As Sustainable As Possible - BSG Blog

I used to attend weekly talks about Buddhism at a temple a few years ago and recently they’ve restarted their sessions (now on video conferencing - yay!) After last night’s session, one of my classmates asked a question about how to deal with pests since the Buddhist approach is to avoid needless killing (“ahimsa” - non harming). I thought about my own response to pests. I realised that my preference over time has been to shift the “pest” or shoo it away rather than whip out a spray.Here’s my citronella and lemongrass incense stick for repelling mosquitos — I’m giving...

Have you ever considered what we wash down the sink? Have you ever thought about what exactly goes into making your dishwashing liquid and sponges?   View this post on Instagram A post shared by (I’m Mel!) Zero Waste & Bamboo (@bamboostrawgirl) on Jul 4, 2020 at 6:58am PDT   Back when my friends first started WWOOF-ing (working on organic farms), I remember the conversations we would have about the stringent rules on the farms. Since most of them were off-grid or in rural locations, it was essential that waste was kept to a minimum and any wastewater was kept chemical-free...

"Are you selling reject items?" (In short, no.) I first encountered the philosophy of “wabi sabi” in a pottery class in primary school. Of course, our clumsy small hands couldn’t achieve any symmetrical perfection on the pottery wheel, but the teacher kindly praised the many imperfect little pots and mugs. She talked about wabi sabi — simplified as “perfection in imperfection”. I learned to accept the transience of material items and the beauty in imperfection. This idea of perfect imperfection has been an influence on my day to day life, and I thought about it again when our deodorant stones (being...