Alina Peek

For week 8 challenge, I chose to use public transit. I already do this on a weekly basis in order to get to work, making this challenge much easier. I never commuted via public transit until I moved to DT Portland 4 years ago. As I was very aware of my public transit use, I was able to lean into the experience of riding on the Max and streetcar, taking in the city as It went by. I feel like I can appreciate it much more when I am in those little cars versus an actual automobile.

For this weeks challenge, I decided to rewatch the story of bottled water. I remember watching it in class, but rewatching it helped me remember some of the key issues such as the lying of where the water comes from, the amount of energy it takes to produce bottles, and lastly the recycling that happens after we throw them away. The immediate need for water allows people to avoid thinking about its harmful effects. As shown in the video, often times bottled water is less nutritious or tasty than tap water. Why pay for worse? Obviously some areas do not have the luxury of safe tap water, but that is the exact place to start. How can more people have access to clean water? Will that decrease the amount in which water bottles are consumed? How can we make it cool to own a reusable bottle? All things I am interested in tackling.

For this week's challenge, I challenged myself with eating locally sourced foods. It has been an interesting journey learning more about our food and chains of production in relation to our general health. When going to the farmer's market, I found myself being more understanding of where I food came from. My partner and I got some ground beef, and various vegetable to try out. I realized there that quite a bit of the produce I had not eaten before and the stuff I normally get from the store, like out of season stuff, was not there (who would've guessed that?) Made me understand a bit more how eating for the seasons can be beneficial is sourcing locally.
My partner also pointed out how pricey some of the food was at the farmer's market. It has been very fun sharing information and enlightening him on the benefits of spending a little more on food that is organic and sometimes more nutritious than the latter.

For week 5 eco challenge, I wanted to tackle the litter in my community. Living in downtown means you are prone to seeing many different things on the sidewalks/roads. In my day to day, I can find empty wrappers, cans, a t-shirt, and so on. I find it hard to pick up most trash due to safety reasons. With this challenge I set some limits for what I chose to grab vs not grab. Most of these occurrences happened as I was on my way to work or class. I found myself noticing so much more trash after the fact. I have always had ideas and plans to eventually get to the town and clean but it never happens. This encouraged me to ask my peers to get involved as well.

This week, I decided to focus on a water related action and that included me using a reusable water bottle. I have had a reusable water bottle, but find it harder to take it places when I don't have a tote bag/backpack on. Regardless, I took my water bottle everywhere this week, even on walks to get my mail/packages. It was a nice reminder that I am normally dehydrated and in need of some. This limited my plastic consumption and also helped me save some money. Being a full time student and a part time worker means that I am always going from place to place. During this week and being more conscious of my water consumption had me noticing other peoples plastic consumption. While me having a water bottle is normal, it is scary to know that many people are buying a plastic bottles every day.

What I found helpful was to have more than one water bottle, 2 is a good number. I am definitely a person that believes you just need one of everything. This mindset completely changed when I lost my last water bottle. From misplacing one item and putting off purchasing another, I kept myself from being hydrated and having to spend additional costs and plastic bottles during that time. None of it made sense, but in the name of "saving money", I spent a few weeks without a reusable water bottle. Some items I have found are essential for ease, saving, and your health: a water bottle is definitely one of them.

This week, I decided to challenge myself with only buying what I need. I didn't imagine this being tough challenge having finished up the holidays not too long ago. I often am only buying food from the grocery store to cook, buying from food carts if I don't make it to the grocery store, or making coffee for myself when I have the time. I noticed that I always have a tendency to look at the smaller items in a store, take the dollar section of Target. With Valentines Day coming up, there were a lot more items out that looked so cute! I truly did not need any of it, but I did slightly want it. I think it's easier to not buy because my focus is on school and work. With schooling, most of my work is done digital, so I don't really find myself needing to buy any supplies. All in all, it wasn't that difficult to buy the necessities. Taking a second to consider how long it will last and it's true value in my life now and in the future stops me from many impulse purchases.

For this weeks action, I decided to challenge myself by meal prepping for the week in order to reduce how much I buy and to save money where I could. I have done this in the past for dinners, but more recently I have been cooking myself every meal of the day which does require more prep. In order to do this, I had to be more aware of mine and my partners plans for the week, which helped me understand what meals I could cook.
By doing this list prior to the store and knowing what I was going to eat the next few days lessened my stress to decide each day and combined what would normally be a few shopping trips into one! I also found myself cooking meals with similar ingredients which reduced even more waste. Mindfulness around food is an important thing too!

For this weeks challenge, I had to sign a petition within my area regarding the environment. I gave myself a goal of 2 petitions, which did not seem too hard. I went to change.com and realized the lack of petitions on there. The few from Oregon area were posted 4-5 years ago. I struggled to find a place that included information regarding the petition. I came across Ipetition and found a few environmentally related ones, only one in the Oregon area. I found another petition in the California area which I decided to sign as well. The two petitions were on Reducing Fuels/ Evacuation Readiness and an idea for a forestry program towards the Treekeepers of Washington County(OR).
It was unfortunate to see the lack of petitions on environmental topics in this area and makes me wonder what we can do to encourage people to do so.