LadyGang - LG QUICKIE: No Waste Lifestyle with Lauren Singer

Episode Date: September 30, 2021

Nicknamed by her community as “the girl with the trash jar,” Lauren Singer is sharing her journey to reduce her plastic and trash to zero. Find out her beauty and grocery tips to going wa...ste free so that we can create a more livable planet for everyone.  Check out our great sponsors!!! BetterHelp: Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/ladygang  Brooklinen: Go to Brooklinen.com and use code "ladies" to get $20 off with a minimum purchase of $100! Express: Shop confidence-boosting styles in-store and online at Express.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to The Lady Gang. You're about to listen to our podcast, but there is so much more our community has to offer. Follow us at The Lady Gang, join our secret Facebook group, shop our clothing line, books, and find out when we're going to be in your city at theladygang.com. We're so excited you're here. Enjoy the show. It's time for a quickie. Podcast One presents The Lady Gang, the Hollywood girl posse with Lady Gang Quickie. Here's Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Let's make this quick.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Lady Gang Quickie. I am Becca here with Jack and Kelty. And today's a very special day. Our sweet little Chelsea, Lady Gang, our right-hand woman, introduced us to her version of Beyonce. Oprah. Her Oprah. She is a zero-waste goddess. And she said, if you are into this and you want to have her come on and talk all things, if you want to have someone come on and talk all things zero waste this is the only person you can talk to she's amazing she's wonderful and kelty take it away okay so here's the real story is that if you're on a hike right now or you're in your car i need you to look down at your starbucks cup and i need you to look is it reusable or are you using a once waste plastic because if you are this
Starting point is 00:01:19 episode's for you and i'm just going to take a quick sip out of my hydro jug this episode brought to you by hydro jug uh this is my reusable giant water so anyway our guest today has been zero waste since 2012 she's known for claiming to have collected all of the waste she created since 2012 in a 16 ounce mason jar she's the founder and ceo of package free shop not only that but she was celebrated on the forbes 30 under 30 list her site trashes for tossers makes living a zero waste life simple, cost-effective, and fun. She even has tips for earth-friendly sexual liaisons, guys. She's going to teach us all to be better about our wasteful f***ing lives. Please welcome Lauren Singer. What an introduction. I love it. I'm so excited. So when Chelsea started working with us,
Starting point is 00:02:09 she, my bathtub right now in the office is full of like packaging that has been sent to me and we reuse everything. Like she really changed our lives. So I want to know, like, when did you realize that you were gluttonous and collecting things and wanted to change the world? So for me, everything really started in college. I went to NYU and I studied environmental science and spent most of my time in college protesting because I think when you're young and you're angry and you're overwhelmed with all of the things that you see happening to the planet, you want to take action. And protesting is a really amazing way to channel all of that energy. And at the time, climate activism was really on the rise, especially around the oil and gas industry and protesting fracking.
Starting point is 00:02:55 So, you know, there were activists circling the White House in protest of climate change and atmospheric carbon and, you know, protesting against the oil and gas industry in D.C. and lobbying really aggressively. So it was just like an amazing time to be in the movement. But at the same time, I had this really overwhelming feeling around the fact that I was blaming everyone else for the state of the world. I was blaming the big businesses. I was blaming the oil and gas industry. I was blaming politicians and definitely there to blame, but also at the same time, you know, asking myself, what is my part in this? do I have the ability to contribute more than just with my, my, my activism by holding signs in the street, which is amazing. Grassroots activism is so important, but, but is there more that I can do? And around that time, I started learning about, um, the impacts of
Starting point is 00:03:54 methane on the environment, which I can get to a little bit later, but, but everything for me really started when I was in a class and there was a girl in there. Um, it was an environmental science class, the last class we actually had to take before graduating. So four years of science. And she would bring this big plastic bag with a plastic shell full of food and a plastic fork and knife and a bag of chips and a Gatorade. And she would eat everything, drink everything, and then just throw it in the trash every single class. And I would look at her and be like, this is so weird. We are studying environmental science. We're trying to make the planet it better. Um, but, but you're being so wasteful. And I just thought she was the worst person. I
Starting point is 00:04:36 would just stare at her and judge her. Um, and one day after class, I went home to start making my dinner and I opened up my refrigerator and realized that every single thing that I had in there was packaged in plastic from, you know, eggs and frozen vegetables and juice and whatever. And then started looking around my apartment more and realized that it wasn't just my fridge. It was, you know, my single-use coffee cups for my Keurig. It was my beauty products. All of my makeup was packaged in plastic. All of my face care, all of my body care, my shampoo, my conditioner, my brush was made out of plastic.
Starting point is 00:05:15 All of my cleaning products walked into my closet. I was studying environmental science but buying fast fashion, right? So everything was made out of petroleum, plastic. And I realized that I had been protesting the oil and gas industry for years, but every day, dozens of times per day, through my purchasing decisions and my consumption habits, I was supporting the industry. So I had this realization where I was like, I need to stop using plastic now. And I thought that I could do it cold turkey and walk into CVS and buy all of my beauty products and my makeup and everything without plastic but even today you can't really walk
Starting point is 00:05:56 into CVS and buy anything with without plastic I think they even package all candy now in plastic whereas it used to be paper um so it's it's really hard and I realized it wasn't going to just be like I'm going to buy my way out of this situation so I had to start making all my own beauty products all my own cleaning products my toothpaste my deodorant and that really led me to start trash is for tossers, which was kind of my way to document my journey to reduce my plastic and ultimately my trash to zero. Wow. It's so crazy to me. It's not crazy, but I think it's really interesting. And I do think we've come a long way as far as like, listen, I think there's people like you who are going to be able to be 100%. And then the, the, the other part of the universe is
Starting point is 00:06:46 like, you've really woken a lot of people up to at least be better than we are. Do you know what I mean? Like definitely make some changes in our lives. And I really want this podcast to be a wake up call for our community. So we can kind of go through our lives and be like, well, what would Lauren do in this particular situation? Like, you know, um, I just got like this toothpaste, this bite brand that like, it's instead of being in a plastic tube, it's like this little thing and you eat it and then you brush your teeth and it's like, you know, all no waste, right. It comes like in a glass thing. So I really want to talk through some of the places of our lives where we can make these positive changes and hopefully, um, we'll,
Starting point is 00:07:25 you know, really, I'm not being so eloquent. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. It's like every little bit helps. And I think it seems really daunting. Like you were saying, it's really daunting. It's comforting to know that you did, you took little steps to get to where you are. So for people who are just starting, just trying to be better. Like what is your first suggestion to people? And let's start kitchen because grocery shopping, like we were just saying, like it's Sunday morning, you're like coming from the farmer's market. Like how, cause everything isn't plastic. I go to the grocery store, everything, even the lettuce. Like what do you do when you walk into grocery store? And I think it's important even before that,
Starting point is 00:08:05 just to preface that, like when I started living this lifestyle, it was totally for myself. And it was to be like, how do I align my everyday actions with my values for sustainability? Because I didn't want to be this hypocrite walking around protesting the oil and gas industry, but at the same time using all of these products. So I was like, this is a project to see if I can actually reduce my plastic and my waste to zero. Because when you throw that stuff into landfills, it creates methane, which is more potent of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over a 100 year timeframe. So ultimately my goal is to help to mitigate climate change and, and create a more livable planet for people. Right. And it was never
Starting point is 00:08:42 saying like, everyone needs to live a zero waste lifestyle. Like this is for everybody. It's more of like a, this is what I needed to do for myself to feel comfortable. Speaking about what I was speaking, I really needed to live my values. And I think ultimately what it did was just unearth a big problem, which is even if people want to live sustainably, it's really, you know, historically been super hard, inconvenient, and not even from the individual consumption perspective. Like there are no regulations. I own a consumer product business, but there are hardly any regulations or checks around consumer product companies, right? There's a manufacturer can make any product with any packaging, pretty much with effectively any ingredients, release it out into
Starting point is 00:09:30 into the market. And, and there, there are no, you know, there's, there's no responsibility for the maker really, even if it makes people sick, it's super hard to get products pulled from the market. Um, and you know, there's no, uh, there's no regulations around what type of waste that product creates or releases once it's manufactured. And that's a problem. And also in this country, our, our end of life, our, our waste management is, is abysmal. We hardly have recycling anywhere. There's no federal regulations around making state-by-state infrastructure similar. We hardly have any composting. We definitely don't have industrial composting.
Starting point is 00:10:08 So really, you know, these individual steps are amazing, right, because the average American makes about four and a half pounds of trash per person per day, trash that ends up in a landfill, right, you know, over 3,000 pounds per year. And that makes methane, which I mentioned is not great for climate change. And it's amazing for individuals to take these steps, but it has to be coupled with, with federal law. It has to be coupled with, um, you know, ending fossil fuel subsidies, which artificially decreases the cost of, of oil and gas, which makes plastic, which is why it's so cheap. Um, you know, there's, there's so many things that need to happen. So for me, you know, I wanted to live my day-to-day life in a way that was like, okay, I'm just one person. What can I do? What do I have control over? My waste was a really good thing, right? There's three main sources of man-made methane. It's natural gas, but it's hard to decide where our energy comes from as individuals. There's animal agriculture. So we could all try to decrease our meat consumption. That's awesome. But some people don't want to. So waste is kind
Starting point is 00:11:11 of like the next best thing. So that's really why I focused on trash. And again, it's not like everyone should live this lifestyle or else. It's more like if you want to take steps to reduce your waste, which I found also helps me save money, become more of a minimalist and feel like I'm doing my part, which is good from an emotional perspective because there's, it's so overwhelming out there. Um, you know, reducing your waste is a good place to start. So to go back to your, your question, sorry, that was, no, it's nice to know like why the reason why, you know, I love this. Well, there are so many people out there too. I feel like with the reason why that there's like a lot of shaming that goes on for people that like aren't living like that. So hearing
Starting point is 00:11:55 from you that you're just trying to align with your values of what you're fighting for, like that is so nice to hear. We're all just trying to do our best. We really are. How, how can I try to do my best every day? What are my values and how can I try to align with them more? Like how, how can I try to leave this world better than when I came? Right. And I'm not going to be perfect every day. None of us are, we're, we're dealing with the resources and options that we have. And so basically I took this like individual concept and then later tried to turn it into a business and a platform to make it even more convenient. And that's why I think individual empowerment is really important because it's not just my trash. It's like, what can I do with
Starting point is 00:12:34 this information to make it more convenient and accessible for people, which has grown into something so much bigger than me making or not making trash. And that's why I think like we're just one person, but we really can make a difference. Um, so I always like to talk about that, but we can totally now get into the practical. Okay. So much. Okay. So you're, you're going in and I'm buying groceries. I'm an everyday lady who has one hour and I'm bringing my own bags. Obviously I'm not that much of an asshole. Um, and I'm walking in and everywhere where I turn, something's in plastic. What am I doing? Okay. So before you even get to the store, I'd say important to make a shopping list. Um, love making a shopping list because it's important
Starting point is 00:13:22 for me to look at my calendar, seeing like, do I have lunches this week? Dinner's this week. Oh, I actually only have two meals at home. You know, how many meals does my boyfriend need to eat? Whatever. Um, and, and then I plan accordingly around that, that not only helps me reduce food waste, but save a lot of money. I used to be such an impulse shopper at the grocery store and buy so much stuff that I didn't need that I wouldn't end up eating. And, um, you know, one of the biggest wastes of money that we have in our lives is wasted food, right? Which, which ends up in landfills and, um, you know, makes methane again, back to climate change. So making a shopping list, super important from a climate and wallet perspective. So once I get to the store,
Starting point is 00:14:03 I try really hard to buy fruits and vegetables that are unpackaged. And again, it's often true that unpackaged, unwashed produce is less expensive. So I'll stick to that. And then like some proteins. So we'll eat eggs. Sometimes he'll eat fish and I'll have that wrapped in paper instead of plastic uh and you know for pastas if there isn't bulk trying to stick to things that are packaged in metal so cans because aluminum is is very likely to be recycled if you end up sending it to recycling um and then paper which is likely to be recycled or it's compostable there you go so what happens when i need to go to mcdonald's you just like you just look at that as like a complete wash like it's an off day or like
Starting point is 00:15:02 there's really nothing to be done you ask them for your food without the bag i mean fast food packaging is a lot of it is plastic free i'm trying to think of the things that are packaged in plastic when you go to get fast food like the lid of your cup um and the straw and like i don't know just mcdonald's even give utensils i don't think so like we're all you know so it's safe like just dump the fries in my hand look a bigger picture is like reducing your waste or doing like anything i i believe like shouldn't feel like a sacrifice i i think one of the things that i always say is you know look in your garbage cans which is disgusting for people but i i don't know if you don't want to do it whatever but i i think it's fascinating
Starting point is 00:15:48 Um, you know, see what you're throwing away and see if you can find one thing that you'd be okay with saying goodbye to. So maybe it's, you know, something as simple as plastic water bottles and you get a couple of reusables and a filter, um, or, you know, you want to step it up a little bit and say goodbye to like Q-tips or cotton balls, or even, you know, tampons and pads there are reusable alternatives for. So I always suggest just find one thing and then go to the alternative. You don't have to like stop everything that you're doing in your life, change all of your
Starting point is 00:16:23 habits and become a completely different person. That's ridiculous. And just not sustainable, not from like an ecological perspective, from like a human perspective, it takes time to, to change our habits and to form different routines. So, you know, I think starting small is good. I always suggest like use through one of your consumable products, like consumables are great places to start. If you finish all of your shampoo packaged in plastic, you can try out a shampoo bar or a different deodorant or a different toothpaste or a toothbrush or floss or any of
Starting point is 00:16:55 those things that you would buy again and again. Hello, hello, hello, you sexy ass bitches. This week's theme for Lady Secrets is friendship. And when you think of friendship, you always think about, you know, the good bonds that you have with your girlfriends, but I know that you've done some shit to a friend before and we want to hear about it. You need to write us in your cringy, shameful, guilty secrets. You can write us at the lady secrets.com about, I don't know, getting caught shit talking your friend. Maybe you slept with your friend's dad. I want to know how that was. Or do you just like constantly social climb your way to the top? Get this shit off your chest and write to us at theladysecrets.com or you can call and leave us a little
Starting point is 00:17:41 voice note if you prefer talking. 1-844-SEXYLADY. That's 1-844-S-X-Y-L-A-D-Y. Make these stories juicy. We want the juice. Brooklinen.com. Brooklinen.com is going to have not just your favorite sheets, towels, home products, all of that. Now they have the greatest and I'm telling you greatest loungewear that I have not taken off my body. There's no buttons. There's no zippers. It's just soft, luxurious material. And the fit is so great. It's actually loungewear you can wear outside and not be embarrassed. I love Brooklyn and so, so, so, so much. Their loungewear is so classic, so soft. And if you're looking for more ways to enhance your comfort, check out their candles, eye masks, and accessories to properly celebrate your chill. They're so major over at
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Starting point is 00:19:19 you can start communicating in under 48 hours. So by the time Thursday hits, you could already be in therapy. The service is available to clients worldwide and you can log into your account anytime and send a message to your therapist. I love this option because sometimes when you're in the middle of a countdown, you just need to like vent and you don't want to forget about those feelings. And then later when you have your scheduled appointment, your therapist can write back to you or you can talk about it in detail. And I just think that's really genius. So visit betterhelp.com slash lady gang, that's H-E-L-P and join the over 2 million people who've taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional. And we have a special
Starting point is 00:19:57 offer. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com slash lady gang. That's 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com slash lady gang. Okay, ladies, you know, we love our express clothing over here. We have just been so excited to announce to you that they have a new fall wardrobe with the season's collection of versatile mix and match styles from express. So it's all new and made to hashtag express you. Confidence boosting styles for real life, versatility, comfort, and quality. So I want to tell you about this amazing thing called the FlexX jeans. Bodies change and now your denim flexes with you. That's right. It fits up to three sizes all in one pair. So it's 24 seven comfort, flexible waist size, and it's a really cool concept. You don't have
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Starting point is 00:21:28 so basically how that works is it's it's meant for use uh with a bidet so it's not like you use it on a dirty right bum yeah yeah i was like how are you washing that that's gotta like get around i have a i have a real i have a girlfriend in canada who did reusable diapers for her both of her kids yeah it's a similar thing where you just like yeah rinse and you go and they make baby bidets too so it's just like a little spray spraying clean oh yeah it's like a little attachment um which which i've i've heard is actually really helpful for people because all the waste becomes really overwhelming um but i think having a baby is really hard i i don't know personally, but from what I've heard. So, you know, if that's not the step you want to take
Starting point is 00:22:18 in your life, I fully support you, but, but it is a great option. And again, like reusable toilet paper sounds really extra for people, especially us as Americans. But if you go to Italy or something where they all use bidets and you're like, you know, they, they often use towels to dry themselves. It's, it's, it's better to think of it like that. I have a question. So I'm like browsing your site as we're like doing this podcast right now. Cause there's so many, so many products what have you found to be like the best kind of like a life hack when it comes to that or what's your best discovery when it comes to these uh like package free products or reusable products oh my gosh i have so many favorites what's the best product in your shower um in my shower i
Starting point is 00:23:01 will either use a shampoo bar or we have these like metal package shampoo and conditioners that that are great. Um, and then I have one of our, our steel razors. That's like a reusable plastic free razor, which I love. Um, and then on my bathroom, like van, whatever, by my sink, I have a bamboo toothbrush, the toothpaste packaged in metal. Um, I have our floss that we make it package free. And then I have the tea tree charcoal facial bar. Um, and then I'll use different moisturizers. So I use the, the juniper seed carrot or juniper carrot seed oil, um, that we have from my friend Tara. Um, and then, but my favorite, I feel like beauty is one of the easiest spots because I feel like a lot of beauty products are getting sort of more woke to that. We want
Starting point is 00:23:51 things in like metal or for sure. So true. But I would say my favorite thing is the menstrual cup. it changed my life. I think for some people it's a lot and it's weird and it's disgusting, but it saves thousands of dollars, tons of waste, and is so much more comfortable in my opinion than tampons. When I remember I worked, so my job out of college was working at this government agency in this huge, horribly dark, terrible, dungeon-y building with the most disgusting bathrooms you could ever imagine. And the idea of like touching myself in one of those bathrooms to remove or like insert a tampon was horrendous. And that's, that was actually my catalyst for using a menstrual cup. And I was like, wait, you can like poop and pee with a
Starting point is 00:24:42 menstrual cup in, whereas like with a tampon, you have to change it every time. And I don't know, something about that felt really clean to me. So it empowered me from a cleanliness perspective. and that it was also super sustainable and saved a lot of money. Love a menstrual cup. Chelsea, our lovely Chelsea was, I was like, this is something I'm never going to be able to do.
Starting point is 00:25:06 I really felt like I am, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I'd been using tampons for a million years. Chelsea just said to me, try it once. Just try it one time. You should try everything once. She gave me a tutorial. Conveniently, I was on my period.
Starting point is 00:25:23 I went into the bathroom And I was like, fine. Totally wanted to hate it. I texted her the next day and said, this was the best thing you've ever made me do. It's something that you just, it doesn't sound great at first. You're like, wait, this whole thing doesn't totally make sense to me. And then when you do it in, in practice, it is so amazing. And like the other thing, tampons feel archaic to me. Yeah. Let's like shove some gauze up our vag. Yeah. Like it just feels not okay. And did you know most, not most, but, but a good percentage of tampons and pads actually aren't even made from cotton. They're made from synthetic fibers. So not only are we shoving gauze, it's, it's gauze
Starting point is 00:26:07 made of plastic. So that's pretty gross. Um, and then I wanted to briefly touch on home because This is actually, I think the, one of the easiest places for me has been to change things in my house, like get rid of my paper towels and then do the, I just remember going in like every month buying a new bottle of Windex and a new bottle of soft scrub and a new cleaning stuff and got involved with these little tablets. They're like an Alka-Seltzer, keep the same old bottle and put it in because it's crazy when you think about it but we're actually just sending giant bottles of water all over the world like when you order from amazon or you order from anywhere your cleaning products are like this much
Starting point is 00:26:50 cleaning product and then you're just like lugging a big bottle of water into your house from costco so it's like to be able to have these little tabs and put them in i've been i've been doing that and it's been really easy for me so do you have any suggestions on like other home hacks definitely Um, you know, if you want to go very DIY, I use vinegar to clean a lot. I love vinegar. I think it's an amazing cleaner and you can just put essential oils of like lime or, um, lemongrass or grapefruit in it to kind of get rid of the vinegary smell, but it only lasts a few minutes. Cause the vinegar comes in a plastic tub. You could get, um, vinegar. Heinz makes like a glass packaged vinegar, but if you are going to buy vinegar, um, I, in, in a non-glass container,
Starting point is 00:27:39 I would suggest getting the biggest one possible in like one of those thick plastic jugs. Not that I'm an advocate of buying plastic, but from an accessibility perspective, um, you know, also vinegar is super affordable and the thick rigid plastic is likely a number one or number two plastic, which are some of the more likely plastics to be recycled. Oh, interesting. Okay. I feel like I need a whole class on all the meaning, like all the numbers and recycling. Like I totally forgot they had numbers until you just said that. And also I feel like I need a field trip to the dump or something to see like what happens after I drop it off in my trash can.
Starting point is 00:28:21 Like, where does it go next? Do they sort through your garbage? Like, this is another thing that people talk about is that, oh, you don't actually have to recycle. Like they take it to the same place or they'll go through your trash and they'll take out what's recyclable. Like, is any of that true? So it depends.
Starting point is 00:28:40 Okay. It depends on where you live. And, and, um, you know, earlier I was talking about like this total lack of federal, um, uh, law that, that kind of creates universal standards for waste management. So one thing that's, like, incredibly frustrating is, and these are the things that keep me up at night, welcome, are, like, green means paper in one place, but, like, glass in another. Blue can mean paper in one place and metal in another. Brown can be composting or it could be, like, paper recycling. So it's all super confusing.
Starting point is 00:29:18 And each state, each city, each little municipality has its own waste management. So some cities in America don't even recycle or take recyclables. So they are just landfilled and some do and some have really comprehensive infrastructure. So big cities are obviously, you know, more financially resourced. And so they likely have better infrastructure. So in New York City, we have a really great recycling infrastructure where to decide like what type of plastic it is. They use this thing called an optical sorter, which is kind of like a laser eye that helps to separate everything. So it has a really good chance of being recycled.
Starting point is 00:30:01 But like the cool thing with recycling is that what determines whether or not something is recycled is really the value of the recycled material. So things like rigid plastics, um, metals, uh, some glass have a really high likelihood of being recycled because it can be reused, but metal is definitely the most likely to be recycled. So if you are going to buy things, packaged metal is, is usually a good, a good one. Wow. So interesting. Last thing, Lauren, before we let you go earth friendly sex, this one's for you, Chels.
Starting point is 00:30:36 So she says, she says like, if you need to wear a condom, wear a condom. Like, first of all, like, please put a condom on the penis, but now take us through earth friendly sex. So it's, it's definitely complex because obviously like we all want to protect against unwanted pregnancies and STDs. So if there is one place in your life where you're going to make waste, you know, protecting your body is definitely one of them. And I said the same thing around, you know, taking precautions for COVID, right?
Starting point is 00:31:10 Like we just need to wear a mask, right? Like not, not a big deal. Make the waste, keep yourselves in our community healthy. So for sex, if you are wearing a condom, you know, I don't want to like discriminate against condom brands, but there are some that are more sustainable than others. There are some that are made and marketed to, and for women, which, which I like, I like the idea of, of women taking control of, of their sexual health and wellness. So, so I really like supporting brands that advocate for that. Um, and then from a, from a
Starting point is 00:31:45 lubricant perspective, um, a lot of them are actually made from synthetic ingredients. So like a petroleum based lubricant, which is, is not great. Um, so I love using things like coconut oil or jojoba oil. Um, they shouldn't be mixed, uh, like coconut oil shouldn't be mixed with a condom because it can cause it to rip um but but for other things um it's a great option yeah oh yeah i think you need to write a memoir and the title should be something about like the the only thing left is condoms like yeah every we've eliminated all waste and it's just a giant pile of condom well that was gonna be my question for you because i'm i've every time i talk about you to someone, I always say you have to see her mason jar. Like it's, that's how you explain how
Starting point is 00:32:39 amazing you are at this work. But what is in your mason jar? Like, what is this like pesky thing in your life that you can't get, like you haven't been able to eliminate? So the, the things that I still add to the jar are those little pieces of plastic that connect a piece of clothing to the price tag. Um, like think of how many of those little thingies there are. It's, it's so ridiculous, but whoever's making them must make a ton of money. Um, and, and, uh, so, so those, um, historically I had band-aids, but now we, we sell biodegradable options at package free. Um, there are festival bracelets in there. Um, for anyone that's onto music festivals. Um, you'd think that like 2021 we're, we're going to space,
Starting point is 00:33:34 like, shouldn't we have solutions for plastic things and, and festival bracelets, but it's, you know, obviously hasn't historically been a priority, but I, but I, I look at all the things in the jar as opportunities for innovation, for entrepreneurship, um, you know, produce stickers, why are they still made of plastic how is there not a better a better option um you know they're they're just opportunities and and they're little problems right you know getting rid of produce stickers isn't gonna make or break climate change but but it's one small thing and and it's an opportunity and it can be improved so so how how can we all take little steps to to make things just a little bit better what about my underwear when i'm done with it like if i wear it out it's
Starting point is 00:34:19 good question. Yes. What do you do? Um, so there are great clothing take back programs. So first of all, I always recommend using 100% natural or like cotton, ideally, if you can organic cotton underwear, um, just because it's better for, for your vaginal health, um, or for men or any identifier. It's just better to have natural fabrics down there. Um, and then there are take back programs. Uh, my friend at a company called four days actually has a take back bag on her website where you can send, um, all of the clothing that you don't want or need back. And it's, it's prevented from, from ending up in landfill. Cool. Amazing. I love that. It's, it's such a cool company. She's LA based. This is just the beginning of our journeys. Um,
Starting point is 00:35:14 Lauren is so inspirational. You must follow her at Package Free Shop if you want to buy any of the products that she talked about. I mean, there's so many more. You can also follow her at Trashes for Tossers or TrashesforTossers.com. I think this is really cool.
Starting point is 00:35:29 And we weren't here for a long time, but we were here for a good trashy time. Trashy. Thanks for listening. The Lady Gang is produced by Alex Ingber, Steve Delameter, and Jared Monaco. Make sure you subscribe, rate, and review our podcast and if you love it share it with your friends on social media like oh my god i just
Starting point is 00:35:47 listened lady gang this episode's so great swipe up to listen and if you really want to which we know you do please follow us on social at kelty at becca at jack vanek and at the lady gang sign up for our newsletter at the lady gang.com and join our secret facebook group it's super fun see you next tuesday

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