I Was About to Buy Another Pair of Shoes… Then I Tried This🥾☕
A simple trick using something I used to throw away
Today’s sustainable snapshot👇🏽
I Was About to Buy Another Pair of Shoes… Then I Tried This
Quiz Time!
Startup of the Week: Uluu
5 Brands Creating Low-Waste Cleaning Solutions
News That Lifted My Spirits This Week
I Was About to Buy Another Pair of Shoes… Then I Tried This🥾☕
After I am done petting my cats in the morning, I move to making coffee. We have a drip machine, and since both of us love black coffee, it works perfectly for us.
Earlier, a part of the coffee-making process involved discarding the used coffee grounds every morning. But recently, I discovered a practical use for them.
I now put them in my gym shoes.
Currently, it's monsoon season in Goa. My extremely sweaty gym shoes don't get sufficient time to dry before I need to wear them again. One solution was to buy another pair and alternate between the two — a quick and convenient option, I must admit. However, I only use these shoes at the gym and nowhere else. Having two pairs didn't make sense. Plus, I'm trying to minimize my possessions, so this approach didn't align with that philosophy either.
After some quick research, I found a better way to dry those shoes and eliminate that unpleasant odor. You guessed it right — I began putting used coffee grounds in my shoes. But not directly — that would create quite a mess.
There's a process to it. I keep two containers in our kitchen. I empty the used coffee grounds into one of them, and once they dry out, I transfer them to another container. You can't use wet coffee grounds as they won't absorb moisture, and they might replace the sweat smell with a dark roast aroma 😛
Afterward, I place these dried coffee grounds in an old pair of socks (without holes) and put these coffee-filled socks in my shoes overnight.
You can then remove the used coffee grounds, dry them again, and continue the process. These coffee-filled socks can also help eliminate odors from storage boxes and closets, if needed.
Let me know if you've been using your coffee grounds in other creative ways. I would love to experiment.
⌛ Time for the quiz of the week
Note: Answer at the end of the newsletter. No one (including me) can see your response, so feel free to vote. 😉
✨ Startup of the Week: Uluu
This Australian startup is using seaweed to tackle the plastic crisis…
Plastic Awakening…Dr Julia Reisser was an ecologist and researched sea turtles in her native Brazil. During her research, Julia realized how sea turtles were eating more plastic than anything else. This led her to do a PhD in ocean plastics, followed by a stint at The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch not-for-profit developing technology to remove plastic from the seas, where she was one of the earliest members.
Seaweed Solution…But Julia wanted to move to the source of the problem — plastics. When she did not find any persuasive alternatives to plastics, she decided to create one with Michael Kingsbury, a former business executive and M&A lawyer. Together, they launched Uluu, which is on a mission to make all the world’s plastics out of seaweed.
But why seaweed?
Seaweeds are amazing at restoring our oceans. They not only remove carbon from the atmosphere but also clean up nutrient pollution that causes havoc in our marine environments.
Uluu’s compostable polymer, called polhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), is made through a fermentation process that is similar to brewing beer. This is their 4-step process:
Cook seaweed. Extract sugars from seaweed using special enzymes.
Ferment PHAs. Feed seaweed sugars to PHA-producing microbes.
Extract PHAs. Remove PHAs from inside the microbes.
Make pellets. Melt the PHAs to make pellets ready for product manufacturing.
These pellets can be used in industries like fashion, furniture, and packaging.
Sustainable Byproducts…At the end of the process, there’s a leftover seaweed biomass with higher protein content and greater digestibility. ULUU has partnered to use this vegan by-product as an alternative to fishmeal in aquaculture feed. It’s also exploring developments in other areas such as soil treatment, pet food, and protein for human consumption.
✅ 5 Brands Creating Low-Waste Cleaning Solutions
🇮🇳 Arani Ecosteps- A plastic-free store for personal care and household products.
🇺🇸 Cleancult- Non-toxic household cleaning products that are good for humans and the planet.
🇨🇦 Etee- Cleaning and personal care products in the form of concentrates.
🇨🇦 Myni- Low waste cleaning and personal care products.
🇮🇳 Bare Necessities- Makes low-waste personal, home care & lifestyle products.
😹 News That Lifted My Spirits This Week
🌳 City Slick-ers: Urban Climate Heroes!
Cities are outperforming national governments in addressing climate change, with 75% of major cities reducing emissions faster than their countries, achieving an average 7.5% drop from 2015 to 2024. Urban leaders are taking practical steps like planting trees, electrifying transit, and improving walkability in direct response to climate threats, though they face a massive funding gap of $4.5 trillion annually needed by 2030 to meet climate goals.
🚲 Wheel-y Making a Difference!
The global Bicycle Mayor Network is revolutionizing urban transit through a grassroots approach where local cycling champions advocate for bike-friendly cities. After learning to ride during the pandemic, Maren Ahlers now leads a 450-member cycling group in Addis Ababa and has joined this 150-member coalition spanning 34 countries. Despite being volunteers facing bureaucratic hurdles, these advocates are achieving tangible results, including Ethiopia's commitment to build 100 kilometers of new bike lanes.
🌊 Making Waves in Conservation
Samoa has made a groundbreaking conservation move by becoming one of the first Pacific Island nations to legally protect 30% of its ocean. They've adopted a binding Marine Spatial Plan that ensures sustainable management of their entire 120,000-square-kilometer ocean territory. Cabinet-endorsed under the Lands, Survey and Environment Act 1989, this plan sets a powerful example for other large ocean states looking to protect their marine resources. Samoa's achievement puts them ahead of schedule for the 2025 UN Ocean Conference targets.
Give that 💚 a little tap if this edition helped you learn something new about sustainability and climate change. Have a good weekend, and see you next week :)
Teabags or used tea leaves work equally well for this too.