Happy World Oceans Day!
Happy World Oceans Day!
World Oceans Day is a day designated by the UN for celebrating and bringing awareness to our oceans. It is also a day for action! Oceanic animals and the sea itself have long inspired us, from our very first pillow design, Very Hungry Whale, to our name, Coral & Tusk. In honor of World Oceans Day, we'd love to take a moment to appreciate all the reasons why oceans are both inspiring and important and also talk about a few things we can all do to help keep our oceans healthy.
The Pacific ocean from Big Sur, CA inspired our Spring 2016 collection.
70% of our planet is covered in oceans and 97% of the Earth's water can be found in our oceans. We think that is pretty incredible! Our oceans drive the global systems that make our planet habitable and hospitable, including producing the air we breathe and the water we drink. It is essential that we treat our oceans well not only for our own well being, but for the well being of all of the animals we share our planet with.
Our Humpback Whale inspired design enjoying sand and sun on a New York state beach.
We have been following along with National Geographic's recent feature Planet or Plastic? via Instagram, the issue is on newsstands this month. In one of the features, we learned that 40% of plastic products are used only once and an alarming rough estimate projects that 5.3 million to 14 million tons of unrecycled plastic waste appear on coastal regions each year. The article also outlines how this waste is estimated to kill millions of marine animals annually. This information is incredibly scary and disheartening, but a key piece from the National Geographic article brings us hope:
"Ocean plastic is not as complicated as climate change. There are no ocean trash deniers, at least so far. To do something about it, we don’t have to remake our planet’s entire energy system." - National Geographic
1. Baggu Birds of Paradise Reusable Bag 2. Pigeon Toe Ceramics Grey Simple Mug - Our go to mug for on the go 3. Swell Calacatta Gold 25oz Bottle - Keep your water ice cold in a reusable bottle that is also a work of art. 4. Greens Steel Stainless Steel Straws - For the love of iced coffee! 5. Etee Biodegradable + Reusable Food Wraps - Reduce, reuse, recycle!
So what CAN we all collectively do to help sustain our oceans and not cause them harm?
- Use only reusable bags when shopping, do not accept plastic bags at the supermarket or any other store. Plastic shopping bags are used on average for only 12 minutes and take 500+ years to degrade in a landfill. We love using our Baggus, they are super easy to fold up and have on us at all times!
- Do not purchase bottled water, bring your own reusable water bottle and fill it up throughout the day.
- Skip the plastic straw. According to National Geographic, Americans toss millions of plastic straws everyday!
Reducing our use of plastic is as easy as 1, 2, 3! We put together a product round up of our favorite reusable staples above.
Stephanie's Big Sur field notes. A peek into her observations and experience visiting the coastal California region.
As a company, we have instituted measures to help limit our own waste. We have pledged to switch over all of our cardboard boxes and shipping mailers to recycled cardboard boxes and chip mailers, transition any plastic bags we use for packaging to plant based, biodegradable and compostable bags and we are switching our plastic tape to recycled paper moisture activated tape.
Additionally, 90% of our product offering is produced on unbleached and undyed natural linen. This greatly reduces pollutants which normally occur during the fabric processing, dyeing, finishing, printing, etc that most textiles produce.
Coral Forest 20" Pillow in Big Sur, CA.
Thank you for helping us celebrate World Oceans Day! We hope you can spend some time near an ocean and help spread awareness today.
The following organizations, people, or publications listed below have been invaluable resources for us on this topic and other environmental issues!
Center for Biological Diversity