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Facts about the state of the planet

In 1992, over 15,000 scientists from 184 countries issued a warning to humanity to protect planet earth (Ripple et al., 2017).  These warnings included the ever dwindling availability of freshwater, the devastating effects of unsustainable marine fisheries, the increase of coastal ‘dead zones’, the continual loss of forests, the collapse of ecosystems and biodiversity and unsustainable population growth.

This list paints a pretty devastating picture of critical stress on our environment.  It is critical that we all now chip in to do our part to protect this beautiful planet that we are privileged enough to be guests of.  Of course, we are not claiming to be the soul saviour of Earth, but we do want to do our part to ease the load on our panet.

So, what are we doing?

 

Veganism

The vegan lifestyle is a multifaceted way of protecting the environment.  Like it or not, veganism is one of the most fundamental things an individual can do to ease their load on the environment.  Here are a few ways that veganism alone can help the environment.

 

Water

Chickens, pigs and cattle raised for consumption are the main consumers of water in the U.S.; a single pig drinks 21 gallons of water per day while dairy cows can drink up to 50 gallons per day.  Not only do animals raised for consumption drink valuable drinking water but they also contribute heavily to the pollution of natural water resources.  Livestock farming produces billions of pounds of feces each year.  This waste ends up in groundwater supplies and is one of the biggest sources of pollution in natural waterways.

 

Land clearance

The Smithsonian Institute estimates that land the size of 7 seven football fields is razed every minute to create land for livestock and the agriculture required to feed them.  Over 80% of the agricultural land in the U.S. is used to raise animals for consumption.  It is estimated that pigs alone eat tens of millions of tons of feed every year.

 

Air pollution

 

We use recycled vegan materials

Water resources

Even without considering the inherent cruelty to animals, the leather industry is responsible for using a crazy amount of water each year; approximately 20-80 cubic meters of water is used to tan a single animal skin. Not only does this put pressure on our ever-stretched water resources but the process of leather tanning uses a plethora of toxic chemicals, including formaldehyde and chromium, which have been known to find their way into the environment causing eutrophication and poisoning workers. 

 

Waste

By using recycled PU we are constantly reusing material that would have otherwise be left in landfill. 

 

tons of material waste is dumped each year.

 

Oceans

We have all seen the plastic in the ocean – XX tons of plastic is found in the ocean.  We are doing our best to reuse this waste as the lining on our bags.

 

Forests

The leather industry contributes to deforestation every year in countries such as Brazil. 

We are planting a tree for each bag purchased from Vuxari and we hope to make a small difference each year to our dwindling forests.  The One Tree Planted initiative has planting projects across North America, Latin America and Asia, see here for more information: https://onetreeplanted.org/

 

 

How is RPET made?

 

What is PU and why should we recycle it?

 

 

 

References

1. Ripple, W.J. et al. (2017) World scientists’ warning to humanity: a second notice. BioScience 67, 1026–1028