Resources from the Earth

Hello Everyone! Welcome back to my blog. For this week’s assignment, we were asked to keep a list of all the earth’s resources that we used within a 24 hour time limit. For an entire day I kept track of everything I used/ saw and recognized as the “earth’s resources”. Looking below you can easily see that for just one person, many, many, many resources are put to use each and every day. Here were some of the resources I used…

A) Food and drink

• Water
• Milk
• Sprite
• Cranberry Juice
• Cheerios
• Banana
• Yogurt
• Wheat Bread
• Turkey
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Mayonnaise
• Potato Chips
• Salad (Garden Salad)
• Ranch Dressing
• Cheez-its
• Gum
• Corn
• Chicken
• Rice

B) Housing and other buildings

• Wood
• Stucco
• Metal
• Concrete
• Glass
• Granite
• Plastic
• Porcelain
• Roofing Materials
• Paint
• Plants/ Flowers/ Trees/ Grass
• Dirt
• Electricity
• Gas (Heat, etc.)
• Water
• Trash/Paper/Plastic/Glass

C) Transportation and roads

• Car: Metal/ Plastic/ Vinyl/ Carpet/ Oil/ Water/ Gasoline/ Other automobile fluids
• Road : Asphalt/ Concrete/ Metal / Oil
• Road Signs/ Stoplights: Metal/ Electricity

D) Clothing

• Cotton: Shirt/Shoes/Socks/Under garments/Pajamas
• Jeans: Pants
• Leather: Shoes/Purse
• Plastic Sunglasses

E) School supplies

• Pen/ Ink
• Paper (from trees)

F) Personal care products

• Plastic Toothbrush
• Toothpaste/ Plastic Container
• Shampoo/Conditioner
• Body Wash
• Face Wash
• Facial Toner and Moisturizer
• Leave-in treatment for my hair
• Plastic and Metal: Blow Dryer/ Hair straightener
• Cotton Balls
• Q-tips
• Make-up (Mascara, eyeliner, cover-up)
• Lotion
• Deodorant
• Perfume
• Porcelain Toilet
• Toilet Paper
• Tissue Paper
• Cotton Towels
• Dish Soap
• Laundry Soap
• Chapstick
• Air freshener

G) Leisure activities

• Laguna Beach: Sand/ Salt Water/ Rocks/ Sea life (muscles, barnacles, anemone, seaweed, crabs, starfish, sea slug, amphipods, fish/etc.)/ Seals/Pelicans/ Seagulls
• Weather
• Warmth from the sun

H) Other (not listed in categories A-G)

• Metal Fireplace
• Fire
• Wax: Candles
• Oxygen
• Cotton: Sheets/ Blankets/ Couches/ Pillows
• Wood: Furniture
• Metal: Stove / Refrigerator/ Pots and Pans
• Porcelain Plates
• Silverware / Cooking and Drinking Utensils: Metal and Plastic
• Paper Napkin

Following my list of resources, we were then asked to research ONE of the following items from our list and answer the following questions. For this part I chose to research my facial wash. Reason being, I thought it would be interesting to see what it is that I am actually putting onto my skin/body.

Product: Clinique: Liquid Facial Soap (Oily Skin Formula)

· What is your item made of? (list all components and/or ingredients)

Looking on the back of my bottle of face wash the following ingredients were listed:

Water/Aqua/EAU, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauramido Propyl Betaine, Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Cocoyl Sarcosinate, Tea Cocoyl Glutamate, Butylene Glycol, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Serenoa Serrulata (Saw Palmetto) Fruit, Extract, Peg-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate, Sucrose, Menthol, Hexy Lene Glycol, Polyquaternium-7, Laureth-2, Caprylyl Glycol, Sodium Sulfate, EDTA, Disodium EDTA, Sodium Benzoate, Phenoxyethanol [1LN30693]

· How is it used?

This product is directed to used 2x a day. (Morning and Night)

First one must wet their face. Then apply a small amount of facial wash (nickel size) to face and neck and massage thoroughly to cleanse. Next one would rinse facial wash off using clean/warm water.

· How, where, and by whom is it mined, harvested, or otherwise acquired?

The bottle stated that this product was made in the U.S.A. (New York) and was developed by Clinique dermatologists for skin care and needs. From there the product was shipped and sent to the desire Clinique location.

· How did it get to you?

I got this product by going to the Clinique counter at Nordstrom in the Tyler Mall. However, since this product is said to have been made in New York, I am guessing that this product was delivered by plane and/or truck.

· What will happen to it when it is no longer ―useful‖?

After I have used all of my Clinique facial wash, I will dispose the plastic bottle into my recycle bin.

· Is this product a "want" or a "need"?

When it comes down to deciding whether my facial wash is a want or need, I would have to say that it is a want because I know things like food, shelter, and clothing are more of a need/must have. However, I would feel incomplete for awhile without my face wash. My face tends to get really oily if I don’t use the right products on it, which then results in making me feel “unclean”. So to me, even though this product is a want, I feel like it is a need for me if all my other needs have been satisfied.

 

· What is the effect of this product (production, use, disposal) on:

Clinique’s liquid facial soap for oily skin was made to cleanse and meet the needs of skin care for its consumers, such as you and I. When it comes to disposing the contents of the plastic container after the product is gone, I would recommend recycling it so that it has a less damaging effect on animals and the environment. For example, the bottle wont accidently end up in the ocean and be mistaken as food by marine life. For a great example of why we should recycle plastic, check out this following video about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTurihxSTnI

· Was the product available 100 years ago, and if not, what did people use instead?

I do not believe that this product was around 100 years ago. Instead, I believe that people used a regular bar of soap to wash their face.

· What alternatives might do more good and less harm?

As an alternative, the only thing I can think of to do is to try and use an organic facial wash of some kind that doesn’t include Parabens and/or Sulfate. These are chemicals in products that are known to help preserve and make the “shelf life” of the product last longer, but in all reality they are actually harsh on your skin and can cause aging and problems with your chemical balance in your body. This makes me wonder what else this product could be causing harm too.

· What have you observed / learned?

Just looking at my list of the Earth’s resources that I use on a daily basis astounds me. It’s hard to fathom the idea of how our Earth supports its 7 billion people. When it comes to learning more about my face wash and its ingredients, I consulted one of my best friends from high school who is a licensed esthetician. She mentioned that any chemicals in products that you put on your skin will be absorbed into your skin within 3 seconds, but will be fully absorbed after 8 seconds. This information really made me question what the heck I was putting on my skin/body. She also stated that this is why so many arguments are being made about people switching to organic products instead since they don’t contain the damaging chemicals that non-organic products do. For those of you who are interest about better/ healthier/ and safer skin care, you can check out my friends website. Feel free to contact or call her with any questions or concerns that you have.

http://www.myaddictionskincare.blogspot.com/

If these products can be harmful to human beings, then again what type of effects are they having on our animals and environment?  

· What surprised you?

What surprised me the most was all of the sulfate chemicals that can be found in my facial wash. Putting them on my face means that I am putting them into my body. This is actually kind of scary to think about. What else is my body absorbing that I don’t know about, and how safe is it?

Honestly, I haven’t a clue as to what all of the ingredients in my face wash are, so how can I be sure that they aren’t more harmful then beneficial.

 

· What more can you do to conserve Earth resources? — Be specific and detailed.

When it comes to conserving the Earth’s resources I thought back to my assignment when I calculated my ecological footprint. Some of the ways I feel that I can cut back on resources would be to use less of a product. For example, try taking the train or bus into work instead of always driving my car. I could also cut back on the amount of animal products that my husband and I consume each week, and consider purchasing products that use less packaging or were made out of 100% post-consumer recycled content material. Lastly, I would really like to focus more on the things that can be recycled at my home and work place. I recycle now, but sometimes I do get lazy and just toss things into a nearby trashcan.

By going to the following website, you too can calculate your ecological footprint to see how you can better conserve resources as well.

www.footprintnetwork.org/calculator.