I will watch one of the films suggested in the additional resources and discuss it with friends or family.
UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Consumption and Economy
Personal Waste Audit
I will collect all of my unrecyclable, non-compostable trash to raise my awareness of how much I send to the landfill.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Consumption and Economy
Buy Only What I Need
I will not buy anything except items required for health and safety.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Transportation
Improve a Bus Stop
I will improve a bus stop in my neighborhood by posting the stop schedule, adding seating or shelter, adding art or flowers, picking up litter, or some other small improvement.
UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Water
Watch The Story of Bottled Water
I will watch The Story of Bottled Water to learn more about bottled water's impacts on the environment.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Visions of Sustainability
Collect Rain Water
I will create a rain garden or bioswale, or use rain barrels to collect water for outdoor watering needs.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Community
Pick Up Litter
I will pick up litter on my street and ask others to join me in taking care of our neighborhood.
UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Transportation
Try Carpooling
I will commute by carpool 11 mile(s) each day this week and avoid sending up to 66.93 lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Transportation
Use Public Transit
I will use public transit 35 mile(s) each day this week and avoid sending up to 154.17 lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Water
Use Reusable Bottles
I will use a reusable bottle and stop purchasing bottled water, saving 5 disposable plastic bottle(s) each day this week.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Water
Say No to Plastic
Plastic bags and small plastic pieces like straws are most likely to get swept into our waterways. This week, I'll say "no" to plastic bags at the store and plastic straws in all of my drinks.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Food
Zero-Waste Cooking
I will cook 1 meal(s) with zero waste each day this week.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
A Call to Sustainability
Explore My Area
I will explore at least one new hiking trail or nature walk in my area.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Participant Feed
Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.
To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?
For this week's Eco challenge, I've been collecting rainwater for other purposes uses! It can be used to water plants or saved up as water to use in case the plumbing goes out. One example of that is when the pipes aren't powered or working, or if your water system is connected to the electricity box, we would use leftover purified water from outdoors to hold the toilet handle down while we got rid of our waste. That way we could still do the dirty even when the power is out.
For me specifically, I've just been finding plastic containers that are no longer used and putting them in the chicken feed! It's been very rainy the past few days, so having my chickens drink rainwater makes it more convenient for me as I won't have to go outside to refill their water as often. One of the downsides is that the plastic has to be thick, or the chickens will bite around the edges. Many of my mom's reusable flower pots disappeared because of that.
Hello! For this week, or well or weeks in general I have been focusing on buying only what I need. It's pretty hard as I have a big urge to constantly impulse buy, but I've been holding back! However, I did have to make a purchase of getting a new pair of shoes, as the work/walk shoes that I've had for 2 years finally gave out. I've noticed that the heavier you get, the more emphasis is needed to be put on better footwear, to balance out that weight. I never had to put a lot of effort into purchases of that standard until post-COVID when everyone gained an extra 10-20 pounds. It's hard to be healthy and cost-efficient at the same time huh?
I watched the story of bottled water! It's interesting listening to it from the standpoint of someone that doesn't buy bottled water. I had to take a look at what we do buy it for, and it's usually for emergency storage, occasional road trips, and that's about it. Before my family had a fridge that filtered the water, we used to boil the water ourselves, then buy these nestle glass juice bottles and put our boiled tap water in those bottles as well before putting it in the fridge. That way we had easy access to cold water whenever without having to buy any bottles. Eventually, the glass bottles got too old and we did have to recycle them, but they did have a long lifespan!
Is there an issue with the water in you're families home? You shouldn't have to filter or boil it unless it is contaminated. Are you referring to a time when there was contamination? I didn't realize that glass bottles could get old, I've had some in since I was a child in our home, and they look fine, we've only thrown them out when they broke.
This week I took a personal audit of how much trash and recycling we actually use. I noticed that while my family tries to be very resourceful, we often consume so much. We use paper towels to wipe our hands and tables, and with how many times we wash our hands and eat dinner it really adds up! It really showed during the snowstorm one day when we couldn't throw away our trash and recycle because the dumpster truck wasn't able to drive through the snow and we were stuck with all this trash for a whole week. We had to find other ways to get rid of it, other dumpsters and even resorting to burning as well. I'm going to see if we can set up some reusable hand towels to dry our hands, and also other ways to reuse our cardboard waste!
For this week I did say no to plastic! Ok top of having a 64 ounce bottle, I also came up with a creative way to save the plastic pitchers at work! We sometimes drop them and they crack, making them unserveable to customers, but I found another use for them! You can put wet utensils in and let them dry faster while multitasking on other things, and come back to finish the job later. Here is a picture!
Nice! What a great way to keep those containers from the landfill! I also said 'no' to plastic this week, but has somewhat mixed results. Though I did find a way to repurpose a big empty bin of kitty litter, it now acts as a bin for their food with a little recycled scoop. Trying to say 'no' to plastic helped me realize just how many little bits of plastic are in or on everything! Its annoying and insidious!
For the past two weeks, I've been working on carpooling and public transit, due to the fact that my home is in an awkward spot where I have no choice but to use a car partway when going to school and work.
Normally I have already minimized the extent to which I drive to portland, by driving to the nearest max station and then taking the bus the rest of the way there. I was able to maximize it even further last week by carpooling with my boyfriend to class on Friday, and then getting on the bus to ride to my father's ping-pong event on the way back! I ended up getting a ride back with him as well.
Here are a few pictures of the little adventure I had.
I even got a recording of his ping pong! He is the one with the red hat.
While carpooling and completely converting to bus rides is more eco-friendly for the environment, sadly I won't be able to do too much as some days I need the car to drive straight to work right after school or drive from one work place to the next with the two jobs that I have. I will be more eco-friendly however on days that I don't have anything scheduled after class!
I normally take the bus home from PSU, so it wasn't anything too diffrent for me. I do feel uncomfortable with the amount of people not wearing a mask though! That might just be a knee jerk reaction from COVID.
Looks like the website does not take videos. Here is a link to my father's ping-pong group instead. Usually, it's for older people, so we are not allowed to join in. Count yourself lucky!
For this week, I did say no to plastic! My older brother gave me a foldable reusable shopping bag that's easy to put in the purse, so I used that when I went shopping with my boyfriend the other day! Can't hold anything too heavy, but useful regardless. next level would be to get those foldable portable rectangle containers for heavy things in the cart.
I love using reusable bags! I live on the top floor of my building so it's nice to have strong bags. I like the idea of leaving them in my purse (or maybe my car?) because oftentimes I don't even remember them until I'm at checkout
I baked a Beef and Carrot Casserole using leftovers from my fridge! often times our leftovers tend to get wasted and go to the chicken, but my family liked the dish so much there wasn't anything left! I only have the picture of the dish in the oven sadly.
That's awesome Diane! I know you shared in class that food waste was a bit of a concern to you and your family, so I am so glad to hear you got to reuse some leftovers. I'd love to exchange some recipes sometime because that sounds yummy!
The action I chose was to explore my area, I looked around my area on google maps and found out there was technically a "mountain" park. I took my little brother to explore the park and it was a tough walk, but we got to the top! It's called Sexton Mountain Meadows Park. It was a great view, but we couldn't stay too long because of the smell of weed. :c
Hi Diane, I also took a walk last week and it was very rewarding seeing new places. My walk was a lot of uphill so it was pretty tough too. I should go check out a park next time!
Osvaldo Rios-Sabalza 2/22/2023 12:41 PMIs there an issue with the water in you're families home? You shouldn't have to filter or boil it unless it is contaminated. Are you referring to a time when there was contamination? I didn't realize that glass bottles could get old, I've had some in since I was a child in our home, and they look fine, we've only thrown them out when they broke.
I even got a recording of his ping pong! He is the one with the red hat.
Grant Benesh 1/15/2023 4:39 PMHi Diane, I also took a walk last week and it was very rewarding seeing new places. My walk was a lot of uphill so it was pretty tough too. I should go check out a park next time!
