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Ep.116 How to Green Up Your Bathroom with Joshua Onysko
100 Plays17 days ago
In this episode, I sit down with Joshua Onysko, a serial entrepreneur and eco-innovator, to unpack one of the biggest challenges facing us as plant lovers and conscious humans: plastic pollution. We dive deep into why plastic is still everywhere, why recycling isn’t the full solution, and how big corporations keep pushing cheap plastic despite the environmental cost. Joshua shares his journey of creating truly plastic-free skincare brands and highlights some inspiring innovations, like modular, repairable tech and plantable packaging.
This episode offers tangible insights and inspiration to green your life without the overwhelm.
Topics Covered about Plastic Pollution Solutions
➡️ Why plastic persists despite environmental harm and the limits of recycling
➡️ The power of reconnecting with plant kin to shift consumer behavior naturally
➡️ Innovations in zero-plastic skincare, modular tech, and plantable packaging
➡️ How everyday choices and consumer pressure can drive systemic change
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
08:10 Rethinking personal-care habits & consumption
16:15 Glass vs Plastic: truth about packaging and recycling
19:42 Fairphone
24:30 Product redesign: aluminum tubes & zero-waste swaps
32:45 Consumer power: influencing supply chains for change
41:00 Hidden health risks: EMF, toxins & bathroom air quality
57:40 Daily green-bathroom rituals & mindset shifts
65:00 Closing reflections
Resources Mentioned
🌱 Pangea Organics
🌱Alpine Provisions
🌱 Naturally Conscious Community
Expanded Show Notes
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. It's me, Tigre Gardenia. say I to say, had no idea what I would be talking about with Joshua.
00:00:14
Speaker
Joshua Anescu is somebody who has um just lived. He's done a lot of different things. And when we had our kind of like pre-interview conversation, we bounced through so many topics and we decided that rather than trying to fix what we were going to talk about, we would just sort of leave it up and leave it open.
00:00:35
Speaker
And I am so glad we did that because what conversation we ended up having probably not the most direct plant specific conversation that we've had on the podcast.
00:00:46
Speaker
You know, it's not one of them where we're like just only talking
Plastic Reduction and Alternatives
00:00:49
Speaker
about the plant. But I do want to emphasize here that besides the fact that the conversation was just fascinating because, you know, Joshua just has so much information, so much experience and research that he's done into the world of plastics, which is pretty much what we talked about the entire time is how to get rid of plastics, how to change up plastics. why is plastic still around? What can we do about plastic?
00:01:12
Speaker
You know, all these different aspects of it. And I really appreciate it because I think we, you know, it is not natural Haha, lack of a, you know, it is natural for us as we start to reconnect back into this plantness, we reawaken our, you know, our inner plantness, we start to work really close with our plant friends, where things like plastic and the pollution problem in particular that we have happening all around the world.
00:01:39
Speaker
become insufferable. It's like the the the inorganic nature of ah the products that we use, the the different things that we have around our homes becomes impossible for us to support.
00:01:53
Speaker
And it is something that I think we forget that as consumers, we have a lot of power over. And Joshua has a lot of experience in this to help us understand that what it is that we, what is possible and how much more than what we really think is possible.
Consumer Power and Sustainability Choices
00:02:08
Speaker
So I really do hope that you're going to listen all the way through to the end because there is some great tidbits in there.
00:02:14
Speaker
There's some great products for you to try. There's some great substitutions for you to have, but more than anything, this is about reconnecting back into that part of ourselves, reconnecting with plant kin and realizing that for the good of the plants that you are currently friends with, for the good of the plants that live and support us around the world, not only do plants have the solutions, but we cannot disrespect them by not making changes in our daily life.
00:02:43
Speaker
And while I know that those those changes are difficult, I think that this is a great type of conversation to show you that it's really not as hard as you think it is. It's just that we've been conditioned to believe that it's super hard.
00:02:54
Speaker
I myself have made tons and tons and tons of changes, even if some of them are adding recycling on the bottom of the R list, right? Thinking better about reusing and about, you know, rehoming and about recycling.
00:03:06
Speaker
you know, repurposing and all the other types of ours that come repairing, especially, and all these other pieces that come way before we ever get to recycling. So With that, I'm just going to say thank you for being here. Thank you for your changes. And I'd love to hear what changes you're making. Like, are there things that you have found that you've discovered that you've been like, oh, my goodness, I wish more people knew about this because this has completely changed my relationship with, you know, plastic. I've been able to get rid of plastic because of this and these and these are the changes that I've made.
00:03:39
Speaker
come into the naturally conscious community or just comment here, wherever it is that you are, whether you're on YouTube or you're listening in a podcast app, I'd love to hear what are the changes that you're making and how is it that your relationship with sustainability and regenerativeness and more than anything, just plastic in general and pollution in general has changed thanks to your relationship with plants.
00:04:03
Speaker
So with that, I'm going to leave you to listen to this fantastic conversation with Joshua Onesco, which is episode 116, 116, how green bathroom.
00:04:15
Speaker
how a green up your bathroom
00:04:20
Speaker
Welcome to Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. I'm your host, Tigria Gardenia, nature-inspired mentor, certified life coach, and the founder of the Naturally Conscious Community. For over a decade, I've been known as a world ambassador for plant advocacy, working closely with plants to share their practical wisdom to help you consciously embody the elements of life that nourish your evolution.
00:04:41
Speaker
In this podcast, I delve into ancient and modern knowledge from biology to spirituality about the wondrous ways of plants. Together, we'll explore how ecosystem thinking helps you overcome limiting beliefs, understand the true nature of relationships, and live an authentic, impactful life.
00:05:01
Speaker
Alrighty, here we are, joshua We've, you know, I don't remember the last time we had our, when we had our first little chat, but it's been a while now. So I'm actually kind of excited to see what direction we take this conversation, especially since kind of like me, you're one of those people with like a CV that is like 7,000 pages and that's because we
Joshua's Background and Innovations
00:05:21
Speaker
cut it.
00:05:21
Speaker
the So I'm actually just as excited as everybody else to ask this question. Who Joshua? joshua
00:05:33
Speaker
So Joshua is a um high school dropout and a traveler and a ah serial entrepreneur and an adventurer and someone who is always seeking ah solutions to problems to help the world.
00:06:00
Speaker
I like this. I like that last part. Someone who is seeking solutions for problems in the world. I like it. um It's very cool. And so what problem are you currently solving right now?
00:06:13
Speaker
Right now, i am working on a um a nut milk maker. And, you know, I've been, as we talked about when we first met, I've been vegan most of my life, mainly for animal rights, but also for nutrition.
00:06:30
Speaker
And to me, dairy is one of the worst things that we do on planet Earth is factory farmed dairy. And I also just really don't think dairy is really great for humans. so I've been drinking nut milk for many years.
00:06:46
Speaker
When I first became vegan in my teens, I was making my own nut milk because back in the 90s, the soy milk that was being sold in the market was pretty gross. And you know Over the years, it's obviously boomed into this multi-billion dollar industry and the milk tastes better.
00:07:04
Speaker
But from a nutritional standpoint, most of what's on the store shelves is kind of garbage. And so six months ago, I started working on this small kitchen appliance that makes nut milk at home, but also has the same nutritional value as cow's milk, which is kind of like the the Holy grail of milk. It's like, how do you have dairy free milk that's organic and doesn't have garbage ingredients, but has like the protein and niacin, vitamin content of milk. because I've solved that problem and, uh, I'll be launching it this summer.
00:07:43
Speaker
And, you know, I hope that the problem it solves is twofold. One, getting people off dairy. And two, helping people who may be buying store-bought plant milk reduce waste because packaging and have a healthier alternative for whatever they use milk for, cereal, coffee, baking, you know, you name it, we use milk.
00:08:08
Speaker
I forgot the statistic, but the amount of milk that people drink in a year is kind of insane because I actually don't drink that much milk. Yeah, i I actually don't either. It's really interesting. I only started to drink milk and milk alternatives. I'll be honest. I drink both only because I got, I love matcha.
00:08:28
Speaker
And so I use this teeny tiny bit, probably a few times a week, you know, just exactly. And, and that's it. And so I'll have, you know, I'll buy one,
00:08:41
Speaker
A month type of thing, one little container month. But you are right. I mean, the whole packaging thing, i i think so much about packaging, especially where luckily where I live, there are alternatives in some cases.
00:08:55
Speaker
I love going to the, you know, going to the corner stores or like the little markets around here because they're usually just get butcher paper and whatever it is, whether it's cheese or meat or anything like that.
00:09:06
Speaker
just butcher paper and it's super easy, but oh my goodness, the whole packaging thing is insanity ah how it goes. Yeah. So for the past 25 years, i have owned skin and body care companies and I still do Pangea Organics and Alpine Provisions. And in my industry alone, the skincare industry produces 127 billion pieces of plastic year.
00:09:30
Speaker
billion pieces of plastic a year I was actually going to ask you about this conversation. So we're going to get into Pangea organics and, and, but I'm glad that you brought it onto this because so um, and somebody who I'm not, as you can tell, I'm not a huge makeup person. The only thing I wear is because I have, uh, I'm Cuban. I have like black under my eyes from when I was born.
00:09:56
Speaker
My mother says she could see me in the crib when my ojeras, as we call them, came out. And she's like, and I've had them all my life. And other than that, it's more only about skincare, right? The idea of really just trying to find the right thing for my body.
00:10:09
Speaker
And it is, as a matter of fact, I was just in Croatia with one of the favorite companies. It's called Hildegard that I love their product, but I could not bring myself to buy it because it's been forever since I bought a plastic face cream. i I cannot seem to bring myself to actually buy a plastic container And one, only one company here has a, um has a container that is like you buy the glass piece once with the, unfortunately a plastic top, but inside is kind of like a pod.
00:10:44
Speaker
And so you just buy the pod that goes inside of it, which is still a pod made out of, but they're trying to move it to like a compostable plastic type thing pod inside. And then I have found one that's a tin that, that they make it in a little tin But I'm just like, I do not understand how all of these brands that claim to be, you know, sustainable, organic, looking at all of these things, still put them inside of a plastic container. Like, is there a reason for that?
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah. Other than cost? It's money. That's it. It's only money. Well, it's it's money and supply chain. So we took Pangea and Alpine completely plastic free, like zero plastic um four years ago.
00:11:29
Speaker
And what we learned is back in the eighties, all cosmetics and like toothpaste came in these aluminum tubes. right Right.
00:11:40
Speaker
And then plastic was introduced. The first time I remember a plastic bottle replacing a glass bottle was ketchup. And the whole marketing was no more. 966, which was the most fun part.
00:11:51
Speaker
Yeah. fun part like the yeah We love doing that. And so, you know, back then no one thought anything of it. And then, you know, three years later, this blue bin showed up on your doorstep. Don't worry about all the waste. You can recycle it.
00:12:04
Speaker
No, you can't. The blue bin is a lot. Yeah. the i mean, you can't recycle plastic. You can only downcycle. So if it's a plastic bottle today, it might turn into decking or lawn furniture.
00:12:17
Speaker
But inevitably any plastic we are producing ends up in the ocean or in landfills or in our rivers. And, so So first it's the cost because when you stop producing something in mass quantity like aluminum tubes and aluminum bottles and glass bottles, the price goes up.
00:12:38
Speaker
So there's a price barrier. But on top of the price barrier, there's only like seven co-manufacturers left in America that will still fill aluminum tubes because it's a special machine
Ecological Impact of Plastics
00:12:50
Speaker
that's either made in China or Italy.
00:12:52
Speaker
ah So then you're narrowing where you can make your product. And so those are all problems. um But at the end of the day, the real reason why people do it it don't do it is it's expensive and it's hard.
00:13:08
Speaker
And the truth is, and I am the person who can... say this from a place of authority, people don't care. i know. i would i will completely agree with you on that. Like, I find that extremely fascinating. It's,
00:13:23
Speaker
So, and we're going to get deeper into the whole plant conversation, but it's one of those cognizant dissonance, I can't even say it today. It's been, it's been a long day, but it's one of those dissonance that we have where, um, our value system that we claim, yeah and and we all do it in some way, to be honest, but like, it's one of those value systems that we claim to have, but then when push comes to shove, you sort of say, oh, well, like, oh, well,
00:13:51
Speaker
And yeah there's no other solution. And then you just do it and you don't even attempt to do a solution. Like I was saying, from, from a makeup perspective, like I have, uh, I've done a lot of research both in the United States as well as here, personal, like not at your level, obviously, but, you know, to try to find the companies that are, you know, either.
00:14:12
Speaker
Creating something that is ah ah refillable. So i've I've been lucky enough to find a few. i don't, like I said, don't use that much stuff, but I've been able to find either refillable where, you know, yes, one of them has a plastic pod, the other ones instead are like a little, a tin, an aluminum pot that, you know, you refill certain things with.
00:14:30
Speaker
And or a crayon type thing where of course then you use the whole thing, but even the cap of the crayon comes in plastic and you're just like. Plastic is so cheap.
00:14:42
Speaker
um It's kind of. you know Most cosmetic companies are getting their plastic from China, which is even worse because the vast majority of Chinese plastic manufacturers have zero environmental controls.
00:14:55
Speaker
right So like a plastic bottle you can buy for $0.09, whereas our aluminum and glass bottles cost $0.90. right But glass and aluminum can be recycled infinitely over and over and over again. And even if a glass bottle ends up in the ocean, it turns into sea glass, no big deal.
00:15:15
Speaker
um but yeah very rare it'll end up anywhere other than recycling because it adds value. Plastic has no value. So it is it it doesn't have the value where someone's going to take it and go recycle it, whereas glass and aluminum actually is expensive. So because we can just keep, re we can turn an aluminum bottle into another aluminum bottle over and over again till the end of time.
00:15:41
Speaker
And it's a fairly low footprint to do that because they just melt it down and make a puck and that puck gets turned into another bottle. um And quite honestly, people should be demanding, demanding that large corporations only package goods this way.
00:16:00
Speaker
right Because they can. They could lick, like Procter & Gamble alone could change the entire ecosystem or supply chain system of packaging overnight by just stopping to use plastic. But it's so cheap.
00:16:16
Speaker
And they just keep building more plastic-making facilities. They just don't want to do it. because in a case speak Because people don't care, though. So it's like the second people care, corporations care. and So our brands are plastic-free. It's probably the fourth reason pipe people buy our product.
00:16:32
Speaker
It's not even in the top three. Yeah, and I find, and this is why from my perspective, i and I think about myself as well as my clients and the people that I've worked with and my students and seen their transformation.
00:16:45
Speaker
To me, yes, you could try to solve this with education, which I'm sure there are plenty of people that are doing and they're really trying to kind of educate people on there are options, but blah, blah, blah, blah. But I have found that it's more effective to go the route of if you reconnect to nature, if you really start to create these deep bonds with plants and then, you know, moving on to other species and such, not as objects, because of course, when it's an object, it's super easy for me to do and manipulate and do whatever the hell I want.
00:17:15
Speaker
But instead as beings, as as living beings of which you have a relationship and you co-create with and all these different things, I find that you naturally start to look for these other solutions because that reconnection ends up kind of making you say, well, why would I why would i want to do something that harms my friends, that harms my planet?
00:17:39
Speaker
And it it doesn't happen always through a cognitive part, right? It doesn't happen through like, let me think about it. But You just start to take steps and then it snowballs. Like I was just talking to somebody about, um I have a Fairphone because that's another place where people are just completely like, they think one thing about values, but then when it comes to your phone, you're like, well, I just got to buy a new iPhone or a new whatever.
Fairphone and Sustainable Technology
00:18:03
Speaker
What's a Fairphone?
00:18:05
Speaker
And so Fairphone is the world's most ecological phone. It's kind of the equivalent of what you were talking about in the sense that it is intended for you to have the Fairphone for a long period of time, eight to 10 years. It's built modularly. You get a little screwdriver with it.
00:18:20
Speaker
Actually, they don't even give you the screwdriver anymore because they say, most likely you have a screwdriver, but if you need it, we'll give you a screwdriver. They don't give you anything other than the phone. And they say, anything you need, you let us know. And you can open the phone and change all the components. So besides the fact that they're sourcing and how they source everything that's on the phone looking for the best and they're constantly like looking for updates, it's a Dutch company.
00:18:43
Speaker
But the phone itself is constructed to be long-term use. The idea that you have this one phone for at minimum eight years is what they're like Their goal is eight years to 10 years.
00:18:54
Speaker
And you have like a little app that helps you sort of follow that trend. And then anything that might happen to the phone, you yourself can just update the phone so you can open it and buy just that piece. And they always tell you, please keep the envelopes that, you know, like when you get the the phone, it just comes in the box now.
00:19:12
Speaker
very minimal packaging and they say please keep this because if you ever do need to send us the phone, this is the way you're going to send us the phone. And then when you do get like, you know, if you get a component, they say please send back the original component because then they're going, they always have a circular sort of economy set up for it. So it's considered for like, I don't know, the last maybe at a minimum like eight years that I've known it. It's like the world's most sustainable phone.
00:19:38
Speaker
I do. i do. i love it. can we see it? Yeah, of course. Hold on. mean So here it is. It's just a like a regular Android phone. See, it's called Fairphone in the back. Hold on. I'll take the plastic thing off so you can see.
00:19:53
Speaker
So I don't know if you can see, but see how you can see through it. So yeah I can just open this super easily. Where's the... Has anybody done any a EMF testing on it?
00:20:04
Speaker
They've done tons of testing. You can see it all from their website. They're really cool people. And so you open it and you'll see that it's like modular. So I can change the battery. I can open all of this up. I can change the camera. I can change all the different components from it. So their idea is they build it in a way where over time, let's just say like, for example, um my camera, right, as cameras improve, they build it in a way where the new cameras will have the same shape.
00:20:31
Speaker
the same size and so that you can easily plug it in. And they're, they're always thinking about how is it that I can, if I do need to upgrade anything or anything breaks, I can just do that one little component instead of having to do everything.
00:20:47
Speaker
I absolutely love them. I have actually two because I originally bought one. And unfortunately, when I go visit the US, the US only does five g now. They don't support 4G. So, but my old one becomes the one that I um basically use for all of my friends, like as a loaner for them to have.
00:21:08
Speaker
And a friend of mine who has that one, He's already upgraded. you know He's had to upgrade or he's chosen to do different things. And it's fantastic. They're such a great company. They also have earbuds like I just got. And it's the same principle of the idea that you're going to have these for eight to 10 years.
00:21:27
Speaker
And how are they upgradable or maintainable? And then they have an end of life. So they've built it into their um into their way of of doing business, that there is an end of life that they have to think about. So please send it back to them and then they'll completely dismantle it, take out, recycle as much as possible and stuff.
00:21:46
Speaker
It's a super, super cool company, totally worth looking at it. And of course, if you go to tigreagardenia.com slash Fairphone, you get a discount. Nice. I'll check it out. yeah Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, I love them. And, and like I said, I think When you reconnect, and so if you go down that angle, then you naturally start to look at these pieces.
Plants as Solutions to Environmental Issues
00:22:09
Speaker
And so I'm so curious as to, well, besides the fact that, of course, I want to ask you about your connection with plants, because, you know, it's kind of why we're here. But I'm also really curious as to what kind of took you down this route. Like, why did you decide? Because it's not an easy problem to solve. I mean, you could have easily just gone with plastic.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, I started making product. I started making bar soap when I was about 22 years old and bar soap's easy, right? Like anybody putting bar soap in anything but paper, right?
00:22:40
Speaker
Just doesn't care. It's another one of those things where you're like, seriously, why is this in plastic? It doesn't make any sense. But people still do it. It's called blow wrap. They blow wrap the bars. It comes out of the K press and it drives me insane. But anyway, when I started, it was really simple.
00:23:00
Speaker
And then we started moving into ah like liquid products like lotions and hand soaps and body washes. And for a while, we're using 100% post-consumer plastic, which is great because you're pulling you're pulling plastic out of the supply chain. Right.
00:23:18
Speaker
At a certain point, you realize you're still part of the problem. You're just lesser part of the problem because you're creating a demand for something, which is why they're creating virgin plastic because can then sell the secondary plastic. Yeah, better is good. they're just yeah It's just better.
00:23:34
Speaker
And then one day I was looking at an egg crate carton and I was like, egg crate cartons are amazing. They protect product really well. And it's actually the last...
00:23:46
Speaker
stop of the recyclability of ah of a tree product paper is an egg crate carton. After an egg crate carton, you can no longer recycle it. It's done. um But it's also very biodegradable, obviously.
00:23:59
Speaker
And so we developed the world's first plantable packaging. We started mixing Genovese basil seeds into the pulp of the ah hence the bar soap packaging.
00:24:09
Speaker
And then what was protecting the glass packaging was molded fiber. And that kind of set me off on this process. how do I make the most sustainable skin and body care company on earth?
00:24:23
Speaker
And so I was diving, i scuba dive, I was diving somewhere um in Central America and just saw like plastic in the ocean. and I was like, this is so depressing. I don't want to make another plastic bottle.
00:24:37
Speaker
And so I went down this journey of finding like really beautiful aluminum, really beautiful glass. I started actually working with a company that Apple invested in about 12 years ago that like made really beautiful molded fiber. So like high end egg crate cartons.
00:24:54
Speaker
So anytime you buy an Apple product now, it's usually in molded fiber. And they actually have done a great job of eliminating plastic in their packaging over the past 10 years. And, um,
00:25:06
Speaker
So and at the same time, I redesigned both of my brands, Alpine Provisions and Pangea Organics. I invented the world's first aluminum tube that has an aluminum cap because most aluminum tubes still have a plastic cap.
00:25:21
Speaker
um Went down that rabbit hole and it took three years and probably a million and a half dollars, but now we have completely plastic-free products and I can sleep at night.
00:25:35
Speaker
and um you know And I always like to caveat, and I always say people don't care, and I want apologize to all the listeners out there who do care because I am well aware that there are at least a million of us in the world who actually do think
Global Plastic Pollution and Consumer Responsibility
00:25:49
Speaker
about these things. And when I say people, I really mean the mass population still does not think about plastic. And I can't emphasize enough.
00:25:59
Speaker
We just got back from three weeks in Bali and I was absolutely mortified. I don't understand how people consider that like utopia. um The people are by far the nicest people I've ever met my life, but the tourists And the digital nomads that live there have absolutely trashed that island.
00:26:19
Speaker
That's how feel about Egypt. Every time I go and like, you're like, really? it's There is the most intense amount of plastic everywhere. Rivers, streams, sides of the road.
00:26:32
Speaker
We went in this like little cove where, you know, you see a million Instagram models always taking photos. And I went in there because so hot. just wanted cool down. Wait, did you photo?
00:26:43
Speaker
Did you take an Instagrammable photo? No, I am not an Instagram model. um I didn't take any photos. I was so disgusted. I went in there. There was so much plastic in the waves.
00:26:55
Speaker
And I'm not talking about one or two pieces. I'm talking about thousands of pieces. And there are Instagram people just taking photos And like not showing the water, just showing this beautiful cove. And I'm like, oh my God, this is so dystopic.
00:27:11
Speaker
It is. um Because, you know, in developing countries, we don't really see the plastic because we ship it away. You know, we might see some plastic on the side of the road or a bottle here and there because we ship it away to a landfill.
00:27:24
Speaker
But the landfills are... you know, something like 48,000 jumbo jets of plastic end up in the ocean every year. So just imagine ah jumbo jet after a jumbo jet after a jumbo jet plastic. like And here's the thing no one wants to admit. 55% of all ocean plastic is actually from the fish industry.
00:27:45
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And it's just ghost gear. And if you go on the beaches and anywhere in Southeast Asia, you just see ghost gear, thousands and thousands of pounds of fishing gear just washing up on the oceans.
00:27:59
Speaker
And at some point, and I hope that point is very soon, we need to realize that the power of the people, of the consumer can change this overnight. Corporations are not going to do it.
00:28:11
Speaker
no Large corporations are not going to do it. I'm always shocked about that particular. I have a ah good friend of mine here who over the years I have slowly trained her because we would go shopping together and you know she'd pull out whatever dress. She's somebody who who likes you know clothes, which is great, but she pulls out dresses and it's all polyester and plastic fibers and everything.
00:28:36
Speaker
And I'm just looking at her going, how? how do you wear that? And I don't look at her like trying to just shame her into it, although sometimes I do.
Sustainable Fashion and Synthetic Clothing
00:28:46
Speaker
I was like, yes, you do. And then other times I'm just like, doesn't it feel like crappy on your skin?
00:28:54
Speaker
And i think, ah again, going back to there's different ways to approach it. And I i do feel like Maybe, maybe it is my connection, but my connection to nature means that when I put something like this on my body, when I grab something like that, I feel like crap.
00:29:10
Speaker
Like i feel, it doesn't feel part of me and and it's that inorganic part that, but, but it's more than that. It it feels like, I don't know, soulless, wrong. it doesn't have the energy weight. It doesn't have the connection. There's like, I feel completely disconnected from this thing that is supposed to be something that enriches my life. And I feel like I do not understand. I really don't. It's one of those fundamental things of how human beings do not understand that their pocketbook has the power.
00:29:42
Speaker
Like, how can you keep looking at me and saying, oh, well, you know, it's the corporations. I'm like, the corporations have to bow down to the things you buy. yeah Stop buying it and we won't have this problem. yeah like Well, people always want to make make believe someone else is in control.
00:30:00
Speaker
Exactly. Because it's easier. It's a lot easier. It's the same thing with politics, the same thing with corporations. And, i you know, and I think about it in the yoga industry a lot. I go to a yoga class. I'm like, how do you do yoga wrapped in a plastic bag?
00:30:14
Speaker
Exactly.
00:30:17
Speaker
it of like, and how many yoga pants do you need? Because most people have dozens of yoga pants. Okay. I'm going to tell you this. awesome um I'm going to be honest. I have two pairs of yoga pants.
00:30:32
Speaker
And I think the first one is probably about 12 years old. And the other one is like 10 years old.
00:30:44
Speaker
And, you know, i think I have one other pair of kind of soft pants. They're not really yoga plants, but they're just cotton, you know, like bedroom pants that I, since I yoga at home. Someone should start a company called Yoga Plants.
00:30:55
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like, and it's like, why do I need more than that? I just alternate. I actually but dated for a while an architect who is prized architect in sustainable design. And he is one of those the real the real deal, which so even that is so rare to find in the architecture world.
00:31:14
Speaker
um And i I loved the way his mind worked because, for example, in his house, he had an ah in his apartment, he didn't have a sink in the kitchen. And I was like, how do you not have a sink in the kitchen? Like, it's just so weird. He's like, well, the bathroom is right there. I can just use the sink there. And I'm like,
00:31:29
Speaker
yeah, but you know, you're washing big things. He's like, I don't wash any of that kind of stuff. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, I just use the wash, the dishwasher. And I was like, well, you know, the water and the, this, and he's like, no, no, no. He goes, hold on a minute. Let me school you here. was like, okay. I have this talk with people all the time. Yeah. And I didn't, I have to admit, didn't understand because you know, you're, you're in this thing of, oh, the water. He's like, no, no, no. He's like, look,
00:31:51
Speaker
I fill the dishwasher in this way, in this way, in this way. It all goes into the dishwasher. It all goes in there. And then the cycle is this type of cycle and bubble blah, blah, blah. And here is the amount of water that gets consumed when you do it that way. And here's the amount of water that gets consumed.
00:32:05
Speaker
And here's the products that I use in that water in order to do it. And but and at the end, I was like, you know, you left with your mouth open going, I understood nothing of the world until now. We have such false ideas about things yeah because they're not grounded in like, let me look at it. They're grounded. and Like, let me look at the the numbers, the understanding, and also the behavioral changes. Because he says, yes, if you were to use the dishwasher the way you're thinking of using the dishwasher, absolutely.
00:32:35
Speaker
You are now talking about something that is going to be worse. than hand washing it. Or even i am somebody who's super cautious about water. Like I have a bucket in my sink, kind of old style, British style. I have a bucket.
00:32:47
Speaker
And so when I wash, I save the water and I use it a pet until like it's not possible to use it again yeah because I don't have a dishwasher. So I do it, you know, very cautiously because that's the way I am.
00:32:58
Speaker
But he's like, if you have a dishwasher, he's like, if you learn these little things, all of a sudden it becomes better. And the same thing he was showing me about the clothes wash, like to wash your clothes.
00:33:10
Speaker
He was like, if you just do it this way and you do this and you make this change, then all of a sudden everything is different. And I was like. Yep. Some things that sometimes it's not obvious, but.
00:33:23
Speaker
The things I want to focus on are the ones that are obvious. Every day when you go to the bathroom, the average like American, i don't know what it is in Italy, italy is using like 17 different products.
00:33:35
Speaker
In those 17 different products is usually about 52 pieces of plastic. And that's the obvious thing. The obvious thing is go out and find brands. And there are more of us. There's probably a few dozen companies that have just said no.
00:33:52
Speaker
Right. Aluminum tins, you know, and don't fall for what I call blue washing, which is like, Oh, this is ocean plastic. I will tell you the ocean plastic thing is a huge lie.
00:34:06
Speaker
There's no such thing as ocean plastic bottles. The way it works is if you if you if you get your source your plastic from recycled facilities within two miles of the ocean, they call it ocean bound, like it could have ended up in the ocean. So that's BS. Yeah.
00:34:25
Speaker
um the bag in the box thing. i'm goingnna if you're going to be a ah company that's going to propose to me, you like post you know recycled plastic, I want to see your end of life, like your end of life as a company. Because if you do your job right,
00:34:40
Speaker
then you should eventually not have virgin plastic that you have to recycle. So I want to see how is your company thinking about the fact that hopefully if everybody does their thing right and all the companies start to become, you know, recycled plastic type stuff, then in five, maybe 10 years, you shouldn't exist anymore because there's no virgin plastic.
00:35:02
Speaker
to recycle. Correct. Because if you continue to talk about the fact that you are secondary, you know, you're recycling plastic, but as you said, you're only recycling from virgin plastic, then you're just forcing the virgin plastic to exist.
00:35:17
Speaker
So it's like, just take a second and think about this. And then on top of that, there's plastic in the bottle. So if unless you're buying a fully organic natural product, you're buying plastic. You just don't know it because most skincare products are made of petroleum byproducts and the fragrances are petroleum derived, which are also toxic for you. So again, there are, it's not like that you can find organic, natural plastic-free products.
00:35:50
Speaker
So they're there, but it's up to people's job to switch out what they're using because if everyone just starts switching, the large corporations, the ones that we really need to change, will change.
00:36:01
Speaker
It's that simple. It really is that simple. I started to do this one day because a friend of mine was asking me and she was like, can you... You know, if people are asking, what are the swaps? And I'm not a big fan of the like swap for something that has a title that it's a swap kind of thing. yeah So I was just thinking about, you know, just natural again, going back to little by steps like I am.
00:36:23
Speaker
I'm a curly hair. I love my curly hair. I treat my curly hair really well. I admit the places where I've been able to find, you know, such as for example, bar soaps, which I have a little mom and pop place that I think she's also in the Netherlands. I love her products, you know, just you buy them from Etsy and they come and it's just like this little paper thing wrapped in paper, nothing fancy about it at all. And I absolutely like love her for, for being able to do that.
00:36:52
Speaker
And you know And there's some stuff that I'm still searching. you know there's There are products that I i haven't found. I try to go you know aluminum, and then you're trying to find the other solutions because of a glass, you know all those types of things.
00:37:05
Speaker
But then you start making a list, and you start going, and you're like, wow, there are a lot of things that if we shared also ideas. Like, for example, I don't know, i have a loofah kitchen a sponge rather than any kind of plastic, which I didn't even know existed.
00:37:20
Speaker
And I was super excited to find it that it's like, it's made out of, you know, sea sponge. I was like, Oh, this is, this is actually luffa is not a sea sponge. People think it is right. Luffa grows on a vine.
00:37:31
Speaker
You're right. You grow them in Italy. Yeah, no, I was thinking of, so it's funny because in the, in Florida, the number one, like sea sponge, I used to live with the person whose name here in Dhammenhurst is sponge.
00:37:44
Speaker
so spignat So when I went to, in Tarpon Springs, Florida is the number one sea sponge for Like capital of the world.
00:37:54
Speaker
So I don't know why the image of the Swiss one just came into my head, but you're absolutely right. Like it's just, it's a gourd. So it's even easier. It's a plant. Sorry. i totally, you know, but it's, it's this like simple swap.
00:38:08
Speaker
right yeah that that cost you zero because you're still buying a freaking sponge and yeah it lasts forever like I have you know two that I you know it's just all these little tiny things that like you said they add up right and they add a lot of pieces of this also this is my experience and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this is that The more connected you are, the less you also waste. Like I i don't buy in like Costco bulk, you know, anymore.
00:38:39
Speaker
And I also find that even the products that I use, whether it's for my skin or or any of these types of things, you're not like... pouring the bottle into your hand to put into whether it's your hair or your stuff, like things last also longer because the quality is higher, the amount that you use is minimal, your body starts to change also. And so therefore there's a reaction, there's a complementary nature to it and an evolution that happens.
00:39:06
Speaker
And you're caring more for the things that you're doing. And so there's there's a cautiousness that happens that comes just from respect. It doesn't come from anything else. And I find that this is something also that we don't um we don't give enough space to and acknowledgement to that it's like your relationship with nature will naturally change the way that you use things, whether you're talking about clothing or whether you're talking about something in your kitchen or your bathroom or any of those types of things. Like you, you just don't waste the same way. You don't waste water.
00:39:39
Speaker
You know, you don't waste, you know, any of these types of things, electricity, you, when you go to the bathroom, it's slightly different. Like everything just starts to change when you start to, when you really give yourself into this relationship with plants and you start to say,
00:39:54
Speaker
you know, you are my friend and I want to do what's best for you, not just because it's good for me, but because it's literally good for you too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's the rabbit hole. Like once you start picking away at like what you're actually consuming and how it's affecting your body, food products,
00:40:13
Speaker
you know I always say, like make a list of what you use the most in a day, like toilet paper, tissue, um makeup, cosmetics, soaps. That stuff is like the low-hanging fruit.
00:40:24
Speaker
And one day, you can simply just swap out all those things for the best possible option and support those companies. like Support them because they you might think they're big companies. They are small companies.
00:40:36
Speaker
And the bigger they get, the more the bigger guys take note. Right. So what are some of the hard swaps or what are some of those hard pieces or maybe the most misunderstood, like the dishwasher one? I mean, seriously, the dishwasher one blew my mind. And I still, I struggle with it because you have to not just explain to somebody, use the dishwasher instead of washing my hand, but it's how you use the
Sustainability and Personal Well-being
00:41:01
Speaker
dishwasher. So you kind of have to be there. i still think he needs a sink in his kitchen because...
00:41:06
Speaker
It's crazy. I'm telling it was craziness. As a chef, I'm like, no, you need a sink to wash vegetables. Trust me, I am with you on this. I mean, granted, he wasn't like a huge cook, but it was, in the kitchen was, of course, as an architect. So he designs these beautiful, they were called freos, which was like this freedom inspired house that was actually kind of modular in the sense that the way that the first house that he won a him and his business partner won these this grand prize in sustainable design that's like ah for Austria, on behalf of Austria type of stuff.
00:41:42
Speaker
It was really, really interesting. And um ah it the house has the walls kind of can be moved. So over time, as the family configuration changes, you know, maybe you have kids when you're small.
00:41:54
Speaker
And then, you know, when you're younger, you have small kids. And then as the kids grow up and they grow out of the house, you can move things around in order without it looking like it was temporary because that that wasn't the idea, but like it gave you the opportunity to to change the configuration. So his concept was, this is the only house you're ever going to need because as your family dynamics changes, you can move certain aspects of the house in order to do it.
00:42:19
Speaker
Plus he also won another prize because they created a pallet house that was you know made out of pallets that was just like, to die for. i loved both of these houses. Luckily the models were um kept in a place. So that, that, that became the office. Like let's go to, let's go to the pallet house and like do, you know, work from there. And the, and the one that was modular was so fricking cool because it had, um it was on, top it was on a lake. and it the whole back basically wall disappeared.
00:42:46
Speaker
And so you had this huge lake in front of you and you could, ah it it he he's a brilliant architect. i And his business partner are both a brilliant architects. But yes, I am- Well, space is a good example of like, you know,
00:42:58
Speaker
All these little changes you make in your life and the part you won't realize until you start doing them is it frees up so much space in your mind because 70% of our thought is repetitive.
00:43:11
Speaker
So the repetition comes from regret and remorse, things we... did that we wish you we hadn't, things we wish we had done is like regret.
00:43:22
Speaker
And so the amount of repetitive thought in our minds as humans is so intense and it's running in the background. And it's causing like aggression, it's causing anxiety, it's causing stress.
00:43:36
Speaker
And you might not know it, you really might say like, oh, I don't think about that stuff. But we all do because it's in our nature because we are part of the earth. And so as you start to make these changes and make better decisions for yourself and for the people and for the planet, it's freeing up all of the space to allow you to do greater and better things with your life.
00:44:00
Speaker
I 100% agree with you. i think that that's exactly it. and And you feel, and like you said, it's a cascading effect, right? It's almost like this wind that you feel so, and you feel good using it. You feel good in that connection. you then free up all of that space and it gives you this freedom to move into other directions.
00:44:23
Speaker
What do you find are some of the most important either misunderstood or still difficult ones to kind of find the right solution where good doesn't maybe es completely exist yet, but so you, you kind of have to move towards better. And this is what better is, or which ones look, we just don't have like a solution for it at all.
00:44:44
Speaker
Well, I mean, here in the States, it's, it's transportation, unless you live in new York city, transportation's a nightmare, you know, like, um, you know Right now I'm in Boulder, which I spend part of my time. And a couple of years ago, I bought an e-assist cargo bike.
00:45:02
Speaker
So it's one of those elongated bikes. You can put two kids in the back or like a whole weeks of groceries. And I live pretty far up the mountain. So I live 1,800 feet above town and about seven miles away.
00:45:18
Speaker
I bought this bike and I realized, number one, going to town is a breeze because you're just coasting downhill and going really fast. But then I realized I can go to town, go to the gym, go to the grocery store, load up these huge bags with all my groceries and pedal back to my house in only seven minutes more had I driven.
00:45:38
Speaker
So not only am it getting like an hour hour of cardio a day, I'm not in a car. And Boulder is a great example of a town that did an amazing job of, we have, i think the second highest amount of bike paths of any small town in America.
00:45:54
Speaker
And they're beautiful. They're like on creeks and they're manicured in there. And I see zero people on cargo bikes here. Zero. Zero. There are cyclists who do it.
00:46:06
Speaker
I call them spandex gazelle. Right. They're like wrapped in spandex and they got the glasses. remember when I worked at Microsoft, it was always like that in Redmond, Washington. Yeah. Like converting that, the person who like gets to, goes to work that way.
00:46:18
Speaker
And then last summer when I was in Copenhagen, I'm like, It's a whole world These people would think it was insane how many cars are being driven in Boulder, Colorado. Because in Copenhagen, they're just riding on the streets in swarms.
00:46:32
Speaker
And I think about Boulder, and I'm like, how is this affluent kind of quasi-sustainable town and almost nobody commuting on bikes?
00:46:43
Speaker
It's maybe 1% of the population. Yeah, because it's also like you you said it because i remember when I was in Copenhagen. I love Copenhagen because of this. Also Amsterdam, similar in that perspective. It's the mentality is like it doesn't matter what the weather is, right? OK, so I just throw on a little like, you know, raincoat and I'm fine. I remember that one of the days I went out to to do a performance of the music of the plants and a whole presentation and stuff like that. And I was with my friend who is native. And so, of course, he he was like, OK, we're grabbing bikes and off we go. and i was like, yes.
00:47:15
Speaker
And, you know, it was raining in those days. and didn't stop anybody. no one cares. You kind of throw on, but you know, and I spend a lot of time with Norway. So I spend a lot of time with Scandinavians. I have a lot of my students that are Scandinavian and, and Dutch. So, and it's just a completely different mentality. It's the the mentality of you wear the right kind of clothes, you know how to do it, you know how to pack your stuff, you know, it's not a really big deal, but we just are not raised that way to think that way at all. Like,
00:47:46
Speaker
I can't even tell you when I go down to Miami and I'm like, Oh mom, I'm going to go walk to whatever Navarro to, which is to the seat basically CVS equivalent. And she's like, Oh no, it's too hot. Like you're, you can't do that. I'm like, it's fine. And she's like, I'm going to pass out. I'm like, it's a five minute walk.
00:48:04
Speaker
It's like, I'm fine. she' like yeah It is a lot of conditioning. It's a lot of conditioning. And i and I hope, you know, New York is growing and by commuters, it is,
00:48:15
Speaker
Every year they just keep building more and more bike paths because a lot of times you can actually get places faster than the subway. um Definitely faster than the car, but um you can cruise all over New York City in a bike path and ah it keeps growing and it's very exciting.
00:48:33
Speaker
But other than that, I mean, I would say that. um What's the hardest one in a bathroom? You said we have 17 products. What's the hardest one?
00:48:45
Speaker
um I mean, we've done everything. We have two we've even have ah tooth floss that not only does it come plastic-free. I have one that's just paper, and it's completely combustible. it's paper, combu and we have a little beautiful glass vial with the pull-off thing, and that was easy.
00:49:03
Speaker
Tongue scrapers, shampoo, conditioner, or the whole range of skincare, soaps. It's honestly like, I would say if you're... what Why are the tops still always made out of plastic? Like I can buy something.
00:49:17
Speaker
But here's the thing that's interesting about those tops. So if you go on our website, you'll see that everything comes with an aluminum lid. And that's for the purest. If you don't want to buy the pot top, you don't have to. Products should never be sold with pumps or sprayers. I hate And the reason why is they can last 15 years.
00:49:39
Speaker
And they are completely unrecyclable. There is no way to recycle those because there's too many parts. So we sell them separately. They're $5. And we tell people, if you want a pump, we'll sell it to you that fits this bottle.
00:49:51
Speaker
Don't throw it away. You can reuse it over and over and over again. The fact that we have developed, talking about like how we're conditioned, an industry that puts a top or a pump on every single bottle It's insane.
00:50:06
Speaker
It's insane. When you go to a grocery store, nothing should have a pump or a sprayer on it. They should sell them on the side. And if you need it, you take one, but those things can last. I have ones that I use in my bathroom and kitchen I've had for seven years and you can throw them in the dishwasher when they, you just to clean them off again.
00:50:23
Speaker
Yeah. I so i am an anti-pump person. Like I said, I'm, I'm, I'm, my hair is my big thing and I am, and I hate hate, hate, hate pump products. I just do not understand them besides the fact that I just don't like how they work, but it's just seems for the same reasons. It's like, why would I ever want something like this? And I hate when I find, you know, a product and that's the only way that they get sold. And I do find, I have to say this, I think that in the beauty industry, I'm so happy for people like you and pioneers who are really kind of pushing it because I have seen a change. Like there's
00:50:58
Speaker
PuroBio here and another company, Neve, which I really enjoy. PuroBio specifically is really good at thinking about also, like i said, the compact where you just have to buy, you know, the individual piece or, you know, stuff like that, or getting rid of a lot of stuff that is not necessary.
00:51:17
Speaker
In the hair industry, I have to say that I feel like it's so behind. Like Sherb bars, soaps, and um you know shampoos and conditioners, great. But even once you start getting to like the deep mask world, it's all plastic containers, you you can't.
00:51:32
Speaker
And once you get into styling products, but it's nuts. It's really nuts. like There's a lot of pump action, which is unnecessary, completely unnecessary.
00:51:44
Speaker
Yeah. completely unnecessary and then there's a lot of other types of like just regular styling stuff you know where you just say to yourself why like even even a mousse okay i get it because then they have like the plastic nozzle and so i don't know how you solve the plastic i've never seen anybody well those i mean those products need to just die right in that case you could use the pump right because then you could just have i have seen the kind of pump and like you said if you buy a pump that's like a um a foam pump, but then you just buy it once and then everybody, you just buy the thing. I do think it's totally possible. And I do think that people are willing once they learn like to, but today it's kind of sold as a specialty. It's not like, you're not going to find it in Walgreens and in CVS and in things like that. And that's really where it needs to go.
00:52:33
Speaker
Not because It's about lowering the price or anything like that, but more because I do think that a lot of it is still ignorance. I think a lot of people do not think it's even possible.
00:52:45
Speaker
like they Yeah, a lot of people don't. like Yes, they don't know it's possible. And yes, also, they don't think about it. Yeah, they don't think about it. they they don't they It doesn't come in. Like if you go on like our Amazon, because people buy our Alpine provisions. Why are you using Amazon?
00:53:02
Speaker
We're not getting into that one. Yeah, let's not get into that. But we sell on Amazon because we have to. If we want to survive as a brand right now, you have to sell on Amazon and you have to have your own website. Obviously, we'd much rather people go to our website.
00:53:14
Speaker
But you'll lose 30% of customers if you don't sell on Amazon. So if you go on their Amazon, there's people who buy Alpine Provisions because it looks cool and it has great scent. But there's people who literally literally complain that it's in an aluminum bottle.
00:53:28
Speaker
No. Yeah. yeah The only bad reviews we have is because it's in a little bit of bottle or people will buy it and they don't see the disclaimer that you have to buy a pump. And they'll be like, this product is so stupid. It doesn't come with a pump. i was like yeah And then you can't take those reviews down. So you just have to fight through it. And you're like, oh, my God.
00:53:48
Speaker
not I don't even look at anymore because I saw a few of them and I was like, ugh. it's Again, it's education, but it's education that has to start really young, to be honest, because again, we're conditioned from the very beginning.
00:54:02
Speaker
And, you know, when you can go to TJ Maxx and you can get everything and it's just plastic and all these types of pieces, it's really... It's sad, but it's it's ah so much of it is ignorance. it's They don't think about it because, again, you've almost been taught that you're not supposed to think about it because you know if it was possible, they'd offer it to you that way. So if you don't see it, it's because not because somebody's trying to hide it from you, but because it doesn't exist.
00:54:25
Speaker
And it's like, ah! no, that's not how it works type of thing. Yep. Yep. Fascinating. And I think it's great. So I, I'm, as we're kind of starting to wrap up everything, i got to get to the plants because I know that that's, you know, what we were supposed to I mean, in my mind, it makes perfect sense because in my mind, this whole conversation goes to what I was saying, where the more you connect, the more you want to find people like you, because you want to know what's out there and especially even what you were talking about in the beginning with the nut milks and stuff like
Conclusion: Embracing Plant Wisdom for Environmental Challenges
00:54:57
Speaker
that.
00:54:57
Speaker
Don't even get me started on how some of these nuts are actually grown as plants. We're not going to go there because it's another thing that is like another peeps to cushion. But I do agree with you 100% that we we have to learn how if I want certain things,
00:55:12
Speaker
I can have them in their more so purest form, let's say it in that way, without it being a super huge headache. Because I also myself have made nut milk myself for years when I lived in in a different kind of house and a different spacing and all kinds. of And I loved it. I loved to the you know, I live in the middle of slow food movement. You know, I live here in the turn, you know, the province of Turin. So you have that slow food movement. A lot of people aren't into it.
00:55:38
Speaker
But I'm really curious for you as to like, as you're going forward, and as you're moving through all these different things, where do the plants as plants, not just as ingredients, not just as, you know, things that we're talking about, like that you use, but I'm like, where do the plants fit in this for you?
00:55:56
Speaker
I mean, to me, plants have probably the solution to 99% of what is happening on earth. And, you know, I practice by jiric alchemy, which is one of the oldest forms of alchemy that he, Paracelsus was one of the first alchemists who figured out that, you know, we look at plants like to solve a problem, but we don't understand the depth of intelligence that plants have and that they evolved with us.
00:56:29
Speaker
And ah one plant can be used a thousand different ways. So you can cook with a plant, you can make medicine with a plant, you can turn plants into fiber. And they're incredible and they're regenerative and they can they can fix the soil and they can hold the soil and they can keep the soil nutrient dense.
00:56:48
Speaker
But we've we've we've gotten into this way of manipulating things to do what we want. But we don't understand that when we strive to manipulate something like a plant to do what we want,
00:57:01
Speaker
we have ruined the intelligence of that being. And it's that way with animals, it's that way with plants, it's that way with people. We have to like take the time, slow down, understand what is the possibility with plants and how to do it correctly so that they can help us coexist.
00:57:20
Speaker
And it sounds very woo-woo-woo and esoteric, but it's actually not. It's like the oldest form of like agriculture. Understand your land, understand your plants, understand the world you're living in How can these plants help us live better lives?
00:57:39
Speaker
And I always kind of get a little sad when I see like a product being sold that is a is utilizing plants incorrectly because people aren't going to have a good experience with them. They're not really going to solve your cold or your rash or your, you know, whatever's working, you know, whatever you're you're having to deal with. Or when I see like bamboo fabrics being sold, but...
00:58:03
Speaker
You know, bamboo really wasn't meant to be a fiber because it takes so many chemicals to turn it into soft fabric. But we have so many plants that are soft fabric. um So i think a lot of it is just taking the time to understand how to use plants correctly.
00:58:20
Speaker
And we can grow from that place. But we've forgotten this wisdom. Yeah, you've said something there that I really that I think is I'm going to take away from which is, you know, if the plant requires you to do super heroic type things in order to use in the way that you want to use, then that's probably not the right plant for it.
00:58:42
Speaker
Right. This is that's what co-evolution is. Co-evolution. makes things easier. Coevolution doesn't convolute things. So if you have to use a bunch of chemicals in order to, you know, get to a fiber, if instead it's not just a, you know, ah in biomimicry say beat, heat and treat.
00:58:59
Speaker
Like you've got to beat, heat and treat everything. That was my TED talk, biomimicry. yeah Beat, heat, beat and treat. It's horrible. It's like if you've got to go with beat, heat and treat, you're not using and you're not working in co-creation. At that point, you're just manipulation, right? Like,
00:59:14
Speaker
And let's just call a spade a spade, right? we We need to start to, just the same as we as consumers need to realize that we have the power, I do think we also have to realize that we have voices and that our voices are are literally about saying this is not okay.
00:59:28
Speaker
And that, you know, manipulation of plants as well as animals. I think with animals it's a little bit easier for some people to see because there is a face attached to it and you know, there's there's an anthropomorphism that that can happen that's natural in that perspective.
00:59:42
Speaker
But I think when it comes to plants, when people talk to me about, you know, the idea of, of, oh, I'm going use this plant because that's natural. And I'm like, uh, if you're having to beat the crap out of that plant in order to get to that thing, that's not natural. Like, yeah.
00:59:57
Speaker
yeah, let's not get into that. And I, and as you said, I think we can learn so much and, and we do, we hear it all the time that the best kind of ways to work with a plant is because the plant told you the best way to work. And I think if we just gave ourselves that space and, and slowed down a little bit and gave ourselves that space to be able to not say, I have to manipulate this into being, but instead I'm going to, you know, instead listen for the response.
01:00:24
Speaker
Oh my God, that would just change everything. Overnight. Overnight. So as we close this up, any last words of wisdom? No, and thanks for doing this podcast spreading the good word.
01:00:39
Speaker
Well, I'm excited. I will definitely be including. So Pangea Organics, Alpine. but Give me the difference between the two for somebody who's never heard about. So Pangea is like luxury organic skincare. Alpine is more like shampoo, conditioner, body wash.
01:00:56
Speaker
And then Ujah de Sheck, which is my fine fragrance brand, is plant-only fine fragrance company. And I can send you the links if you can't find them. Yeah, we're definitely going to put all the links into the show notes because, you know, we want them all there. We want everybody to be able to click on them and find them.
01:01:12
Speaker
Preferably go buy directly from the website, not Amazon. Yes, not from Amazon. Exactly, please. Are they available anywhere? Like, are there restrictions? Is it U.S. only? um Alpine and Ujja de Schex, we ship globally.
01:01:26
Speaker
Pangea, we cannot ship to Europe but because of a trademark issue. But the rest of the world, we can. I understand that. I understand that. When I moved when i first moved to Dhammenher, the first regional community I lived in was called Pangea.
01:01:42
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. Now they're called Oropan. They kind of change things around. It's a whole other story. ah so Thank you, Joshua. This has been such a great conversation. And I'm glad that we did get into this because I do.
01:01:58
Speaker
um It's one of those topics I don't talk about enough, even though it's a very, very, very prominent part of my life in the way of You know, I am a, anybody who knows me, I am a slow shopper. I am a slow, slow, slow shopper because I like study and hold it and think about it and like, look at the ingredients. My God, clothing is impossible. I, I, my friend always laughs at me because my wardrobe is like teeny tiny compared to what you would expect for, you know, a woman.
01:02:24
Speaker
My, mine is just like tiny. And my friend was talking to me about changing, you know, seasonal clothing. And I'm like, what are you talking? Like, I don't have any seasonal clothing. Yeah. It took me two years to buy a coat because I had to find somebody that was making a coat handmade out of natural fibers that was like funky and stuff.
01:02:44
Speaker
And so I'm like, I'm like, please, I don't have like, ah ah my wardrobe is teeny tiny. Yeah. I'm scared of stuff because I just i just don't.
01:02:55
Speaker
The one place I strove, and I found finally a shoe company that I love, but they're in the United States, so I can only buy them when I'm in the United States. But one of the things I love about them, it's Soft Star Shoes, which I ahlo adore. They're in Oregon.
01:03:08
Speaker
Everything kind of made. Soft, a soft star, soft star shoes. And what I love is they, when they sent me my shoes, which are all custom made, you know, you give them your, you have to take pictures and size and all this thing was super cool.
01:03:22
Speaker
But the envelope that those shoes came in, literally it had instructions on how to refold it and then just pop it in the mail. So cool it was really cool. It was like this kind of, it wasn't exactly paper, but it was something of a paper-like material.
01:03:39
Speaker
And then it had these fold marks. And then when you fold folded it the way it had, the label showed up. And they were like, you just pop that back in the mail because we use the same ones over and over again to ship the shoes to people.
01:03:51
Speaker
So my shoes don't have any kind of box or anything like that. They just come with with that. And that's it. That's cool. I'll check them out. I love them. I love them so much. I have my pair of hiking boots from them, which are, you know, barefoot hiking boots and a pair of like little ballerinas.
01:04:08
Speaker
And I was waiting for them to redo this one other kind that I want. So the next time, because I i i literally, shoes are horrible too, but we're not going to get into that too. It's like trying to find shoes that are really all natural products or not made of crap. It's not easy.
01:04:24
Speaker
Anyway, we're going to stop here because if not, we're going to keep going over and over and over again. And I'm so grateful. I'll make sure I put everything in the show notes. And for everybody who's listening, i if you want to find out about any of these, come click on the show notes. And remember, these are the types of discussions that we're having inside of the naturally conscious community.
01:04:42
Speaker
Because just as we were talking about, as Joshua and I were talking about These are not the kinds of things where you know you just wake up one morning and you know everything. We don't have solutions for some of them. Some of them have solutions, but they're obscured.
01:04:54
Speaker
And we want to have a place where we can like really get into the nitty gritty details of it and you know be curious and ask questions and even do global movements and and really push companies to listen to us.
01:05:06
Speaker
So come on into the Naturally Conscious community, which everything is in the show notes. And if you have any specific topics that you want to talk about, please just contact me directly. And I'm happy for us to just open the floor and look at how can we solve this problem together, creating an ecosystem that we can all live in.
01:05:23
Speaker
Ah, could have said it better myself. And that's it. Remember to resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom.
01:05:37
Speaker
To continue these conversations, join us in the Naturally Conscious Community, your premier online ecosystem for plant reawakening and accelerated evolution and co-creation with other kin.
01:05:48
Speaker
Here you'll find expansive discussions, interactive courses, live events, and supportive group programs like the Plant Wisdom Book Club and the Sprouts Writing and Creativity Group. Connect with like-minded individuals collaborating with plants to integrate these insights into life. Intro and outro music by Steve Shuley and Poinsettia from the singing Life of Plants.
01:06:08
Speaker
That's it for me, Tigria Gardenia, and my plant collaborators. Until next time, remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. I'm out. Bye.