Oh no.
(slam)
- Hi, my name is Aiko, I'm an associate producer
here at Buzzfeed.
I love Valentines day, it is my favorite holiday.
What I don't love so much about Valentines day
is that it creates quite a bit of waste.
From cards, disposable packaging for candy,
jewelry, flowers, things that we have to buy
again and again every year.
How do we celebrate valentines day responsibly?
(upbeat music)
For this video I wanted to make a sustainable,
minimal to zero waste, eco-friendly
valentines day gift basket,
and I thought, who better to give it to than Auri.
Auri is one of the great environmental heroes at Buzzfeed.
She's very deeply loved by everyone here
and she's very deeply loved by me
because she is my mentor.
Although Auri is probably an expert at zero waste by now,
I am not, and I think I struggled a little bit
with that approach
when I started going into this gift basket.
(gentle music)
Do you have any idea why you're here? (laughs)
- No, I thought I was gonna get a lap dance.
I heard I was getting a Valentines day surprise.
(ding)
- Yeah, okay, so I'm gonna have you close your eyes.
- Okay.
- This basket was a wooden crate that I painted green,
Auri's favorite color.
You can open your eyes.
- Oh my God.
- Okay, I've sort of spent the week making a
zero to minimal waste gift basket for you
for Valentines day. - Oh, that's so cute,
thank you so much.
- I wanted to have several components.
A card, chocolate or candy, a jewelry component,
a flower component
and then a cute, crafty component.
- I love the different fabrics, it's so colorful.
- I didn't want to wrap anything with paper
so I got two bandanas from Lush,
I lined the gift basket with the bandana
and then I used to other one as wrapping for my brownies.
- So it all can be reused?
- Yeah.
- That's amazing. - So you can use it for
different things.
To replace the flowers I got her a succulent
which won't die immediately.
- Well already I see this adorable little cactus,
thank you so much.
- For the crafted item, I thought I would make Auri
some candles.
I wanted to make Auri a candle,
problem is if you buy candles from like Bath and Body Works
or places like that,
the fragrance oils that they often use to scent the candles
aren't always the best for the environment,
so I picked up a block of beeswax
that I was planning on melting
and I am trying to break it
and it's a process.
My roommate has essential oils
and she let me borrow them.
This one is lemongrass
and then this one
is Eucalyptus.
Glass that I had and then Ellen's made candles before
so she gave me a wick.
But, if you don't have a wick
you can always use wicks that you had in other candles.
So I'm just gonna do like a few drops.
Jeez, I hope that's not like a really smelly candle
that I just did.
Oh (beep)
oh I'm sorry.
I don't know how long it's gonna take to harden
but we'll see.
- Candles.
Mmm. - Okay, so I actually
made those.
- You made these?
- Yeah, they're made out of beeswax and essential oils.
- This is such a nice scent
'cause I hate all scents usually. (laughs)
Just as a rule,
but these are great.
- [Aiko] Yeah.
- 'Cause it's subtle.
A lot of things are just too loud.
Any fragrance that comes from a chemical
is bad for us because they're endocrine disruptors.
Essential oils are the way to go.
I'm so stocked to light these babies up.
I feel unworthy.
I already am so happy.
What could possibly?
- What could possibly go wrong?
- Well I don't think anyone has been so thoughtful,
ever, to me.
Ooh, my God, brownies?
- So for the brownies
I kinda messed that up a bit.
- They pot brownies?
No. (laughs) - No.
She's made zero waste cookies in the past with Joyce
so Auri's an expert on this.
I took the recipe that I used from Tasty
and then the other ingredients
I either got from Sprout's
from the bulk foods section at my local grocery store,
or I already had them.
Okay, so I just now realized
this counts as waste.
I (beep) put the brownies in it.
Are you gonna try this?
- Well first I have to cut it.
Get my arm day workout in.
That's not bad.
- Wow.
- They're a little bit hard. (laughs)
- I love it.
Here, eat some with me.
- Okay, yeah.
- Have you tried them?
- I have, I've been told they're not terrible.
- These are delicious.
These are so nice.
- On this portion of the video
I did kinda mess up and I,
without thinking, I lined my pan with parchment paper.
- That's okay.
You know, people beat themselves up way too much.
It's a journey, not a destination being zero waste.
No one's completely zero waste.
Just that you're trying is great.
- I wanted to get Auri some jewelry.
She doesn't wear that much jewelry
so I wanted to get her something kind of minimal.
The mining and sourcing for these precious gems
that we use in jewelry,
that can be pretty harmful on the environment.
It's always good to buy things second hand.
I just thrifted you some earrings,
and they are on parchment paper.
That's the parchment paper I
messed-- - These are so cute.
- I talked a little bit before about
how much paper we're consuming when we're buying cards
every year for Valentine's day
and how those cards generally end up in the trash.
There's always a way to convey those messages of love
and thanks to your significant others
without consuming all that paper.
A lot of people thought of you on Valentines day.
We decided to give you an E-card.
- Oh, that's so sweet.
- So we made a little video for you
if you would like to watch.
- Oh, yes, let me, like, lick the brownies off my fingers.
(mellow music)
- Hi, Auri.
- Hey, Auri, it's me, Joyce.
Happy Valentines day.
- Happy Valentines day.
- Thank you so much for always spreading
your wonderful, eco-friendly knowledge to everyone.
- I love you, you're amazing and wonderful.
My eco queen,
my unstable soccer mom.
- I remember watching you when I was younger
and I still get starstruck a little
every now and then when I see you.
I'm like, Oh my God, it's Auri.
- I remember when I first met you
I thought, that's the woman that I'm scared of
using plastic around,
but now I know you're the very caring and loving woman
that doesn't judge people,
but wants to make me and everyone else a better person.
- When I think about people who've had an impact
with their careers, I think of you
and I don't think you get enough cred for that.
- Thank you for everything you do around campus.
Taught us all about
all the recycling stuff
and the compost and what goes where and all that stuff.
You've done a lot to really
just help us reduce a lot of waste.
- You know I am obsessed and love you,
and thank you for saving the world
one turtle at a time.
- You are a sweet angel of a person
and I'm so glad that we've gotten a chance
to get to know each other better
over the last year and hang out,
and you are truly a shining light
around the office.
- You are the sweetest, you're the greatest.
- Thank you for inspiring me
to try to use less plastic.
- Oh my god, too cute, I can't handle it.
(laughing)
I'm like a little shocked here.
I think it's gonna take me like a week to recover from this.
- We just wanted to show all our appreciation
for everything you do.
- [Auri] Aww. - And for
just helping us be a little more conscious.
- And remember, I only wanna be your cheerleader,
not your police.
I don't care if you use a plastic straw in front of me.
If you want to be more zero waste on your holidays,
she really laid it out how you can do it, so,
that's amazing.
(upbeat music)