowed to buy Gillette razors for their refusal to stop testing on animals and the Body Shop was the shop of my dreams. Through to adulthood, I kept my values, carefully recycling, writing to my favourite clothes shops to ask of their working practices to ensure that my clothes were being made for a fair wage etc.. And then I became complacent, I thought the battle to ensure that products were not tested on animals had been won with legislation in the UK, I presumed that the kerbside recycling meant that we were becoming greener as a country and simply pottered along. However I have read a number of articles recently and watched some video footage and have had that sad realisation that things aren’t as rosy as I had hoped. If companies wish to sell their beauty and skincare products in China, they must be tested on animals before they are allowed to sell in the country, so some companies who have maintained a cruelty free product in the UK are rejecting this to sell to the large Chinese market. Suddenly products which I believed to be cruelty free are no longer, my ‘I finally found the perfect’ foundation is no longer perfect, my beloved Essie nail varnishes have lost their gloss. I’ve also watched videos of the damage being done by our obsession with plastic and our throw away attitude and how we need to act to protect our planet. I am not an eco warrior, I’m simply someone trying to do little things to help our eco system so that we have a healthy world to live on and to be proud to pass it on to future generations.
As a new year’s resolution it has a pretty big remit, so I thought I would use my blog to post some updates on what I’m doing and why I’m doing it, using the hashtag #ecosparkles2018. I’m not sure how this will look, but we’ll let it develop organically as time progresses. However I know that the first thing I am doing is compiling a list of cruelty free brands which do not trade in China and to use this list to replace the unacceptable items in my make up bag as they are finished. My other quick fix resolution is not to use any new plastic bags next year or take away coffee cups.
There will be other actions as I research more and try to take positive steps towards improving my environment and I hope to include many links too for others to look at the arguments. Here’s to a greener 2018.
Resources I’ve used so far …
Make up and Toiletries
https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com
Whilst this is an American website, it has lots of useful information on multi national companies and their policies. It also helps you to work out who owns which brands.
http://www.elleuk.com/beauty/make-up/articles/a31152/11-cruelty-free-makeup-brands/
This is a really useful introduction to some cruelty free brands.
http://crueltyfreeproducts.co.uk/cruelty-free-makeup-brands/
This website has an excellent database of manufacturers for inspiration.
http://crueltyfreeproducts.co.uk/companies-that-test-on-animals/
The same website has this page of companies who sell in China and therefore accept testing on animals. To me this was difficult reading when many favourites are on it.
Environmental Pollution / The use of plastics
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42264788
Some worrying graphics about plastic in our environment
https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/plastics-pledge-v3?source=pr&subsource=clpledge
A pledge to help reduce your plastic use.
https://www.zerowasteweek.co.uk/zero-waste-week-day-1-plastic/
This article looks at different types of plastic packaging.
More ideas here, some so simple, stop chewing gum and using straws.
Seaside Sparkles 