Thank you World Centric for inviting me to attend #EcoSocialLA. This event was an eco-focused influencer meet up held at The Unique Space in downtown LA. The Unique space is a beautifully remodeled industrial warehouse. Definitely the perfect setting for eco-influences to get to know each other and discuss important sustainability topics.
The night consisted of yummy food, fun activations, and a discussion panel covering local beach cleanups, composting & recycling in SoCal, and healthcare for women and children.
Delicious food provided by Ziza. I loved the blood orange kumquat salad (pictured on the far left).
Elemental Superfood had some tasty samples of their superfood seedbars. Iโm not ashamed to admit that I tried every flavor. They were all freaking delicious!
The best past of the night was spending time with my LA blogger girls, Jhanneu, Savannah, and Shayzon (pictured from left to right). We did not hesitate to take photos for the gram thanks to Cubby Photo Booth and The Photo Bug Co.
#EcoSocialLA Discussion Takeaways
Beach Clean Ups
Allies of Mother Earth hosts beach clean ups and park cleanups. If you are in LA and have some time to volunteer, consider attending a local clean up. During the panel discussion, we learned the most common type of trash found during beach cleans up are micro-plastics. This did not surprise me based on the results of the last beach clean up I attended. The most common piece of trash found during park clean ups are doggy poop bags. If you are a dog owner or dog watching, please donโt be that person who doesnโt properly dispose of poop. Thatโs just gross!
Composting & Recycling
World Centric provides compostable products to restaurants and consumer. They provide 25% of their profits to charity. For this discussion we talked about our broken recycling system. We also discussed how even compostable items donโt break down properly if they end up in the landfill. Unfortunately, a lot of compostable items end up in the landfill, especially since industrial composting facilities werenโt really designed to process some of these products. Since we are limited in where we can compost , the best option is to find local organizations offering composting services or start your own backyard compost. Itโs very apparent that there is still a lot of eco-activism that needs to take place to fix this broken system.
Health Care for Women
World Centricโs non-profit partner Power of Love (POL) talked about the impact they have had on communities in Zambia and India battling AIDS . The organization helps provide medical care to HIV positive women and children and has helped train communities on how to prevent HIV from advancing into AIDS.
Final Thoughts
Our conversation emphasized the fact that the environmental issue is an intersectional issue. We cannot discuss environmental issues without addressing deeper issues regarding racism, food deserts, poverty by design, etc. We cannot have a discussion without first acknowledging white privilege, abled-bodied privilege, and socio-economic privilege. It was interesting hearing the different perspectives and being able to have an open-dialogue about these issues.
Did you have any takeaways from this event recap?