It Ain’t Easy Being Green? It Can Be

Sustainable (adj) – Capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment (1)

Sustainability is the buzz-word of the millennium, and whether you believe in global warming or not, our waste habits affect the environment – and sustainability is imperative. I could try to wow or shock you with tons of facts and figures, but I’ll stick with the basics and get to my point.

The point is we generate millions of tons of trash each year, most of which can be recycled in some way – yet approximately 80% of it goes to landfills. That’s pretty darn wasteful, right?

What can you do about it?

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says to “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” – in that order. While I may have my own personal issues with the EPA at times, this is good advice in my book.

At Saphoros, we are always trying to find ways to increase sustainability and be greener. Some of the things we do to reduce our carbon footprint include using recycled/recyclable packaging, hand-filling and hand-mixing. We are now offering more refills than ever on our Lueur Jeune cosmetics, including eyeshadows, blushes and even our Pressed Perfection Cream-to-Powder foundations (and more). By doing this, we are helping you to REDUCE (step 1) your amount of waste and REUSE (step 2) potential waste. We can’t make you recycle – that’s an individual thing – but we can tell you that 80% of American households now have access to recycling, either by curb-side pickup or recycling centers, and that almost all of our packaging can be recycled.

So save your mineral makeup jars. Clean them out and buy refills whenever you can. Buying refills not only reduces waste and energy consumption, it also saves you money. Refills are less expensive for both the company and the consumer.

More on reusing our packaging… You can save any glass jar, boxes, tissue, and just about any plastic jar that once contained powder. Take, for instance, our all-natural facial masks. These are powdered, so there is no residue to work its way into the plastic and potentially contaminate the container, and it can be easily cleaned and used for other things from storing/carrying small items (buttons, beads, etc) to dry snacks (candy-coated pleasures, dry cereal). The possibilities aren’t endless, but there are a lot.

These simple things might seem small potatoes in comparison to the amount waste we dump, but just think… If everyone did these small, simple things, it WILL make a positive impact.

I’ll leave you with a couple of links for further information and facts:

US EPA Wastes Site – Tons of information and facts on waste, recycling, how you can help, etc: http://www.epa.gov/osw/index.htm

Earth911 – News stories, articles, facts and more: http://www.earth911.com/

1 – The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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