Beth Fiteni

GreenFestival NYC 2016

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This year’s Earth Day Greenfestival at the Javits Center was informative and inspiring as it always is. It is an annual expo of green product innovators, natural body care products, green gadgets, healthy food, eco-clothing, and sustainability organizations. It was co-sponsored by Green America and the film Cowspiracy, which is an exposé of how the meat industry impacts the environment.

I always like to mention my favorite finds, and this year one of them is from Long Island:

SOS Natural Products is a Bay-Shore based company that makes natural mosquito repellent products, that includes a key ingredient—lemon eucalyptus. This has been found by the Center for Disease Control to be effective at repelling mosquitoes, an important thing to have on those balmy summer evenings.

SOS Mosquito product

A second favorite was Mariclaro, a Canadian company who makes upcycled briefcases, wallets and accessories for men from high end car parts such as Mercedes and Cadillac. They literally go to the landfills and pull out the usable seat belts, leather, etc. and hand-make impressively chic, stylish products.

Mariclaro Upcycled Seatbelt wallets and purses

A final mention goes to the Unitensil for clever design. It is a re-usable “spork/knife” that folds up and can fit in your pocket for anytime you are eating take-out to avoid the need for disposable plastic-ware.

unitensel

There are Greenfestivals around the country each spring; see greenfestivals.org.

Earth-friendly Fashion: a Movement, and a Mission

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When I walk into my local mall looking for a last-minute eco-friendly gift for a friend’s birthday, a wave of dread washes over me. I wish I could find natural hemp leggings or cute pair of fair-trade sandals—but instead I find an overwhelming selection of human rights and environmental horrors.

In one store there are racks of chemically dyed shirts. In another there are stacks of sweatshop-sewn blue jeans. I vow to next time to order an eco-friendly gift online. Frustrated and saddened, I leave the mall and instead buy her a Visa gift card.

Finding Earth-friendly fashion shouldn’t be this difficult. Clothing also shouldn’t be thought of as “disposable.” That’s why I’ve made it part of my mission to make it easier for people to access fairly, sustainably and beautifully made clothing. For the past several years, I’ve been working on a book explaining about sustainable and ethical clothing and where to find it (due later this year!), so people can appreciate more about what goes into making their garments.

Just last week Green Inside and Out co-presented its first film screening, The True Cost, an eye-opening (and tear-jerking) documentary that gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look of the fashion industry. The film was shown at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, NY.[1] [Read more…] about Earth-friendly Fashion: a Movement, and a Mission

Recycle Your Old Sneakers

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running shoe

When your sneakers are too worn out to donate, recycle them. Since the 1990s Nike has had a Better World – Reuse A Shoe program through which they accept any kind of athletic shoes, including other brands. They grind up the materials to be used for flooring and even zippers. According to their website, 28 million sneakers have gone through the shredders, one of them located in Tennessee. Flooring for tennis & basketball courts, running tracks and playground surfaces made with “Nike Grind” now cover about 632,000,000 square feet – nearly enough to cover Manhattan. You can drop of your old shoes on Long Island at:

  • The Nike Store at the Tanger Outlets in Deer Park or Riverhead
  • The Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City
  • Nike Store in Oceanside on Long Beach Rd.

For other locations around the U.S. see : http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/better-world/reuse-a-shoe

Note* Nike is one of the largest global users of organic cotton, but has been criticized for using sweatshop labor. Consumer pressure will help them continue in the right direction.

The Ugly Side of Gold and Diamonds—and Finding Truly Beautiful Ones

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loose-diamonds-recently-purchased-engagement-rings-300x240pxWhile gold and diamond jewelry is beautiful, it comes with a dark side that they don’t show us on commercials. Before just looking in the jewelry case, consider this:

“In Sierra Leone, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Liberia and the Ivory Coast the sale of conflict diamonds continues to thrive for many reasons. Rebels make large profits because they use free labor–They threaten villagers at gunpoint, forcing them to dig for diamonds. If villagers refuse to follow soldiers’ orders, their limbs are amputated as punishment. Rebels sell the diamonds on the black market for less than other diamonds. Therefore, wholesalers make a bigger profit. The rebels use the money gained from the diamonds to fund wars.”[1]— CNN

The UN has established the Kimberley Process to identify conflict-free diamonds that were obtained legitimately, however this does not prevent sale of unethical diamonds.

And mining the earth for gold is equally perilous, for the environment and surrounding communities. The Smithsonian has reported:

  • The majority of the world’s gold is extracted from open pit mines, where huge volumes of earth are scoured away and processed for trace elements.
  • To produce enough raw gold to make a single ring, 20 tons of rock and soil are dislodged and discarded.
  • Much of this waste contains mercury and cyanide used to extract the gold from the rock, and the contaminated soil runs off clogging rivers.
  • Air quality is also compromised by gold mining, which releases hundreds of tons of airborne elemental mercury every year, as well as sulfur dioxide.[2]

There is a No Dirty Gold campaign to raise awareness, and fortunately there are companies making jewelry from recycled gold and diamonds. [Read more…] about The Ugly Side of Gold and Diamonds—and Finding Truly Beautiful Ones

Know What’s In Your Nail Polish

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While painted nails look pretty, most regular nail polish contains harmful chemicals such as toluene,nailpolish
xylene, and formaldehyde (carcinogens), as well as dibutyl-phthalate which is a hormone disruptor. This is especially of concern for nail salon workers who are exposed to it daily. Care should be taken
to avoid inhaling polish fumes and from putting painted nails in the mouth. There are however, several companies who have made the effort to remove these chemicals from their products. While these polishes still contain chemicals and it is advisable to take common sense caution, they are at least free of most of the above toxins:

  • OPI
  • No Miss
  • Chrome Girl
  • Suncoat
  • Zoya

A Historic Moment for U.S. Clean Energy

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Middelgrunden Wind Turbine Cooperative, Denmark - CREDIT: KIM HANSEN (FLICKR)
Middelgrunden Wind Turbine Cooperative, Denmark CREDIT: KIM HANSEN (FLICKR)

I got the best birthday present this year I could ever ask for. On Monday July 27, 2015, construction broke ground on the first ever off-shore wind park in the United States. It will be a small 30 mw wind park made up of 5 turbines off of Block Island, which is between Rhode Island and the tip of Long Island. It will supply enough energy to power about 17,000 homes mostly on Block Island, without use of fossil fuels. Many congratulations are due to Deepwater Wind for all their work in securing the proper location, approvals, and financing to achieve this major accomplishment.

While there are wind farms on land in the U.S., and there have been several other offshore projects in the works in other states such as Massachusetts and Maryland (plus a failed attempt off L.I.), this is the first project to actually begin construction offshore. This project follows in a long line of offshore wind farms in other countries such as Denmark (which I wrote about visiting four years ago on this blog), England, and China. Proposed in 2009, there is still an offshore wind farm in the works closer to the New York City area by the NY Power Authority. Let’s hope it happens soon, so we can continue to create electricity while achieving reductions in greenhouse gases and protecting our climate.

To hear my interview with Clint Plummer of Deepwater Wind last summer, go the “Listen to Past Shows” section of this website’s radio show page.