041: A journey of a zero-waste farmer with Manju Kumar

In this episode, we talk to Manju Kumar. She is CEO of Brush With Bamboo, the founder of The Growing Club. She is also known as the zero-waste farmer that grows some amazing food in her backyard. 

During this episode, we take a look at how her journey to create one of the first Bamboo toothbrush brands. We also talk to her about her garden she turned into a permaculture garden and she gives us some tips to grow our own food as well.  

Episode Highlights

[01:14] How did your sustainable journey start?

[04:30] This is how my sustainable journey started. It wasjust life changing, like click that happened after seeing all of these thingsthat we decided ok, I have to change, like I can not be part of the problem.

[08:45] Right now we have a tropical jungle of a feeling of our house, you can actually not tell that you are in the suburbs when you are on the property.

[09:33] I wanted to grow stuff that I could not get on the market.

[12:25] There is always something to eat in the garden I don’t really buy anything fruit. We have plenty of our own.

[14:37] Whatever nature can take care of, for me I just let her do it. My effort is just to returning the nutrients back to her.

[15:03] What is lasagna mulching.

[16:54] It is the soil beneath our feet that actually helps us thrive.

[17:55] One of the things that we realised is that the very first thing that goes into our mouths early morning, is plastic.

[19:23] Now Brush with Bamboo is leading bamboo toothbrush company, we have the first organic tooth brush. It is the first plant based tooth brush, are tooth brush bristles are made mostly with castor bean oil and we are constantly looking at how do we reduce the impact of our toothbrush.

[22:25] What has been one of your most important decisions that you have made around Mama Earth?

Final Five

1.What is one social media platform that you follow?

Eating with Max

Trash is for Tossers

Waste Land Rebel

Going Zero Waste

Beth Terry

2.What is your hope for mama earth going forward?

My hope is that she flourishes, that her eco-system is brought back to balance.

3.What advise can you give our crazy birds this week to help out mama earth?

Start with just planting a tree, commit to planting one tree every year for the rest of your life.

4.What is one sustainability fact that you like to use in a room with people not yet on a sustainability journey?

Start looking at giving back. Look at how you can give back and giving back, that you have to understand the eco-system for each one of us the answer of what we can do is different, based on where we live, what is available to us.

5.Where can people find you?

Facebook

Zero Waste Farmer Instagram

Brush with Bamboo Instagram

Youtube

Website

Key Take Away

It is the soil beneath our feet that actually helps us thrive.

The soil plays the most critical role for our eco-system and we would not be able to survive without healthy soil and sometimes we need to take a moment to realise that and appreciate what Mama Earth is doing for us.

About the author, Mariska

Hi and welcome! My name is Mariska. I am originally from South Africa, but now call the world my home. I am an artist, designer, environmentalist, podcast host and speaker.

I started the Mama Earth Talk podcast in 2018 to share some of the things that I learned about just how easy it can be to reduce your impact on the environment. This then quickly grew into a forum that showcases the amazing things that many people are doing to make the planet better, and further into a source of hope and inspiration for many. A few of the amazing guests include Zero Waste Queen, Bea Johnson, Claude Silver, Kathryn Kellogg and zero waste chef Max La Manna.

If you do not already I urge you to follow me and my journey on social media (@designbymariska), and to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot your own waste using the handy tips I post!

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