This year was the 14th annual Green Living Show held in Toronto, and it was my 2nd time attending. The Green Living Show is Canada’s largest healthy living expo, showcasing products and companies to suit every aspect of your life. If you’ve ever met me, then you know I’m all about sustainable living and sharing tips on how to reduce your overall carbon footprint. I was so delighted this year to see that there was a whole section dedicated to sustainable fashion.
There were really cool companies showcasing their sustainable fashion, from scarves and tops made from organic cotton to handbags and hats made from leaves. I picked myself up a pair of glasses made from recycled plastic from Dresden. These glasses are super customizable and very durable.
I also discovered the beautiful swimsuits from The Saltwater Collective where their gorgeous swimsuits are made from abandoned fishing nets and plastic scraps. I felt so inspired walking this area and seeing the innovative things companies are doing to address the amount of waste we create.
Within the Sustainable Fashion area, there was an interactive museum that showed different facts of the impact our purchasing decisions have on the environment.
At the Green Living Show, they seem to be evolving their food court, which they call their Food & Drink Pavilion, every year. Like last year, it is a cashless system where you purchase food coupons before entering the pavilion. After entering the pavilion, you use the coupons as currency to purchase food and drink. This year was all about international tapas style foods. They also have a beer and wine section. Just like last year, we unfortunately never made it to this section because we always get so stuffed from trying all of the samples at the booths, but I would definitely love to check it out next year.
One of my favourite activities when visiting the Green Living Show is checking out all of the food vendors, of course. There is always a huge selection of products to fit your lifestyle needs, whether it’s gluten free, organic or plant based. I picked myself up all of the Nona’s cream sauces for an incredible deal and regret not purchasing more. There were so many food vendors giving out samples that you could seriously have a meal here before you called it a day.
Don’t forget to check out my video below to see the experience.
Happy Earth Day! Every year I love to share different tips on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle, but since it’s the first year that I have a blog, I am so happy to be sharing these tips here!
With so much focus now on climate change and people really recognizing that this is a real problem, every little effort or change that each of us individually makes can make a huge impact collectively on our planet. International days where we collectively take action such as earth hour on March 30th as well as Earth day on April 22nd, shows the impact that we can have.
In my opinion, the most important and impactful thing that you can do is to reduce your waste!
Did you know that it has been calculated that the average Canadian produces more garbage per capita than any other country? We on average individually generate 2.7kg of garbage a day. Collectively, this adds up to about 31M tonnes of garbage a year, with only about 30% of that being recyclable material. Can you see now what I mean by each individual action we take can add to a greater impact collectively? Unfortunately, in this case, it’s for the worse.
More specifically, did you know that about 70% of our garbage comes from packaging? Packaging comes in all forms, shapes and sizes. When you buy ANYTHING at the store, it seems that you cannot get away with packaging. Whether you are buying wires that come in a plastic box, peanut butter that comes in plastic jars and even fruits and vegetables now wrapped in plastic. It is hard to get away from all of that packaging. You might thing that it’s ok because we can recycle and that’s it. But the problem is that most recycling plants have not adopted to be able to handle all of the new and different types of materials, shapes and even colors to be able to recycle properly. It has been found that 91% of plastic waste created isn’t recycled, and ends up in landfills and our oceans.You might think that reducing your consumption of plastic bags should be able to address this issue, but plastic bags only make up about 1% of the waste in landfills.
Not only do we have an issue with plastic waste, but there is also a huge issue with food waste. Did you know that 63% of the food Canadians throw away could have been eaten? That ends up being an average of throwing away $1100 a year per household! I don’t know about you, but I don’t have money to throw away. And that’s just what we’re doing individually. As a collective, 58% of all food produced in Canada is lost or wasted. That adds to a whopping $31 Billion.
Food waste not only is a waste of money and food (obviously), but is a waste on resources. Growing the food from seed takes a lot of water, energy and labour. It also uses up a lot of energy and gas to then transport this food across the world.
Now I’d like to share my 10 tips on how you can reduce your overall waste.
Bring your own bags, say no to bags. Though plastic bags only account for 1% of waste, this will definitely help create good habits and serve as a reminder that there are alternatives to plastic bags and packaging in general.
Bring your own jars when shopping in the bulk section. Not only do you save the hassle of having to transfer the goods from the bag to your jars later at home, but in most cases, switching to purchasing in bulk is actually cheaper than buying prepackaged goods
Bring your own metal straws and travel mugs, especially when you are traveling, whether it be in car rides or even on the plane.
Say no to plastic bottles and re-fill your own and always have fresh water on you at all times
Left overs at a restaurant? Bring your own containers to pack the leftovers in. Leave a bag full of containers in your trunk so you always have them on hand for those last minute take out nights
In the cafeteria at work: say no to disposable cutlery and bring your own or use the metal ones. This also works when eating in fast food restaurants or getting take out. I always carry these bamboo cutlery when I travel (https://www.to-goware.com/)
Paper towel and Sponges – use clothe towels instead which can be used over and over again. For messier spills where you need that extra support, or check out these Kliin reusable paper towels, which can be used up to 200 times and biodegrade at the end of its lifetime (https://kliin.co/)
Re-using items you would usually recycle such as tissue boxes to organize drawers or cans as planters
9. Make trade-offs: when you have no choice but to buy something with packaging, buy in larger format – usually cheaper and at least you’re reducing the waste by not having to buy multiples of the smaller format. Or if you have the choice to purchase in a glass reusable jar or paper over plastic.
10. Plan out our meals and meal prep – this will allow you to curate your grocery list based on what is on the menu for the week (or in my case, what’s on sale in the flyer, then my meal prep, then my shopping list) and save money by not going out to eat
11. Freeze leftovers! In my house, leftovers are frozen indefinitely (though 2 months is best). Freeze food you know you won’t use! Fruits and veggies can be frozen for up to 18 months. Meats can be frozen for up to a year
12. Finally, if you do have waste, composting is best! When food is sent to landfills, as it decomposes it creates methane (21 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is the leading cause of warming). If you have a home but your city doesn’t not accept compost, throw your plant based scraps in the backyard for the animals to eat (and if not, it will eventually decompose anyway). Live in an apartment/condo? See if you can start a compost system in your building through your city.
I hope these tips will inspire you to look for ways where you can reduce the waste you create. Whether it be in your home or even at the office, every step that we take individually will lead to a great impact collectively.
This spring really started off to a sunny start, even though we’ve been experiencing wintery weather here in Canada. I had such a lovely experience traveling for the first time with all of my girls overseas! Growing up, we’ve always talked about vacationing and traveling the world together, but with our differing schedules (some of us working full time or still in school), it was always a challenge to find time together.
Earlier this month, we finally had the chance to travel together! We celebrated my sister’s bachelorette in style in Tulum, Mexico! We stayed at the gorgeous Grand Bahia Principe Tulum. I’ve stayed at this chain a few years ago in the Dominican Republic, so I already had an idea of what to expect in terms of the layout and resort amenities. But what I didn’t realize was how GRAND this resort in Tulum really was!
The resort: The actual Grand Bahia Principe Tulum resort is quite large in itself, but actually sits in a little community connected to 2 other resorts: the Grand Bahia Principe Coba resort as well as the Grand Bahia Principe Akumel resort and golf course. This resort is so large that there is even a disco and market on site! There is also a little train that picks you up from the front lobby of each hotel and can bring you to the different areas of the extended resort, as well as bring you to your Villa if you don’t feel like walking.
I also love that this resort seemed to be operating as sustainably as possible. There were no more uses of single-use plastic cups or straws on site. Everything was replaced with plastic reusable cups and compostable plates and cutlery outside of the restaurants. They also had an extensive explanation of their recycling and composting programs in the lobby, which I was very happy to see being executed when we were at the snack bar on the beach.
The Rooms: I’ve been to resorts before where we had to take an elevator to our room since the resort consisted of hotel buildings. I love that we got to stay in villa type rooms, as it really adds to the beach atmosphere, really maximizing the amount of fresh air we can get. We stayed on the second floor of unit 25 which looked out onto the garden.
Since we were a group of 8, the resort concierge was so accommodating and had our 3 rooms all next to each other.
Our room did have a few problems: the front lock had some technical where the key wouldn’t work. It took 3 times for a staff member to come fix it which was a bit annoying but luckily since all of our rooms were next to each other, we didn’t have any issues hanging out in each other’s rooms. Our shower also didn’t drain properly, but while we were out to dinner, someone came and fixed it. The shower also took a bit of time to warm up, which felt like we were wasting a lot of water having it run till it was warm enough (our unit was 2513).
We received a 2L water bottle each day of our stay, which was great because we always had water on hand when going to the beach and pool. We also had access to the mini fridge, but didn’t really take advantage because it contained colas and beer, which we could get in the restaurants. The toiletries were typical as well, with shampoo, conditioner, soap and a sewing kit readily available in the bathroom.
The beach: It should be noted that the beaches of Mexico tend to have a lot of seaweed washed ashore from the ocean. There were crew there every day shovelling as much of the sea weed they could. Other than that, the beaches were not rocky at all and the waters of course were gorgeous.
The food: I was a bit disappointed by the food based on my expectations from previously vising Mexico as well as Bahia Principe. There was definitely a lot of food to eat, but since I was trying to eat as plant based as possible, I was disappointed to not be able to find beans more readily available. The snack bar had lots of selections to make your own tacos and always had guac and salsa readily available, but I would have liked to have seen more bean selections for non-meat eaters. There was always lots of fresh fruit like papaya, pineapple and mango which we indulged in with every meal.
We only visited Tulum for 3 full days and we never left the resort, but it was a great way for us to recharge after the long winter we had. I would recommend visiting another resort if you are looking for more of a typical bachelorette style energy, but we were pretty laid back and just enjoyed relaxing in the sun and each other’s company.
I am so happy to share with you the Tea Runners Subscription box! It’s a new subscription box bringing you the world’s finest teas!
Like any subscription box, you can choose the frequency of how you receive them. You can choose to receive this box monthly, bi monthly or even quarterly.
They have 4 boxes to choose from: the original, herbal, black and pure. For my 1st box, which was the January box, I chose the pure tea box. The selection of teas in this box contains flavours I’m already familiar with, but was still new and exciting.
I am excited to try all of the teas in this box: Water Sprite Oolong, Flowering Feng Qing Tea Cones, Fujian Black Tea and Golden Mao Feng. I especially love the packaging because it contains information such as country and region of origin, measurement per cup, temperature and caffeine level.
Want to get your hands on your own Tea Runners box? Check out their website www.TeaRunners.com for more information. Don’t forget to use my coupon code DISCOVERTEA for $8 USD off your choice of first box.
Don’t forget to check out my unboxing in the video below.
The Savvy Pantry 