Do good, feel good
Recently the Good team each donned a pair of old trainers and joined Sea Cleaners for a day pulling plastic bottles and other refuse from the mangroves in Waitematā Harbour. It was mucky work and if I hadn’t been wearing lace-ups my shoes might still be there but of course Sea Cleaners preps you to wear the right kind of footwear that won’t pull off your feet in the mud.
Despite being splattered in mud it was the best day ever for the entire team. Our song anthem was Captain Planet as we chugged across the harbour cheerfully scooping up any floating plastic on our way.
We were riding high with feel-good endorphins from a day’s good work helping to clean up our precious environment. Doing good really does make you feel good.
Sea Cleaners and its band of volunteers is doing great work cleaning up our waterways. You can read more about them and how you can also help on page 102.
The extent of the problem globally is mind-boggling, especially considering that polyester fibre has now been discovered in the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica. As individuals we can all work to prevent more plastic from ending up in the ocean as well as helping to pick up plastic we see on the street or beach.
Learning what we can and cannot recycle is also key to battling the plastic problem and Shay Lawrence, founder of eco products social enterprise CaliWoods, has some great advice on page 108.
In this issue we also feature a ground-breaking new waterless skin and bodycare brand, Dust & Glow, which is taking plastic bottles out of the supply chain, conserving water and lowering its freight carbon footprint right here in New Zealand (page 42).
For our cover story we are delighted to feature designer Karen Walker who is doing great things in the sustainability space with her fashion label (page 14). Walker has also been vegetarian for 30 years and we have some wonderful vegetarian recipes by Emma Galloway in this issue (page 74).
One of Walker’s recent innovations is a collection made from rose bush fibre extracted from the natural waste of pruned bushes in Italy, blended with organic cotton. The fabric even smells like roses for the first few washes – you could say things are coming up roses!