Spending a Zero Waste Vegan Holiday Season, with Tosha Lobsinger of Peace People Project

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To start the show, Alison’s sister Leanna Pickard is in town for the holidays, and she gives us an update about her latest animal activism in creating the Sioux Falls Area Action for Animals group. She tells us about plans for the future, and what the impetus was to break out of her shell to get even more active for the animals this past year. The 2019 Animal Liberation Conference in Berkeley, CA is coming up from May 29th to June 4th, 2019 and registration is open. Leanna tells us more about how ALC 2018 impacted her as an activist and gives info on how to register for next year’s conference.

We also present a review of the new vegan pizza restaurant in town, Vegan Cave.

Tosha Lobsinger, Peace People Project, on the Zero Waste Lifestyle and Spending A Zero Waste Holiday Season

The theme of this show is “zero waste living”. We already advocate for veganism at Animal Voices, but can we go further and do better for the planet and the animals from there? The answer is yes!

For our feature interview, we have local activist Tosha Lobsinger, of the Peace People Project, on the show. She is a vegan and lives a “zero waste” lifestyle, and believes that we can do better for the Earth by living minimally, using things until they’re broken, and always sourcing from existing materials before creating a new demand for production. Tosha also believes that we can do better for the animals by freeing them from human control and by speaking on their behalf every day.

Living this way is the lifestyle of a “zero waste” vegan, and with the holiday season upon us now, a time where there is a lot of spending done and hence waste produced, it may be the best time to reevaluate the way we live and to explore the zero waste vegan lifestyle as a viable and necessary option for treading as lightly on the Earth as possible for all of its inhabitants.

In this conversation, Tosha speaks about the practicalities of transitioning to a zero waste (and vegan) lifestyle, and what we can do spend a more “zero waste” holiday this year.

Tosha Lobsinger demonstrates how to make oat milk at one of her zero waste living workshops.

Did you know that Canadians make 545,000 tonnes of waste from gift wrapping and shopping bags every year?! B.C. has historically been responsible for producing between 10 to 11 per cent of Canada’s waste. There will be an additional 300,000 tonnes of garbage created between mid November and New Years Eve and, if every Canadian wrapped 3 gifts in upcycled materials rather than buying wrapping paper new, enough paper would be saved to cover 45,000 hockey rinks. All this garbage dearly affects our planet, which affects everyone who lives on it.

We cover areas of common holiday celebrations such as Christmas trees, gift wrapping, and gift giving ideas.

As a zero waste vegan, Tosha also tells her what a typical day in her life might be like. No plastics, no buying new items, and thinking mindfully about her consumer options is at the forefront of the zero waste lifestyle. Be ready for an inspiring conversation about how we can know better, and thus DO better.

To find out more about what may propel you to adopt a zero waste lifestyle yourself, enjoy this short film, called “The Story of Stuff”: