I am a great lover of books and stories of extraordinary people who can change the world. Sebastião Salgado is certainly one of them. For those who do not know him yet: he is considered worldwide one of the greatest photographers of our time. He was born on 8th February 1944 in Aimorés, in the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. His passion for photography is not immediate, he comes to this after a course of study and works as an economist. His strong sensibility leads him to travel a lot and to orient himself on the documentation of the human condition, like a young militant, a socially engaged photographer.…
-
-
Edible wild plants: Taraxacum
We live in a world dominated by technology, haste, scheduled appointments and many things to do, that sometimes we forget the immense value of nature, which has played a vital role for men in history. For thousands of years, spontaneous wild plants have been a fundamental source of food that complements a diet low in vitamins, fibers, and minerals. Today, unfortunately, such a rich knowledge is going to be lost due to a certain level of wealth and development that always provide us available food, packed in supermarkets, suffocated in plastic… so we forget that all around us the luxuriant nature offers us plants, flowers and spontaneous fruits, excellent to…
-
Zero Waste tips: Lamazuna’s solid shampoo
Since I realized that over the years I have filled my bathroom with plastic, with so many products, mostly useless, I changed my attitude and I started simplifying, having less, choosing better. I started from my daily routine, to make it simpler, and I decided to break free from all the plastic bottles I stored up in my bathroom because they had a big impact on the amount of waste I usually produced. So many times I lingered over old photographs of my grandmother as a young woman: she was so beautiful, she didn’t use makeup, she didn’t have a thousand face and body creams that promised magical transformations (which…
-
How to plant trees with your internet searches
As a tree and nature lover, I couldn’t miss this beautiful project, which I will now tell you about. You would like to do something to reduce pollution, make our planet greener and take actions against climate change, but do not want to struggle, right? Do you know that you can help make this world a better place for everyone planting trees, sitting comfortably on your chair, just with a click of your finger and without spending a cent? Yes, you understood correctly. You can do it thanks to Ecosia. Ecosia is a search engine that plants trees thanks to its advertising revenue. It is a social business run by…
-
Domestic composting
When I was a child I spent a lot of time in my grandparents’ vegetable garden and I often saw them collecting fruit peels, egg shells and coffee grounds, crumbled and mixed with the soil of the garden. My grandma told me that this waste was perfect to feed our seedlings and get better vegetables. So every time I threw away an organic rest in the trash I thought I was throwing away a precious resource full of potential. What a waste! And that’s right, my grandmother taught me the right thing and now I can finally put into practice her teaching thanks to my composter! Unfortunately, where I currently…
-
Zero Waste tips: solid toothpaste
My second zero waste tip concerns oral hygiene once again. I had already written about bamboo toothbrushes and the ones with the replaceable head, now it’s time for the toothpaste! Since long time I have wondered of how much unnecessary packaging there is around a toothpaste: the plastic tube, hard to recycle, and the box of laminated cardboard, both destined to end up in the waste bin. Not to mention the great problem of microplastics, often contained in the form of microgranules, which are killing our oceans! Fortunately, one day I found the solution: Lamazuna’s solid toothpaste! From the very moment I discovered this brand I have been attracted by…
-
Throw your bombs… the seedbombs!
Put some flowers in your guns! For this post I have to thank my brother who unexpectedly gave me a beautiful gift: a bomb of seeds. The invention of seedbombs is attributed to a Japanese botanist and philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka. In the 40s he gave birth to an agricultural technique called natural farming or do-nothing farming. Its revolutionary idea is based on supporting the natural biodiversity, minimizing human intervention. Therefore plowing, pruning, fertilization, or use of anti-parasitic are unnecessary. The germination occurs on the surface, mixing the seeds with clay and compost. So the farmer’s work is limited to sowing and harvesting. Recently the seedbombs have spread thanks to the activists…
-
Good reasons to buy handmade
Perhaps we do not realize it, but as consumers we have the great power to move the market and the economy according to our selection criteria. The choice of particular brands, designs and materials pushes producers to adapt to the requests. Every purchase has a value, it is like a vote in favor of a certain type of goods. In contrast to the logic of industrial mass production of disposable items that seems to reign over our society, there is the world of the handmade, that is carrying out a profound ecological transformation. In fact more and more artisans and creative people follow a philosophy that tends to minimize the…
-
Zero Waste tips: the toothbrush
In my previous post I explained what Zero Waste means and how to start changing your habits a bit in general, now let’s get to the specifics with a first super simple thing to do. I want to start with a seemingly insignificant product that we all use from childhood to old age, every day of our lives: the toothbrush! Have you ever wondered how many toothbrushes you used so far? I sometimes thought about it and I tried to do some math. I do not know exactly when I started using the toothbrush, but I remember that in kindergarten brushing my teeth was a daily ritual, so I think…
-
Zero Waste lifestyle
Have you ever seen those strange people doing stranger things with jars full of their own trash made in months or years? Well… they follow a zero waste lifestyle and they are the strangest people of the world. And I’d like to become one of them! Zero waste is a culture, it is a behavior. Its goal is to pollute less through simple everyday actions that everybody can do to contribute to the protection of the environment by producing less garbage. At first glance this concept can be scary because it seems impossible to reach. However “zero waste” doesn’t mean you make zero trash. No one can. But we can…
