Earth Day Favourites

What do this:

And this:

   Have in Common? 

The top photo is of the Great Pacific Garbge Patch, and frankly, it makes me disgusted that humans can have such little regard for our environment. (and no, Kiehl's doesn't make me disgusted, that's not the connection).

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of Marine-Litter in the Pacific Ocean. Some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, and their young, including sea turtles and the Black-footed Albatross. Besides the particles' danger to wildlife, on the microscopic level the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs. Aside from toxic effects, when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animal.These toxin-containing plastic pieces are also eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish. Many of these fish are then consumed by humans, resulting in their ingestion of toxic chemicals.Marine plastics also facilitate the spread of invasive species that attach to floating plastic in one region and drift long distances to colonize other ecosystems. On the macroscopic level, the physical size of the plastic kills birds and turtles as the animals' digestion can not break down the plastic. Research has shown that this plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species worldwide. (wikipedia)

There is a Great Book discussing more of the effects on fish called Plastic Ocean by Captain Charles Moore. I highly reccomend it:

 

 Now what does this have to do with face cleanser, facial moisturizer, and body lotion? Read on.  

This Plastic Ocean exists partly because people do not recycle their plastics properly! I am an extreme recycler - I will try to recycle almost everything that I think can possibly be recycled. Today I found out you can recycle empty compacts! Yes, even with all that metal and the mirror! You can even recycle empty nail polish bottles! These are things I wouldn't have thought of (due to the mirror and also due to the nail polish chemical residues left in the bottle.  

Until April 30th, in support of Earth Day, Kiehl's is having a promotion where if you bring in any empty makeup containers (compacts, nail polish bottles, empty lip glosses, empty cleansers, etc) even if it's not a Kiehl's container, they will give you a free starter kit. The Kit contains the above contents: a 30ml facial moisturizer, 30ml facial cleanser, and 30ml body lotion, all in a zipped case. $20.00 Value. It must be a free-standing Kiehl's Store (not one in a mall). You will not get more stuff for recycling more containers, but I strongly urge you to bring in as much as you can to be recycled! Your city recycling centre might not have the capacity to recycle certain containers, but Kiehl's partner (Cascade Recovery) does - which is why you should take advantage of this Kiehl's program!

I haven't tried the products yet because I just picked them up today - but I'll do a review of them later at some point :)

So in review, my Earth Day Favourites:

1. Saving the Planet

2. Recycling

3. Plastic Ocean by Captain Charles Moore

4. Free stuff

Please take care of our Planet and make sure you recycle ALL THE TIME, not just when it means getting a free swag-bag! 

Happy Earth Day!