Hey, it's Callee, and you're listening to a special episode of the Hippie Haven Podcast! If this is your first time listening, I release a new regular episode every Wednesday, where I interview sustainability leaders + experts on how we can live our best ethical + eco-friendly life.
If you want to learn more about zero waste basics, I recommend listening to episode 16 with Polly Barks of Green Indy Blog, where she shares her 12 steps to a waste free life in 12 months, and episode 21 with Alyssa of the Live Planted Podcast about secondhand shopping. We've also covered numerous other topics, like starting an eco business, urban beekeeping, composting, vegan parenting + more, so definitely check out those old episodes too if you haven't already!
For today's bonus episode, I've got 13 crowdfunding campaigns from different countries that are ending soon and could really benefit from your support, whether it's financial if you have a few dollars or more to spare, or sharing them on your social networks to help boost their visibility. While there might not be an eco business or charity crowdfunding near you yet, I recommend picking the closest one to you, or to a friend or family member of yours.
The links to each crowdfunding campaign will be in the shownotes for this episode, so you can just open up your podcast app where you're listening to this right now and click on the one that interests you for more info.
First, there's Scoop Marketplace in Seattle, Washington of the United States. They're almost halfway to their goal of $10,000 by Feb 28th to open a new zero waste grocery store. Their website is https://www.scoopmarketplace.com/
https://ifundwomen.com/projects/scoop-marketplace
You might have seen me talking about ecobricks on my Instagram a few weeks ago, if you don't know what they are, it's when you completely stuff a hard plastic bottle with soft plastic film + wrappers to create what's essentially a brick made entirely of plastic. These have become popular building materials in parts of Africa + Asia, where there's often an abundance of discarded plastic, without proper recycling facilities. Ecobricks are catching on in the UK, but are hardly known of here in the States. I will be doing an episode all about ecobricks in a few months, so stay tuned for that! Now, Upcycle Santa Fe, in New Mexico, USA, is raising money to complete testing of open-source building materials made from post-consumer plastic waste, aka ecobricks. This testing is composed of two parts: 1) researching and documenting the exact R-values (insulation ratings) of Ecobricks, and 2) the rate and speed at which these materials will burn in a structural fire (flame-spread). The tests will be carried out by Intertek in Pennsylvania, providing the groundwork for meeting building codes in NM and eventually elsewhere, and will ultimately allow Upcycle Santa Fe to build the first full-scale, legally-compliant plastic insulated structures in the United States. They've already had a study completed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which documented that plastic waste used as insulation material does not have any significant off-gassing of chemicals in comparison with modern insulation available in stores. Upcycle Santa Fe still needs over $4,000 to get this ecobrick testing done, and you can learn more at https://upcyclesantafe.org/
https://www.gofundme.com/ecobrick
Refill Revolution is already pretty well-known in the zero waste community, it's a female-owned refill store in Denver, Colorado, and they're looking to raise $50,000 in the next 26 days to expand their product line into unpackaged groceries. Their website is https://www.therefillrevolution.com/
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-refill-revolution-expand-into-bulk-food#/
The Pantry Concept will be the first zero waste grocery store in Kansas City, and they need $35,000 in the next 56 days to open. I don't see a website for them yet, but you can find them on Facebook as The Pantry Concept.