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5 plastic-free ways to wash your hair

Why vegans don’t use non-vegan rest products

Posted on July 19, 2021October 23, 2022

I try to live as vegan as I can. With food I have explained myself quite a bit already. I’ve written why I don’t eat meat, dairy and eggs and there is more to come. But I also am vegan on other aspects like clothing and cosmetics. I am simply against using animals for human pleasure, in any way. Therefore I don’t buy animal products. That’s clear. But what about by-products? Products that are the so called waste or rest product from the animal product industry. Things like animal fat or leftover leather. Here’s why vegans don’t use non-vegan rest products.

Mistaken

First I want to talk about the definition of rest products here. I am talking about products that would normally go to waste because they’re a waste stream from the animal products industry. An example is animal fat. Fat is stripped of most meat, they then use this fat for cosmetics and soaps. Another example is a leather bag made out of leftover leather. The ends of the leather so the say, the small pieces they didn’t use at first.

What I don’t mean is anything simple like milk, eggs or leather. Most non-vegans see these products as rest- or by-products. They say ‘a cow makes milk anyway’, or ‘a chicken lays eggs anyway’ or ‘why not use the leather from a cow, it’s dying anyway’. These things are simply not true. There are special cows breeded for meat, for milk and for leather. A cow breeded for meat does not give milk because it’s never impregnated.

There are special cows for milk which are artificially impregnated every year so that they have babies and so give milk. We take the milk from the babies, it’s ‘not there anyways’. Similar with leather. There are special cows for leather. They are bred just for that purpose. When you buy leather you kill an individual just for the leather. They weren’t going to die anyway. My point being: these are not waste products like people see them, they are intentionally produced this way.

Definition of rest products

Today I am talking about the waste products that come from the animal products industry. Things the animal products producers can’t use theirself and so they sell it. This waste is then made into a new product. Things like fat in soap. Most people would say: ‘why don’t you use that? It’s basically waste made into a new product. Why waste it when we can make something of it?’. Here’s why.

Demand

I don’t buy waste from the animal product industry because I don’t want to support them financially. Normally, if you have any waste, you have to pay to discard your waste. When these producers get rid of this waste for free or even at a small fee (because we buy it and then make a new product from this waste) this helps them financially. Normally they would have to pay, now they don’t or they even receive money. I don’t want this to happen. I don’t want to support these companies in any way.

Yes, that means I would like to see them bankrupt. The sooner the better. I wish people who breed animals to be killed would quit theirself. But they don’t. And so the demand needs to stop. If there is no demand for animal products, not even the waste, the industry will collapse. That’s what I want. 

Waste/Secondhand

There is one little exception: secondhand clothing. I have some leather in my closet (which I am trying to fase out as well because I don’t want to promote wearing it). I bought that secondhand. And so, this doesn’t support the animal product industry. I then supported thrift shops. Not a single euro goes to the wrong companies. That’s the difference with waste products from the animal product industry. When you buy a fabric softener for your laundry which is not vegan, you support the animal product industry. That’s because the company which makes this fabric softener buys waste (fat in this case) from the animal product industry.

Perfect

This is why I always look for vegan products. I was suprised by how many products are not vegan. Non-organic lemons for example. They use animal products to make the non-organic lemons shiny. My point is: it is impossible to be perfect in veganism. But we don’t have to be perfect. As long as we try and buy vegan when there’s a label, we’re good.

That’s why vegans don’t use non-vegan rest products. What do you think?

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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ABOUT ME

 

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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Eén van mijn favoriete vegan snacks, bij de Lidl tijdens de Griekse week 🇬🇷. Op dit moment is plantaardig eten nog niet de norm in Nederland, helaas. Daarom hebben veel mensen dan ook geen idee wat veganisten eten. Om die reden heb ik de afgelopen week weer eens een eetdagboek bijgehouden, want wat eet ik nou als veganist gedurende de week? Je leest het nu in mijn vegan food diary via de link in mijn bio 🥭. #plantaardig #veganfood #dagboek Verpakkingsvrij wasmiddel kopen, dat hoeft niet moeilijk te zijn! In deze reel laat ik je zien hoe ik dat doe 🧺. Volg mijn account voor meer duurzame tips. Elke maand doneer ik ongeveer 7% van mijn inkomen aan goede doelen, omdat ik dat zie als enorm belangrijk en het juiste ding om te doen 💸. Maar daarmee komt de vraag op: geloof ik dat goede doelen het antwoord zijn op alle grote problemen van onze tijd? Oftewel: is geld doneren de oplossing? Over die vraag én het antwoord schreef ik een uitgebreid artikel die vandaag online staat, de link vind je in mijn bio. #goeddoel #doneren #blog Vegan pizza tonno, hmmmm. Dacht je dat vegans geen tonijnpizza kunnen eten? Think again! 🐟 Een hele tijd geleden schreef ik een artikel over e-mail activisme: een vorm van activisme die je thuis op de bank kan doen. Vandaag deel ik graag een geslaagd voorbeeld daarvan met jullie ✨. Vandaag staat er een documentaire-tip op mijn blog. Disclosure, een documentaire over de representatie van transgender personen in de media 📽. Echt een must-see, want wat wij hebben als cis-gender personen nog een hoop te leren. Lees meer over de documentaire via de link in mijn bio. #disclosure #documentaire #transgender Vandaag deel 2 van de vegan hotspots in Londen 🧆. Wat heb ik lekker gegeten daar, niet te doen! Bubala was mijn absolute favoriet, dus als je iets moet kiezen, kies Bubala. Vorige week verscheen er een artikel over treinreizen naar Londen op mijn blog. Aanvullend daarop verscheen er vandaag een artikel over een ander aspect van duurzaam reizen: het eten. Lees nu het artikel met mijn favoriete veganistische restaurants in Londen nu via de link in mijn bio 🌮. #veganfood #veganlondon #veganrestaurants

Read my latest posts

  • Femicide
  • Vegan food diary for a week – March 2023
  • Are charities the solution to our problems?
  • Documentary: Disclosure
  • Vegan restaurants in London

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